I love my rationality, I'm good at it and it's taken good care of me. But I was just listening to some of my favorite music (headphones, lots of volume) and it blows me away. I get tears in my eyes some parts. Music is so powerful, I can't believe it's just chemicals in my brain. Don't you guys feel that too sometimes? There are emotions too powerful to be just our programming via DNA and evolution, I think. Maybe you don't have those feelings and maybe that's the difference between people who think God is possible and those who don't. So I'm asking you nonbelievers, is that what it is? Nothing in your life feels like more than chemicals and electricity and science? No mystery, no magic, it's all the atomic table and accidents?
2010-06-18T00:12:19Z
edit - Wow Skywalker, looks like you and I are the only ones who've noticed Dr. Science doesn't have all the answers. I'm surprised and disappointed.
May I politely offer that reason calls this to attention, "...I can't believe it's just chemicals in my brain." is an argument from ignorance. What you or I can not believe is not a sound base for our view of reality. That we have seen the brain is the organ from which thought comes, that thought has never been demonstrated to have another source, and that the functions of the brain appear to be strictly chemical in nature, leads me to think that it is a matter of chemicals in you brain.
Life is full of mystery, more so, in fact, if I do not allow magic as an easy explanation for the unknown.
It's not magic. It is chemicals in your brain. In fact there's a scientific formula to make music that will affect the masses in this way. Not just that, but there's an ancient formula that still holds true today, look up "The golden mean", it was a way of composing music to make sure people would like it. There's a whole range of sounds, ranging from binurial beats, to theta waves, that can actually physically change the way your brain works (while your listening to it anyway).
What I find ironic about this whole discussion is that many of them will turn around and tell you that their lack of belief in God is due to logical reasons, usually mentioning something along the lines that there isn't any evidence for such a being. However, if their emotions are merely just chemical reactions in their brains, then why isn't the same true for their lack of belief in God? If what they believe is true, it should be irrelevant whether God exists or not, they should believe or disbelieve in His existence solely due to the balance of chemicals in their brains rather than whether such a belief is logical or illogical.
I don't think it's just chemicals. I think it's JUST CHEMICALS! That neurotransmitters, the configuration of axons, neurons, dendrites and synapses, and a little electricity, reproduced BILLIONS of times (do you know how BIG a billion is? Count out loud, 24/7, and it will take you over thirty years to count to one measly billion) can produce such sublime emotions is INCREDIBLE! It's awe inspiring. It's why Einstein thought that if there were any sort of God, it was expressed in the natural wonders of the universe, not the supernatural.