atheist, why havent scientist figured out consciousness?

Question

they can map the brain all they want and come up with conclusions but they still dont know were the being or self aware point is in ones brain

so a some of working parts working together make a being, i dont think so

working parts chemicals wires sure its complex but the question should be simple

Answer 1

"they still dont know were the being or self aware point is in ones brain"

There isn't any such "point".

We're getting fairly close, and may come to understand it in my lifetime, though it's more likely that we won't. But remember that we've only recently begun to study these things seriously, in part because so many deeply ignorant people think that they already know the answer and therefore that there's no point in looking into these things.

I spent three years in a philosophy program working on this question, after having spent five years in physiological psychology and then three more in cognitive psychology. I can tell you who you should be reading if you're seriously curious. The first names that come to mind are Daniel Dennett, Jerry Fodor, Owen Flangan, and Fred Dretske. If you haven't read them, that's a good start. I see that Flangan has a new book out on the subject ("The Really Hard Problem").
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"so a some of working parts working together make a being, i dont think so"

Then you need to begin by reading "The Concept of Mind", by Gilbert Ryle. That'll teach you the extent to which all other answers proposed amount to "it's magic - don't think about it!".

"working parts chemicals wires sure its complex but the question should be simple"

No, it shouldn't. Now you're just being silly and stubborn.

Answer 2

Well, they figure it has something to do with the interaction of 10 to the order of 6 neurons.... give or take a few zeroes, that is. That's pretty dang complex. Give it time, we'll figure it out. No, seriously, we will. The order of complexity is so huge you couldn't understand it, it's so huge that the only way to grasp it is by putting a bunch of zeroes at the end of a "1" and waiting until we get our technology up to the level where we can utilize computer modeling to map individual neurons.

Did you know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of chemicals that we haven't even identified in the brain? There are so many different neurotransmitters doing so many different things... it's quite amazing.

But wait, did you mean the mechanism of consciousness or the what consciousness means? Because that's two different topics, and science is concerned with data, not philosophy.

Have non-atheists "figured out" consciousness? Are non-atheists antagonistic towards scientists? I almost wonder, from your question.

I'm not sure what you're trying to prove with this question. We can't climb this particular mountain without the right equipment, but we'll get there sooner or later. I hope you're not too attached to the concept that consciousness can't be explained by purely physical means, because it might well be within your lifetime.


Saul

EDIT: The "self aware" point in the brain? No such thing, buddy. The brain is a neural net. That means that there is no single point that defines consciousness, but the interactions between any number of points at any given time that determine consciousness.

EDIT 2: And here comes the truth... you don't want to believe that a number of parts can come together and form a human being. It's not about logic, reason, or scientific evidence, its all about your preconception that "oh, we're just sooo complex that we couldn't *possibly* be explained by modern science, no, we can only be explained by primitive superstitious beliefs". *rolling eyes*

There are good people (both believers and non!) out there trying to understand how we function, biologically, because that might mean curing diseases, or extending meaningful human life. Thank you for spitting on them.

EDIT 3: What question should be simple? What makes you think that questions should be simple? Often-times the hardest part about science is asking the right question - once you define your question properly you can start to develope an *answer*. The importance of this concept cannot be overstated! Sadly, it isn't understood by people who learn from "sound bites". There may be a few easy answers, but there aren't many easy questions.

I like how blithely you blow it off... "chemicals, yeah, blah blah" ... just glossing over reams of technical data, the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent researching and testing and retesting and formulating and reformulating and computer modeling and let's not forget the empirical data that no scientific study can be without (because if it's not replicable it isn't science! hear that, creationists?).

Your ignorance makes my inner child cry.

Answer 3

The sciences are designed purposefully to strip away as much subjectivity as possible, and consciousness is only available subjectively. This means none of the sciences we currently have can address consciousness directly. Methodologies for overcoming this problem are being developed, but it's a new field. My PhD work is in this field, and progress must be slow and rigorous so we do not fall into easy religious language or assumption, and actually find out what consciousness is.

Answer 4

The fact that science does not yet have answers for certain questions only demonstrates that scientists are not willing to make up answers. For the most part, however, everything about your personality that you might call part of a "soul" has been reduced to a function in the brain. That pretty much proves that consciousness is a by-product of a material phenomenon.

Answer 5

1.) Because consciousness is a very abstract idea and defined in many different ways. My explanations below is assuming consciousness is referring to awareness and ability to think and not the moral meaning of consciousness.

2.) The brain itself is extremely complex. There are many different elements that are going on.

3.) Scientists believe the brain is the command center of our feelings/thoughts/reactions. In other words, consciousness. It has only been recently that technology has developed enough for scientists to aggregate large amounts of data on internal brain process.

Scientists have their hypothesis. They just need time to create many experiments, collect the data, and analyze if their belief actually fits their findings!

Answer 6

A concept is a proof of a series of appropriate observations or activities based upon shown hypotheses and demonstrated dissimilar cases by ability of indifferent communities of researchers. as a rule, the two a medical concept and a medical regulation are nicely-known to be genuine by ability of the medical community as an entire. the two are used to make predictions of activities. the two are used to augment technologies. in fact, some regulations, such through fact the regulation of gravity, is additionally theories whilst taken extra often. The regulation of gravity is expressed as a unmarried mathematical expression and is presumed to be genuine everywhere in the universe and all the way by way of time. devoid of such an assumption, we are in a position to do no technological know-how in accordance with gravity's outcomes. yet from the regulation, we derived the thought of gravity which describes how gravity works,what motives it, and how it behaves. We additionally use that to strengthen yet another concept, Einstein's standard concept of Relativity, wherein gravity performs an important function. the user-friendly regulation is undamaged, however the thought expands it to contain countless and sophisticated circumstances regarding area and time. So somewhat, the biggest difference between a regulation and a concept is that a concept is a lot extra complicated and dynamic. A regulation describes a unmarried action, while a concept explains an entire team of appropriate phenomena.

Answer 7

Actually we have figured out allot to do with the way the brain operates and what constitutes memories.

We know that the brain processes memories and goals in the same way, and that conciousness is a collection of memories that help to form and dictate behavior.

Science has figured out consciousness to a great extent.

You have chosen to ignore it, because your ignorance supports your belief. Which is actually a bunch of developed synapses, created while as a child, that make you 'feel' right about your God, and 'feel' like he has to exist.

It is pretty incredible really.

Answer 8

~~~ R l ,,,, In all seriousness, it is because Consciousness is Metaphysical,,, and they have yet to decipher or accept the knowledge(esoterica) represented by The Symbols that are still alive today. For instance, and quite Ironically see The Caduceus as this quintessential example. FYI: Ayurveda(shakti is pronounced Shok`- tee) and TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine(Qi is pronounced chee) "figured out" some this thousands of years ago. ~ Namaste`

Answer 9

Actually a lot of it IS understood. In fact I think you'll find that some are taking the information learnt through study of the brain and applying it to studies in computer artificial intelligence.

What I don't get is why are you asking this of atheists?

Answer 10

Hi....

'atheist, why havent scientist figured out consciousness?'

Neither have you!!!

Consciousness is a part of the mind, which is 'the' greatest biological achievement by nature so far, as far as we know!!

Its complexity cannot be fully understood.... Yet!!!

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