Why Materialism is False

There are no doubt many things we still do not understand about the workings of the human mind, and that await further investigation and discovery. It would be interesting if it turned out that people who have a common biological origin have especially close psychological interactions across distances. It seems to me that would be some evidence that psychological function and physiology are closely connected.

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Quantum entanglement does yield correlated measured outcome across space and time without transmission of information. And although measurable it’s a quality that remains elusively intangible even to the point of non-materialism. We can’t show each other entanglement–only the evidence of its passing. Hmm. Perhaps that goes into the formless existence. :scream::thinking::nerd_face::grin:

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Could you elaborate a bit ?

You mentioned earlier that nibbana is to be considered merely as a mental state in which there are no views and beliefs. If this is the case, in a materialistic world-view which considers mind as a product of matter, drugs and substances that affect the mind to induce such a state is all that is needed. And there are lots of groups out there with such a view.

But, if nibbana is understood as the culmination of an ascetic’s path who renounces the world, purifies the mind, attains transcendental knowledge and complete liberation from all suffering, then there is no shortcut. And I think this path depends on Right View. I won’t use scare quotes, sorry :slight_smile:

We are actually in full agreement here…

The hardening that I mentioned happens when some doctrine that tries to explain reality as ‘pure and good’ takes over one’s mind and then the suffering in the world is dismissed as either fatalistic or chaotic. It’s not very pleasant to be at the receiving end of such arrogant dismissal.

But isn’t this just a Utopian dream ? And how do we understand things that are more cruel than the weariness of workers ? Like children who are victims of horrifying brutality ? Or people who are forced to carry the burden of too many diseases ?

We can’t carry the misery of the world on our shoulders, but IMO, the Buddha’s teaching is a way to attain transcendental insight that answers these fundamental questions, and thus be liberated.

Yes I agree about the importance of the ascetic path. But think of it this way:an Olympic champion runner has to train for years to reach that level of perfection. Even though he is perfecting his body, it doesn’t follow that he can become a champion runner just by taking a pill.

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That’s a nice analogy. And I think the same way too - there are no shortcuts…

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Here is a nice little video of two well learned gentlemen discussing this very issue.

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Again it’s kind of funny how we deify scientists. Because someone is a gifted mathematician (what physicists basically are) it is suddenly important what they have to say about god?? (Leibniz, Schrödinger, Bohr…)

Why not the gifted architect, or the gifted linguist? We might be more Pythagorean in this regard than we know.

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As a mathematician who has collaborated with physicists, I am offended by your statement! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: My experience is that physicists think they are better at mathematics than they really are.

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Haha, of course they think so. After all they deal with ‘the world’, contrary to you guys :wink:

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This says it all:

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Yeah. I remember at my university the physics majors that were getting all of the chicks…not. :slight_smile:

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I do like this series of cartoons. :smiley:

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:smiley: I don’t know… those big brains exploring the unknown… unbounded, by comparison to the majority.

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There are “big brains” out there in all fields. The unique feature of the field of physics is that it has a large border with metaphysics (I think the border is there in other fields as well, just not as big or obvious). The problem is that the border is fuzzy, and physicists occasionally wander across it, thinking their expertise transfers.

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I suspect it’s an intellectual leap to extend entanglement of particles to humans. AIUI, observation of a particle (collapses the wave function to a particular state?) and instantaneously sets the entangled particle to the opposite state. If this did scale up, would this mean that an identical twin would feel a pleasant feeling when their entangled “twin-region” feels unpleasant?

Ergo: I clearly don’t understand quantum entanglement!

With Metta. :slight_smile:

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Whew. I, too, appreciated Karl’s awesome reply, but had no idea what was being discussed. Quantum entanglement? 1%20a%20gumby

Note on tongue in cheek physics pun: And, being as thick as a brick with all matters math and physics at university didn’t get me any “chicks,” either, to be honest.

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At Berkeley, I once went to a lecture by Richard Feynman. It was a deep marvelous lecture and he explained everything with resounding, inexorable clarity. Afterwards, as I stood awaiting his autograph, I suddenly realized that I could not repeat a single word he had said. So I became a programmer.

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Someone posted on Facebook a new video on “reincarnation.” https://youtu.be/oRhYQGbGE_o Naturally, people viewing the video post comments, are here are a selected few:

My grandmother asked me a few days before she died, if I would be her mother in her next life because I will be a wonderful mother. I smiled and said of corse I will be your mom.

I gave birth to my daughter that year and hadn’t thought about that conversation until my daughter was 3 and she was sitting next to me while I was looking at a magazine and there was a picture of a potbelly stove. She pointed at it and said, “That’s what mine used to look like.” and she jumped up and ran to the kitchen and pointed at the stove.

She then started playing with her play doe and she flattened it out and moved it back and forth in her hands and said, “This is how I used to do it.” I recalled watching my grandmother making pies when I was little and that is the way she would work the pie crusts before putting them in the pie pan.

I looked at her and she gave me a smile the way my grandmother used to smile. I got a tear in my eye and said, “It’s going to be alright, I’m going to be a good mom to you.” She crawled into my lap and put her hands on my face and she said, “I know you will.” That was that

There were moments when she would see things that belonged to my grandmother that she would get a look as if she remembered it, but she never said anything to indicate that she remembered.

and…

when my son first started talking, he spoke in German! we live in Michigan in the US and have no German friends or relatives. we would say no and he would say nein and many other German responses like yes, food, play…all German words. A month later he stopped talking for awhile and Dr Found NOTHING wrong with him and no reason to not Talking​. I truly believe he was a German fighter pilot, as he was obsessed with planes from birth on. I think he had a hard time talking cuz he only knew German and we spoke English. He is 3.5 now and just starting to talk English…I can’t ask him about any past memories cuz he is still learning to talk and it gets to confusing for him. once when he was 5months I befriend a German lady and asked her to come talk to him. I don’t know what she was saying to him that day but he was beyond happy and at 5months he was trying to talk back to her. It was awesome! I truly believe he was reincarnated and to think that he may have gotten to choose me as his Mama makes me beyond happy :slight_smile:

Cool stuff. Lots more like this out there.

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Update: The whole opposite state thing … wrong! I shouldn’t be allowed near the Internet.

It makes my brain hurt too! Though it seems that our everyday world works according to Newtonian mechanics rather than quantum mechanics - I mean we don’t directly experience the quantum world ( unless you are a New Ager of course :yum: )

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