Evans In Wonderland

The first time I saw this post from a certain "Carlos Evans" I though it was a rebuttal against atheism. Well, I'm not expecting something new but, at least I can sink my teeth into something different for the coming weekend. So it was. 

Anyways, I am quite busy nowadays due to some comics deadlines so I just took a photo-capture of the said post. I also read some of the comments, and well as expected theists members are cheering so I assume it to be a new argument.

My jaw dropped when I read the post. My gulay! This is not a refutation, nor a new proof. It didn't even address one atheistic argument.

Hmmmm… I think I'm giving these theists too much credit. 

According to Mr. Evan's post, an atheist "don't have a will or control  on what to say or do. There is no "you." The reason for this  according to him is that an atheist is just "an organic robot,"  an intimate slave to chemistry and that it is these "chemicals"  that makes him believe due to the "harmony that programs him  to believe."

Should I just take this as a fact that Mr. Evan's is ignorant with  psychology and neurology? OK… I get it. This is Facebook. Yet then, it dawned to me. This has nothing to do with psychology, or even science. This has something to do with what Mr. Evan's believe.

Platonic Realism! 

Just for some trivia, this kind of Platonistic philosophy was developed by Plotinus (205–270 CE) in the 3rd century CE. A fellow who had been the pupil at Alexandria of a self-taught philosopher called Ammonius, who also taught the Christian Origen. This is the same philosophy that influenced Christian theology.

It was there all written in Evan's post. The belief that there is a separation between the material world and a transcendental, metaphysical, invisible world of invisible things. Where the disembodied mind float freely and merilly along together with the laws of logic, morality, numbers, geometry, angels, demons, and gods.

With this come forth the idea of substance dualism. This philosophy prosper in the medieval period. Thomas Aquinas for  example believed that the soul (mind) is separated from the  material body. Theologian John Calvin also believed this idea.  The French philosopher Rene Descartes suggested that the mind  is disconected from the material body and is not bound by the  laws of physics (and chemistry as what Mr. Evans wants us to  believe.) 

As I said, this has nothing to do with science. Ancient and medieval philosophy, yes - but science?

Thousand of scientific experiments were conducted and not a hint of a so-called "disembodied mind" were discovered to prove Mr. Evan's viewpoint. The mind as was discovered was nothing but the product of a material brain, nothing more. When the brain dies, so does the mind.

Mr. Evan's would like us to believe that there is a "metaphysical" place where the mind (without a body) resides - a mind independent from material physics and chemistry where it do your thoughts, that it has free-will, where truth and falsehood also resides. I call this Evan's Wonderland.

Sadly for Evans, he doesn't have any proof of his so-called Wonderland. So, reading his post, you will see how bitter he was to those people not believing him and his happy, happy place. He call them "mindless robot," mindless organism - just because they doubt his magical wonderland. How sad.

Anyways, the mind is not independent with our material brain. Even Evan's "YOU" is not left-out. Your identity, the "You" that Evans is talking about, can also be affected by chemical change, or physical damages of the brain. That's why we have mental asylums and Prozac. 

Mental dualist like Mr. Evans insinuate that it is impossible for thoughtless matter to give rise to thought. But to assume  "impossible" only suggest an argument from ignorance since he seek the answers from theologians and philosophers instead to those people who has better understanding with psychology and neurology.

So we are all a product of material, chemicals and physical reactions: BIG DEAL.  - there's no issue in that. The mind is a process of a material brain. It can be affected by physical and chemical reaction in its environment. That's why we  have subject like biochemistry and neuroscience. That's why psychology left philosophy and become a scientific discipline. That's why  we  have  MIR and brain scanning equipment. That's why we can  conduct  experiments to study how  our brain works. That's why  we can  objectively study the brain  and all its process  including the  mind.  It's material.  Not some theological,  magical, invisible,  blue rabbit in a philosopher's  metaphysical hat. 

As the late Carl Sagan have said, "Better a hard truth than a comforting fantasy." Reality and science doesn't conform to this  Wonderland and Evan's just can't take it.  That's why he's bitter.