This is your brain on materialism

“Their thoughts about the brain, or anything else, would be products of material causes and [have] no more significance than steam wafting from a bowl of oatmeal.” - CPost

Discussion

The strongest arguments are mixed with weaker ones in the article. The meaning/significance theme has heft. In a debate, it might not win formally, because it’s a different question. If the debate is “what is reality made of?” then “what does it matter?” is arguably a sidestep. But in the larger context of helping humans wrestle with these things, it’s the most important question.

It seems better to focus on that. Because those involved all believe the question of ‘what is reality made of?’ matters. Why does it matter?

And going there is a Jesus-like thing to do. See John 4, where the woman at the well wants to talk about the location-of-worship controversy and Jesus takes her to the bigger picture: Let’s talk about what really matters, the context for all this other stuff.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.