I do not believe in anything like a soul, I think our nervous system is a underestimated and marvellous thing.
And I do not believe in anything supernatural, though it depends how you define supernatural; I mean our world is not only composed of matter, in fact it's mostly non-matter; there are states we know and others we don't know of yet who surely are peculiar (yet always measurable somehow, maybe not with current methods but technically measurable). But to me it's all natural, and there's nothing divined, no will behind it.
I know you're asking Grimml, but I have a possible answer for this. Some recent studies have shown that a collective consciousness may exist in humans, where one persons thoughts and emotions can be affected by any other human on the planet. I can't find such studies online, I first heard about it from an episode of Through the Wormhole though.
This quote by Einstein (following Schopenhauer) sums it up:
Honestly, I cannot understand what people mean when they talk about the freedom of the human will. I have a feeling, for instance, that I will something or other; but what relation this has with freedom I cannot understand at all. I feel that I will to light my pipe and I do it; but how can I connect this up with the idea of freedom? What is behind the act of willing to light the pipe? Another act of willing? Schopenhauer once said: Der Mensch kann was er will; er kann aber nicht wollen was er will (Man can do what he will but he cannot will what he wills). (Planck, M. Where is Science Going?, p. 201)
I see what he means about us not having free will but I don't exactly agree with it. Free will is being able to choose what you do. So if you make an action then that is free will right? Maybe I'm not understanding it all that well. But that's what free will seems like to me. The act of lighting a pipe connects to freedom because you don't have to. Your arm doesn't involentarily light the pipe. You have to choose to. Even at gunpoint, you choose to light it or not.
Maybe the poor boy is dyslexic. You wouldn't know.
thx for saying that word. i was wondering what it was in english. (i got that also) i can't even spell it right in dutch but english seems much easyer ^^
So spell check won't work for dyslexic people? Someone needs to sit down and set up some of the accessibility functions on his computer. He managed to spell atheist correctly, so using spell check shouldn't be that hard.
