Pretty good chance, the universe is, in fact, a hologram.

(But not in the sense of a piece of software running on some giant computer outside the known universe. Rather, in a particle physics sort of way)


"But Love is not a puzzle that can be "solved" with "evidence"; it is a reality that grows, in beauty and complexity, the longer you live with it."

I would like to know more about this. What does that mean? Does it suggest love is an emotion apart or somehow different from other emotions? We've got all that mapped out pretty good, actually. Not only can we tell you what and where in the brain that sort of thing happens, but what sort of damage might impede or even eliminate it. How we might restore it by various therapies.

Love, and all emotions I experience can, in my judgment, be quantified very precisely. So I don't understand that point.

It's not something that can be bridged easily. Basically you are coming down on the side of a material universe - everything can be quantified scientifically. Fair enough. Believers generally, but not always, come down on the spiritual side - that there are planes and understandings beyond us. There is a spiritual world that can be felt and experienced but cannot be scientifically measured at this time.

There's no simple way to bridge that gap and probably no real reason to (at least in the context of this room). For a believer to admit that if you can't prove it scientifically it doesn't exist is, for the most part, to let go of belief. For an Atheist to admit that there might be things beyond scientific understanding is to acknowledge at least the possibility of the spiritual world.

I will say, though, that simply believing there are things that science can't explain or can't explain yet, isn't a rejection of the many things that science has explained - i've noted that in other places it is suggested that a belief in God means one rejects all science, which isn't the case.

Bryant

I don't know where you get that. Perhaps it will be true someday, but not in our lifetimes.

As I said, we have very closely mapped out what parts of the brain are responsible for, or work together to produce these effects. It helps us find therapies for people who suffer from some forms of traumatic brain injury, inhibiting normal expression or experience of certain feelings. There's still tons to discover and learn, but to think we can't nail down the remaining details in our lifetimes is overly pessimistic, I would say. And I'm a pessimist.