Stephen Hawking: Theologian

[Tinker]

Physical reality is not independent of the human observer. Incontrovertible proof that this is true:



Notice all the lush forests covering Manhattan island? Yeah, I didn't either.

Somehow thought arises, and is translated into action that shapes the physical world around us. From whence consciousness arises from a physical being is one of the most interesting questions that faces mankind. But alas physicists seem almost desperate to deny that there is any connection.

[Rhapsody]

[Tinker]

I tend to come down on the side of Indirect Realism myself, but I do think that the senses can be trusted as far as it goes. The more one understands sensory limits the more one can trust the senses. But at the same time, the human organism has the ability to shape the physical environment in which he lives. It's silly to postulate that the mind and the matter are separate and distinct. They are one and separate at the same instance. The ability simply to type this is an awesome and tremendous power, incredible amounts of energy are involved in this exchange of ideas, all conducted through a physical medium. Much of that energy being expended from within my body as I type.

[noddy]

I cant see in ultra violet and infra red - so much more information available and I cant see it.

then there is the other wavelengths and detectable phenomena my puny little senses just miss out on - the known unknowns.

and then there is the unknown unknowns....

[noddy]

[Tinker]

I think the quandary is easily resolved if one accepts that religion has always had two sides, the side for the educated and literate elites and the side of the dumb masses.

So just like with Greek Mythology where you had the philosophers at the top of the food chain, you had stories of literal Gods controlling archetypal systems in reality. That's the same with the incomprehensible God vs the Fatherly God in Christianity.

[Rhapsody]

[Tinker]

Mind is a part of matter, and ideas are experiential, a shared inter-subjectivity. Information Theory is big on the relationship of well relationship to cognition. As you and I communicate we are sharing cognition, we are dividing the burden of examination, parsing the results and sharing them. Our corporeal being is made of matter. Our physiological brain is made of matter. And the result of our actions changes the world around us and alters it to suit our cognitive functionality. A big city like New York is fertile intellectual soil in the way a small town is not. The physical fact of proximity and the reshaping of the environment are conducive to a greater inter-subjective sharing of ideas and pooling brain power.

As for the senses, the sense are not only about how we move through space, they are also our inputs for the assemblage of information. Even if you think about the limits, such as the limits of sight, and then you use sight augmentation such as an MRI, Microscope or Telescope, you are still inputting the data through your eyes, so ultimately that data requires a visual format in order to be processed. In short we are completely and totally subject/chained to our senses. We can augment them, but we cannot escape their limits, yet.

[AzariLoveIran]

[Rhapsody]