Originally Posted By PERFECTBALANCE

so you explained yourself using known science and now i will explain myself with universal knowledge:

everything in the universe is made up of atoms that are made up of energy
our feelings and thoughts as human beings exist on an energetic level

---only because we are within the universe and the universe is energy, by your definition

it is possible for inanimate objects to be aware of what they are and what is around them

----speculation tantamount to religious or spiritual belief more than fact

because they are connected through energy to everything else.
a rock is connected through energy channels to other rocks.

---- energy channels? enlighten me :)

and the same goes with everything else in the universe.
humans don't have organic bodies so they can think and feel and be aware of stuff

--- i assume you meant 'do'

humans have living bodies so they can move.

---I don't see where this comes from or why it's stated.

"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage"

Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!

"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle -- but no dragon.

"Where's the dragon?" you ask.

"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.

"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."

Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.

"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."

You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.

"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.

Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so. The only thing you've really learned from my insistence that there's a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You'd wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I've seriously underestimated human fallibility. Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don't outright reject the notion that there's a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you're prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative -- merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of "not proved."

Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons -- to say nothing about invisible ones -- you must now acknowledge that there's something here, and that in a preliminary way it's consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon.

Now another scenario: Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages -- but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we're disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I'd rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren't myths at all.

Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they're never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon's fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such "evidence" -- no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it -- is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.

Originally Posted By PERFECTBALANCE

are you making fun of me? that's not very honorable. and please don't speak to me like i'm a child.

---I am not making fun of you, I am calling you naive and immature.

there is one thing that i must say that i have figured out on my own:
reality consists of two things; matter and energy

---if you knew anything about the sciences, you'd know that those two are actually one and the same.

science can only fully determine matter.

--- NOT true, physics take light and energy FULLY into account and can perfectly predict and explain the effects of energy.

religion is a reality based on energy. in a way, religion is a science. it is a science of energy.
i know this from talking to enough individuals about the issue.
and in a way, science is a modern religion. why should i believe what scientists say?

---No, Christian scientists are a modern religion, science is science. Science does not propose beliving without evidence whereas religion requires unflynching faith in the unproveable.
Definition Of Religion: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny.

are they right just because they have tested out fully what they say they know?
does that realy make them right? and how would you even know? what do you even know?

----Yes, that is is exactly what makes them right. I know from experience, from my own tests and from common freaking sense!

you may only know what science tells you.

---I know what I learn, from my experience, from living and from having gone to school. And ALL evidence points to religions being complete and utter bullshit that serve no purpose other than to control the masses and attenuate the lack of purpose we all feel.

here is one amazing thing about the human body: we can determine energy in our minds.
---What?!
can technology determine energy?
---Yes?! how do you think radar guns work?
we have instincts and emotions and thoughts and dreams.... our bodies are that much more advanced then technology.
---I agree.
what are we connecting to or what are we sensing when we dream, think, feel or use our instincts?
---Our minds absorb and use information, what's so hard to understand about that. It's called an imagination and you seem to have an extremely active one.

and would technology be able to tell you? no.
---It's called a cat scan and we DO have the ability to measure the release of hormones, the firing of synapses and any other activity going on in the human brain. Although, we don't fully understand it, that doesn't mean it's magic.

you see, it is up to YOU the way reality is. technology isn't as aware as the human mind.

Originally Posted By NOTHINGEXTRA

oh my god... i didn't even read all that shit...
---half of it was quoting you.....

then what is important? science and technology? can science and technology fix all the pollution
and global problems that it has created?

---Yes! Science and technology can fix those problems, in fact, at this point, they are our only hope.

my true point is this: i am better than anyone else in one way; the way i see things.
i see "reality" with my imagination.
---Now that's just a contradiction.

now hold on a second, you may not totally get what i'm saying yet and that would be my advantage.
let me explain a little about myself... i am not normal.
i have been diagnosed with slight autism, or Aspergers.
---Well knowing about your own condition, shouldn't you trust my view more than you're own. I don't claim to know everything, but I am not unreasonable either. And I have no such disorder, that I know of. Having being diagnosed typically means that the problem is in you, not us... never fool yourself into thinking that the world has the disorder and not you.

throughout my entire life i have been experiencing a slight disconnection with my surroundings.
---That much was obvious. You seem like a relatively smart person... just be wary of your own perception.