Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I don't see why you think this. Being non-religious and demanding evidence for every claim leads one to a materialist view of the cosmos, which includes human beings. Essentially, our brains are made of molecules. Molecules (and the neurons they make up) obey the laws of physics.
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A big hurdle with the materialist point of view is that it removes free will. If you are a materialist, your phrase "I don't see why you think this" becomes nonsensical. peter12 has responded because that is how the confluence of stimuli and atoms have combined. He had no other choice. Rationally, it removes any possibility of argument.
While I don't fully support peter12's position, I think I understand what he is getting at. When he talks of loneliness and wondering, he is considering the existential questions we face as humans. Do animals wonder why they are here, what their purpose is? Are they bothered by the possibility that they are alone in the universe, a blip in the history of all things?
Can we ever know that animals do or do not feel these things? Is existential dread a measurable experience?