Joshua Rasmussen

Helping you be powerful in your quest for truth

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

It's coming...

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@RealRangoStarr I don't think of God as an inexplicably brute fact. I arrive at theism precisely by a search for an explanation of why/how something could be ultimate. Against theism is the problem of evil.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

In answer to a question I've had that someone recently asked me:

https://t.co/0ACyjZ7Cq3

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@RealRangoStarr Maybe so. In that case, some total would be like a foundation.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@RealRangoStarr More carefully: totals *normally* depend on a condition, which explains why there is no chance that an infinite causal chain of turtles will ever exist or did exist. If some total is an exception, what explains that?

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@RealRangoStarr How do you avoid the paradox applied to the total? Totals of conditions -- whether made of people, planets, or particles -- depend on a prior condition irrespective of their quantity.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@DaytimePubSmell Me, I'm following the science. Idle speculation is less fun for me than serious inquiry.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

This is what your mind does to your brain.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@DaytimePubSmell Just following the winds of science rather than personal speculation.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@Truthseeker_562 That will be later in 2027...

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

It's coming, just in time for Christmas!

https://t.co/qIS5RS0sO9

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@Abraham84871750 https://t.co/WBfLrZ2Q08

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

The print version is ready for pre-order:

https://t.co/nUby0e5rY1

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@onesionra255 Print version: https://t.co/nUby0e4U8t

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@DaytimePubSmell I'm taking the side of science: https://t.co/pmHMl8WlWr

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@onesionra255 Will also be print version. Barnes and Nobles is showing me 102 pages. Link coming...

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@Derekjgreat "Thoughts only happen within your brain"

I doubt that, but why do you believe that?

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

I've never encountered an ocean w/o a wave. By reason, however, it is evident that an ocean's existence does *not* DEPEND on its waves.

Similarly, I've never encountered a conscious being w/o a brain. Should we infer that a conscious being *does* DEPEND on its brain?

If so, why the difference?

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@Derekjgreat "We know about things that happened before anyone could have experienced them." Like what?

We can affect brain activity by adjusting thoughts, and so the interaction is symmetric at best. I'm looking for a symmetry-breaker -- a reason for your belief that matter is prior.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

Thanks. I'm wondering how you arrive at that. To clarify, in my view, brains are processes carried out by minds, and that the universe is rendered entirely in being's minds. Without minds, there is no experience of a universe, and there is no nothing w/o experience. I could be wrong in my view, and I've not share much in support of it here.

But I'm curious how you would support an opposite view. Why think minds are processes carried out by a brain? That just doesn't seem intuitive to me or plausible from anything we know in neuroscience and neurobiology.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@Derekjgreat I don't think it is a fact that there is a physical substrate. I also don't think any matter can exist without a mind, given my understanding of the nature of matter. But you think otherwise. I'm wondering why.

[Joshua Rasmussen @worldviewdesign]

@Derekjgreat I understand you have those beliefs, but I was curious to see if you had some evidence to back them up. Why think *any* matter could exist without a mind behind it?