[SanityIsRare]

Most HNer are actually dumb enough (or "scientific" as they like to call it) to believe that material universe exists in some vacuum with all its unbreakable laws, that it came into existence from nothingness, and believe that their lack of ability to explain what consciousness is is just a mere case of not-enough-science-yet.

I'm not saying be religious but being staunch atheist and materialist is really no better than being bigoted God-worshipper. Don't block yourself from playing with your own hypothesis-space just because it's full of "unscientific" things.

[wilsonnb]

There's nothing wrong with "playing with your own hypothesis-space" as you put it, but it's stupid to believe in something without any proof that it might be true.

It's fine to think "what if god created the universe" or "what if we're living inside a giant space beaver" or "what if there is another fundamental force responsible for consciousness that we can't measure" but unless you actually have some evidence or reasoning that points in that direction, they are all stupid theories compared to materialism which actually fits into the current scientific world view pretty well.

[ericb]

> that it came into existence from nothingness

You assume the default is "nothingness" but what if the default is "everythingness?"