2023-06-09, 04:50 PM
(2023-06-09, 11:29 AM)Merle Wrote: [ -> ]Your answer appears to me to be, "Yes, in order for a toad to do all that a toad does, then it needs to have a soul." Your link also seems to carry that requirement all the way down to a cell in your body, and perhaps even microplast subdomains of all your cells, all of which must need souls to do what they do. So are there untold millions of souls controlling each cell and microplast in your body? How many souls are at work in your body?Fine - that is obviously a starting point, but you have to be very, very careful when you try to explain complex phenomena, because the equations of physics become hopelessly hard to solve as you go to larger and larger systems - so it is usually not possible to say decisively that a particular phenomenon is, or is not consistent with the laws of physics (primarily QM of course).
You say, "It isn't exactly a question of do they need souls, it is that these natural phenomena (animals etc) are part physical and part non-physical," which seems to be a statement that if these animals, etc., didn't have these souls, they wouldn't be doing what they do. And that looks to me like just another way of saying, "These animals need to have souls to do what they do."
That looks to me to stray from the very concept of methodological naturalism, which is the method scientists use that seeks answers to everything based on natural, testable phenomena.
Quote:But your answer implies that not only humans, but all animals, plants, cells, and even some parts of cells, behave in ways that are not natural, testable phenomena. Doesn't that rule out all the basis of natural science in the field of biology? How could biology proceed without using methodological naturalism?Well a lot of biology proceeds by simply collecting facts.
Quote:You say animals can be part physical and non-physical. What do you mean by the word, "physical"? That is a word that gets thrown around a lot here. To me, any thing that in any way interacts with the universe in a way that is physically detectable and is theoretically capable of being studied by science is "physical". By that definition, everything you are talking about is physical. What do you even mean when you say something is "non-physical"?
I am strongly of the opinion that our everyday world is embedded in and loosely coupled to a larger reality that science tends to ignore. That is the only way that certain observed phenomena can be explained. These are generally called psi phenomena, and there are just too many of them to explain them all as bad science or fraud.
When I say something is non-physical, what I mean is that it uses that larger realm to do what it does.
The trouble is, I think you don't read any of the large literature that would inform you as to why this site exists. We are not all somehow inadequately educated, or deluded in some way!
Some time back I tried to get you to read Dean Radin's book "Entangled Minds". I'll bet you haven't even tried. The trouble is that if you don't look at some of the reasons why we think what we do - just assuming we are deluded - you become boring to talk to.
David