This question came up at my philosophy group this evening, I thought I'd jot down my answer.
I am a result of my physical constitution and the physical effects that act upon my physical being. My mind is an emergent phenomenon due to the complex physical makeup of my brain. What is perceived as a soul is a function of this emergent phenomenon.
This mainly represents my current thinking, I don't think its the final answer. But the question is quite good because it gives you a pretty good idea what kind of metaphysics I believe in. One of the things I'm interested in is finding questions that require me to further define my existence or completely redefine my existence. What I like about this answer is that as you go through the consequences of this answer it quite elegantly explains all religion, customs, myths, social structures, etc. What it doesn’t answer is "where do we come from?" or "why do we exist?". But nothing I've come across seems to answer these questions particularly well. For example, if you introduce a god, it simply shifts the question to "where does god come from?" "why does god exist?". There is a good chance that its quite impossible for us to explain the reason for our existence.
1 comment:
It "reduces" almost everything that everyone feels/experiences to the "imagination" of their brains.
The word "reduce" implies that this is a bad thing. I don't see it quite that way, I think its an amazing thing and produces a lot of colour and diversity amoung people and has lots of potential in terms of creating many kinds of life experiences. And possibly more importantly, we actually have a lot of choice (if we realise it) about what kind life expereience we have.
Just to clarify what I think it doesn't answer... By answering "who we are" I am saying that I dont think humans are any different from any other existing entity. But why are any of those entities in existence? ie, our existence is just a curious as the existence of any subatomic particle. We may be weird compared to other physical structures, but ultimately we are sill a physical structure.
The answer to that question is as you say... did existence have a beginning? or was the physical universe a creation of something that "just is". Any way you go with any of those thoughts it gets quite mind boggling.
So,lets assume, for a moment what I said is right.
Now lets also assume there is a God.
There is no reason why what I am saying isnt the framework that God used to create this universe and Man. However, from my perspective, it does reduce the need for a God who is involved with with our psychological and social structures. It dosnt argue for or against the existence of a God. (though it does start to mess with doctrinated religions)
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