Reality

I am a monist as well as a theist. I do not believe that these positions are in conflict. In fact, I think it takes believing in a rather weak god to embrace dualism, because such indicates this god is not powerful or creative enough to make a complete being, and is essentially another pitiful attempt by humans to put themselves at the center of creation.

We now know that the brain is far more complex and plastic than ever imagined. It has more than enough "room" for the mind, the body, the brain, and a whole lot more. Invoking magic simply isn't necessary. It's a cop-out, intellectually dishonest, and, in my view, even blasphemous.

In addition, reliance on the "supernatural" also indicates that the god of the dualist isn't big enough to handle a reality that includes an infinite universe that is by definition unknowable by the finite. To that kind of god I say, "No,thanks."

Descartes before Dehorse

Rene Descartes wrote the cliche of cliches, "I think, therefore I am." He also made this rather unscientific observation about vacuums.---->

("Nature" has no emotions....)

He is credited--wrongly--with starting the so-called "Scientific Revolution" of the 17th century, which was not called such until Victorian times. Victorians were nothing if not historical revisionists.

But Descartes set the cause of real science back by centuries by promoting the concept of the mind-body duality, in which the mind is somehow "more than" the brain. We now know that the brain is more than complex enough to contain the mind, thank you, but this irrational belief has led to real harm being done to the cause of scientific, especially biological, literacy. What it means in fact is that people seem to believe that the mind is elsewhere and sends magic vibes through the ether to the body, the two never actually touching.  Absurd!

I was reminded of this ridiculousness this morning as I listened to a radio story about Alzheimer's disease, and the fact that the deterioration of the brain is accompanied--as it is in all other brain diseases--by deterioration of other organs systems. Diseases of the other organ systems, by the way, directly affect brain--and therefore MIND--functions.Trying to get my students to accept that the mind is not located on Venus or Jupiter is one of the most difficult tasks I have to deal with in teaching physiology.

All you have to do is think about it clearly and you can see what nonsense the mind/body duality business is, and how Descartes was simply trying to sound erudite and thoughtful, ending up truly ignorant. We are more than the sum of our parts, yes--but it is all contained within the boundaries of ourselves. It all is fearfully and wonderfully--but not irrationally--made. To think it is irrational discredits the Creator.

Nature abhors ignorance and willful stupidity, too.