[MD] Flying Spagetti Monsters

[Case]

FSoB-dmb says:
How do you figure? I mean, Micah can attribute consciousness to the human 
species simply because he is a human being with consciousness. He knows it 
from experience. He knows it from the "inside", if you will, whereas with 
animals....

[Case]
We can infer that the more similar an organism is to ourselves the more
similar to us their internal states must be. But it remains an "unprovable"
inference since we can not confirm this through direct experience. We don't
know each other "from the inside" any more than we know other organisms or
objects "from the inside". 

FSoB-dmb says:
We can see the difference here. The limits of observation and 
experimentation as they are conducted in the behavioral sciences are such 
that we can only see the outside and then based on that come to some 
conclusions about what might be going on inside. I'm not saying the whole 
enterprise is bogus, but there is a real distinction betweeen knowing 
consciousness in one's own experience and guessing what its like based on 
observable behaviors, even if the guess is a solid, educated guess.

[Case]
All you have is observation and experimentation, whether you do it
systematically or informally. Behavioral sciences share this with everyday
life. If all you are concerned about is what is going on inside your own
head, there really isn't much need to get up in the morning is there?

FSoB-dmb says:
I'm just saying that B.F. Skinner won't help us to understand Protagoras. 
You need a mystic or some kind of postmodernist to get at it, I think.

[Case]
I skipped the profound sounding stuff about notness defining being. It all
boils down to: sometimes we generalize, sometimes we discriminate. Sometimes
it makes sense to talk about what we are and sometimes to talk about what we
are not. Real understanding requires both. 

Protagoras will not help me understand Skinner either and yet I can
understand both. Most of the time, especially when I engage in social
interactions Skinner provide more insight into what is going on around me.