Joe_Cavalry All Day Every Day

People assume that evolution explains where consciousness comes from.

I don't think this is a widely held belief Joe. I'm sure there might be some people who speculate that evolution can explain how or why consciousness developed in certain life forms, but its not something that gets posited in mainstream science. Not yet anyway.

How consciousness developed in life forms is certainly an intriguing question worth studying but saying that not having an answer presents a problem for the theory of evolution is fallacious.

So basically “God of the gaps”

It’s apparent that this is all God ever was or ever will be.

As more and more discoveries are made about the world we live in through the use of science the belief in a creator becomes increasingly irrelevant.

There is no shame in saying that we don’t know something; plugging “God” in to any question we haven’t answered yet is both lazy and dishonest. Our ancestors didn’t have some sort of ancient mystical knowledge about the universe, nor is such a hidden message contained within their scribblings.

It would benefit our species greatly if we were to once and for all end this fanatical search for God in things we don’t understand; its nothing but wishful thinking. I predict that until we do end this God delusion we will continue to see these whimpers of a dying breath in the form of “well maybe God is [insert some unoriginal vague description here]!”

I'm a fan of a few Apple products but as a personal rule I never buy a new model/concept of a product in its first year of production. New models often have several kinks to work out and I'd rather not be the guinea pig in that.

What would I do?

I don’t know, but I probably wouldn’t be concerned with the lives of a species dead set on their own extermination…

I’d probably go somewhere else in the universe… like Dr. Manhattan

Pretty much...

There are exceptions, but most cops want to do their job with as little confrontation as possible.

I don't buy into this police brutality hype. its a load of crap.

lol, its not "marry, boff, kill"

Ice bucket challenge

but can you blame the food industry? If people are gullible enough to believe the values of their claims??!

Yes. I can blame them for being deceptive. For being more concerned with profit then the betterment of the species. Many things.

I don't think it absolves the population for being gullible or uninformed, but I also don’t consider them to have sole culpability or even the primary cause for blame.

The person who deceives or the person who trust the deceiver. One of these people has poor intentions.

Quick! create it before anyone else does! !

The Dihydrogen Monoxide hoax (or movement as I consider it) is an attempt to demonstrate how easily people can be persuaded to believe in things at face value; it’s an illustration of the utter lack of critical thought within the majority of the population.

This common display of ignorance can be witnessed through the use of just about every form of media, news and advertisement. It is the life blood of biased propaganda which utilizes clever rhetoric to persuade an audience. Whether or not the information is founded on relevant facts is not important; those facts can be skewed and presented in such a way where people are quick to jump on the bandwagon and believe in the “shocking so it must be true” value of a claim.

The examples are practically limitless but one in particular that seems very similar to the Dihydrogen Monoxide example is the controversy over high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is virtually identical to regular table sugar from a chemical perspective. The controversy built up around it persuades people to believe that the unhealthy aspect in eating high sugar foods isn’t in the fact that they’re full of sugar but because HFCS is not “real” or “natural” sugar, therefore it must be harmful to the body. As a result, we see people fervently searching ingredient labels for the dreaded HFCS, but are entirely okay with a label that lists its first or second ingredient as sugar as long as its “natural” sugar… meanwhile obesity/heart disease/diabetes continues. Corporations 1 : Dimwitted population 0

To say it can is to say it’s possible. Considering the wide range of artistic expression and the amount of art throughout history, I believe it is not only possible but very probable that art be one of many factors that can influence a person’s sense of self.

An hypothetical example:

Suppose you are contacted by a historian and agree to meet with him. The historian presents you with a painting by a very well-known artist. The historian says that it was discovered that this artist has a journal where he mentions your great great great grandfather as being the sole inspiration for the painting. In the painting, the historian points out a person in the background who bears striking resemblance to your mentioned ancestor. You then remember how often your relatives say you strongly take after your great great great grandfather.

I would think that if this doesn’t influence a person’s sense of self then it’s not a measure of arts inability to influence but a measure of that person’s apathy.