I became an atheist recently

[Deborah_]

4 hours ago, LittleMan123 said:

Science. It is proven that parts of the brain handle reasoning, emotional responses, memory retention etc. Consciousness is more or less a series of synapses and electric signals exchanged through the nervous system. So I put two and two together. When the brain is over, existence is over.

That is not what consciousness is, but how it works.

[Kelly2363]

21 minutes ago, Deborah_ said:

That is not what consciousness is, but how it works.

 

Seeing as you are an MD, Sister, would you care to give a neurophysiological description to the premise of the psychophysical man? In mystical terms, or if you prefer, in esoteric terms, the expression is the psychophysical umbilicus. 

[Kelly2363]

47 minutes ago, Josheb said:

How or why would a neurophysiological explanation be appropriate or sufficient for anything psycho_________________? 

 

Because whilst neurophysiology speaks of the somatic,  autonomic - with its para sympathetic and sympathetic junctions - as well, the enteric nervous system - it is the psychological  - psychosomatic and behavioural predications that are in motion when the eyes and the ears are being informed. As this poster said in specificity to the Sister that he came to his atheism by watching videos I took the view that a breakdown of the CNS with a clinical explanation as to how the psyche is expressed physically would be a possible way of reverse engineering the process that gave rise to the atheism as a rational expression. He did express his atheism as a rational fact of terminal death. No brain activity no man ergo no God. The Doctor made a valid point when she said, 'That is not what consciousness is, but how it works.'

I read your comments also and could see that you were establishing a separation in soul and body sense as a psychological direction - with I assume a spiritual intention. Just my thoughts.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Kelly2363
Spelling - "Separation"

[The_Patriot21]

Its been said the truth will set you free...well you dont sound very free...im fact you sound like your life got worse...so maybe its time you really asked yourself did you really learn the truth or did you just allow yourself to be deceived?

[Deborah_]

9 hours ago, Kelly2363 said:

 

Seeing as you are an MD, Sister, would you care to give a neurophysiological description to the premise of the psychophysical man? In mystical terms, or if you prefer, in esoteric terms, the expression is the psychophysical umbilicus. 

Being a doctor doesn't make me an expert on recent developments in neurophysiology  (and I've no idea what "psychophysical umbilicus" means even after googling it). I know that various experiments have been done on the expression of things such as consciousness and volition in the brain. But how does one relate such things to what we experience? Is appreciation of music, for example, something that can be reduced to the passage of electric impulses? 

The poster could argue that "no brain activity" = "no man" (i.e. you're dead). But it doesn't follow that "no man" = "no God" - unless that "god" is purely an invention of man. Perhaps that is the real issue...

[Kelly2363]

7 hours ago, Josheb said:

The problem, as I stated in an earlier post is that a strictly materialistic, or strictly physical/medical/scientific model and approach is inherently - by definition - inadequate for the task. It is a problem of correlation versus causation. Materialists have over-reached (reached beyond the limits of their own science or materialism) when claiming causality. They do not and cannot know their conclusions if all they use is the materialist paradigm. 

These are classic philosophical and scientific realities. I can't be the only one familiar with these debates. Even noted atheists like Gould and Krauss have articulated these matters as real limits and valid arguments.

 

When I was seven years old my step father took me to a sharp ravine in a rock face that fell 200 feet into the mouth of a pothole entrance that was called hell hole rocks. He held me out over the precipice and warned me that if I ever sought to run away from home again he would throw me down into the ravine. This was after he had marched me from my home up the side of the valley for over a mile to the cave I was preparing to live in in order to escape the violence and the abuse I was enduring at his and my mothers' hands at home. All I could think about when I looked down the rock face was that if he threw me down God would preserve me. Physical reality is an inescapable reality so long as we are in this body. We ought not to despite it because without it we are either with the Lord or else separated from the Lord for eternity. 

The author of this OP isn't distressed in the way we may imagine him to be distressed but he has been thrown down into a ravine by others - even evil unbelieving atheists, as was my stepfather. I for one would not hesitate to fall with him until he found that the Lord is able to uphold him and set his feet upon the Rock of his salvation. Just as I looked at the rock at the foot of the ravine and believed that if I fell my feet would find safe ground to rest because I heard God.. So facing physical reality of his own body will serve to cause him to cry out to God when his hour comes. Shalom.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Kelly2363
Spelling.

[Kelly2363]

5 hours ago, Deborah_ said:

Is appreciation of music, for example, something that can be reduced to the passage of electric impulses? 

The poster could argue that "no brain activity" = "no man" (i.e. you're dead). But it doesn't follow that "no man" = "no God" - unless that "god" is purely an invention of man. Perhaps that is the real issue...

 

Perhaps the orations of Pythagorus could answer the point about music. I take it that the author of the OP did have at least a primitive belief in God one time because he would not have written his little book which he describes had he not. And yet the direction of that description of the book implies the direction of why he was so easily taken away by atheists to a painful realisation that he is dead without God. That direction in him is more akin to a Satanic effect than it is to any other kind of effect and all atheism does is remove men from any hope - even when hope is a perverse opposition to God. So in a sense you are right because what he is experiencing in his soul in attendance to his body is another "god". 

In the responses he has been given there is one that speaks to that reality in compassionate terms and that is the post by @Arrabon. But all these answers or helps are of such a breadth that if he is inclined to know God he has the means to find Him. 

You said, "(and I've no idea what "psychophysical umbilicus" means even after googling it)."

I find Google pretty worthless too. 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Kelly2363
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[Waggles]

17 hours ago, LittleMan123 said:

It is whether God exists at all.

NO the real question is - how can you prove that God does not exist?

[Waggles]

Psalm 10:3  For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD. 
4  In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 

[Waggles]

Psalm 14:2  The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

Proverbs 30:2  Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. 
3  I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.