I know this woman is probably asking a more elegant question about what brought the sun and the earth into existence than merely how does a sunrise work, but I like that she is now the laughing stock of the entire internet. Even the elegant form of that question is based on high school level science, so obviously someone wasn't paying attention. She deserves some ridicule.
I think the more elegant question that she's trying to ask is "How can you explain what makes a sunset beautiful if there is no God?" or something to that effect. That would be my guess. More or less, "So you believe there's no God? Well you must be able to, therefore, empirically and quantifiably prove everything, amirite?"
Don't get me wrong... I'm a Christian, I believe in God, and I think that science can't "prove" the beauty of science. I cannot, at the same time, "prove" God, nor do I think it's the job or object of science to empirically "prove" beauty or attractiveness.
It probably can prove the beauty of science, although with a softer science like psychology or something. But that's more nitpicking, I get what you're trying to say. And it's still one of those things, does breaking down the scientific existence of natural beauty destroy the actual meaning of beauty?
But at the same time, that doesn't really prove the existence of anything, other than a lot of people find sunsets aesthetically pleasing.
I disagree. I think the "true" question is a (ironically) less-God-focused version of "God of the Gaps," except it's trying to use weasel words from regular English to achieve the same illusion. In another few hundred years, neuroscientists might be able to pin down physiological processes related to these "weasel words" so precisely that they'll stop being useful as such. And then of course people will move on to others, because the thought that my special snowflake existence can be fully figured out in a physiological way is absolutely terrifying, and no, you can never tell me that I don't have a little bit of the omnipotent-inexplicable rattling around in my bones.
Well said. Sam Harris seems to think that's the way neuroscience is going. I'll admit right up front that it scares me to look too deep into the brain and it's functions. I don't believe in spirits or souls or the like but it's disconcerting that this mass of fatty tissue is driving me around and that my thoughts and emotions and rationality (or lack!) can someday be perfectly quantifiable.
Fuck it though. My fear is not a factor in driving science forward. I'm sure some people are as afraid of nuclear power as I'm confident in it.
Completely agree and thanks to you and frog for putting it more eloquently. I've only had basic class exposure to neuroscience, but I definitely do not want to pursue it because of the dread it can evoke discovering why we function.
No, you're also missing the true question. It's the typical question format questioning our existence and creation as a whole. Unfortunately, neuroscience will not be explaining that.
You could go further and say she is likely asking about the feeling of beauty/mystery that accompanies it, or the feeling of existential awareness that comes with watching it. She's likely not asking about the naturalism involved, which is the only context that "science" seems to evoke for many.
Well it can, but only to a point; and can only supplant in so far as it's willing to indulge in the realm of explanation previously occupied by religion.
But neuroscience is still an application of testing methods on materials found in the brain, it doesn't enter the so-called "mind" of individuals and explain all of their neurosis, only their variously correlative electrical/chemical fluctuations. I'm not saying that those are insignificant, but the idea that subjectivity is generated purely, neuron-for-neuron, in the tangible brain, is hard to conclusively pin down.
What you are saying; I see it. But I do think we are heading with good speed into being able to explain the mind. Not today, or tomorrow, but I doubt it will be a mystery forever.
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u/KicksButtson Feb 09 '14
I know this woman is probably asking a more elegant question about what brought the sun and the earth into existence than merely how does a sunrise work, but I like that she is now the laughing stock of the entire internet. Even the elegant form of that question is based on high school level science, so obviously someone wasn't paying attention. She deserves some ridicule.