PaulN -
(Edit in) Sorry, I've written a book or something. I do beg your pardon, no one has to read it. As I was writing it I realised it was sounding like Buddhism, which is interesting. I'm not a Buddhist and I've never studied Buddhism. So there we are. Nor do you really grapple with the thread problem - how does one demonstrate that a complex physical system like a neural network somehow have a nonphysical (i.e supernatural) aspect to it
That wasn't addressed to me but, as I'm in a phlosifical mood, I think I'll give it a go. I probably should have done it before.
First, of course, the statement assumes that the physical system does have a nonphysical aspect to it. Very simply, I'd say that it can't. Physical is physical and nonphysical is nonphysical.
That doesn't mean there's nothing nonphysical, of course. So what exactly does it mean? I'd put it negatively. That is, something which is not part of the physical body or brain. Something which is not the result of, or generated by, bio-electrical impulses and so on. Sorry for the simplistic description, I'm no expert.
So, if the nonphysical is not to do with the brain, which I don't think it can be, is it just something invented by said brain? Because that's a possibility. The brain, the imagination, can invent anything, gods included.
Unfortunately there's quite a lot of evidence that the nonphysical exists. Science hasn't been very good at tying it down because I suspect they're using physical means to discover something not of that ilk at all. I've heard many scientists say 'We know it exists, we just don't know how'.
So what is the nonphysical? There are probably lots of things but here the subject seems to be something called 'the immortal soul'. I hope Brent's reading this!
It could very well be argued that man has invented a part of him which is immortal because he fears his own mortality. I think that's rational. So one has to ask if the immortal soul is merely the product of fear. It could be.
But, more precisely, one could ask if there is any part of either the biological body or the 'body' of thought which has any degree of permanence. We could say our consciousness is not just the physical consciousness - as in being awake and aware - but the whole psychological existence of the self.
The self is all that we are psychologically, all our memories, thoughts, feelings, hopes, desires, conflicts, fears, knowledge, beliefs... everything. It's the sum total of all our experience, both personal and the result of human history. I think that's fair enough and probably most would agree to that.
Is there anything at all in that area which is permanent? Are any of those things not subject to decay and ending? Is any thought, feeling or memory everlasting? I would say not. Every day the memories fade and are replaced. Only conflicts seem to have some endurance but even they are not everlasting in any way. Life would be hell if they were.
So I'd say there is nothing within our make-up which is timeless or immortal. We might like to think there is but what we think is also ephemeral. One can cling to a belief all one's life but it's still a passing, temporal thing whether one likes it or not. It can easily be replaced by something else.
So does that mean there's nothing in life at all which is deathless? I think that's the question. And, if there is, can one ever call it 'mine' and make it personal? I don't think so. One can't possess something everlasting, deathless, imperishable, much as one might like to.
I think there is the deathless, no question about it. And there comes the problem. How does one discuss it? How does a physical mind try to grasp something not of itself, something it can never invent?
I think that thing is there when time ends. Not the physical time of the universe but the sense of continuity we live with. Our memories, indeed our consciousness, stretches like a chain from day to day, continuing on. When that continuity ends, which is itself a kind of death, then there's that other state of no time.
We'd like to hold that, keep it, pocket it, but that's not possible. Life is beyond all our petty efforts and endeavours, even the scientific ones. It's something immortal, everlasting, and therefore sacred. And what is sacred is alone, it has no second.
The materialistic mind will not like this, of course. It'll spit on it and call it a belief but it has nothing to do with belief. Beliefs we invent, truth we cannot.