[MD] Dawkins a Materialist (is watching?)

[Hamilton Priday]

Hi Craig, and all  --


Animism is apparently still alive and well in the MoQ community.  At least 
the repeated assertion that "awareness" is a property of inanimate objects 
seems to indicate that this belief is prevalent.

For example, on 4/11 Craig asked:

> How is the South pole of a magnet attracted to the North pole of
> another magnet (to use my favorite example), if it is not aware of it?
> It is no good to say that they are forced together because that just
> pushes the question back one step.  Of course, it is an inorganic
> awareness, not to be confused with awareness at the biological level.

Just what is "an inorganic awareness"?   I assume that all the participants 
on this forum have had a class to two in Physics or Biology.  If so, (unless 
the "progressive movement" in education has abandoned scientific principles) 
you will not have been taught any such concept.  In the absence of a brain 
and nervous system, there can be no cognition, feeling, or awareness. 
Rocks, trees and magnets simply are not equipped for  psychic sensibility; 
they are not sentient organisms.  There is no awareness at the "inorganic 
level".  To perpetuate the myth that the "attractive" behavior of objects 
equates with subjective awareness is a regression to pre-enlightened times 
when it was thought that objects had souls.

For those who need it, here's a primer on electro-magnetic force.

Every atom is a tiny magnet.  If you attach a coil of wire to a battery so 
that electric current runs through the coil, it becomes magnetic (i.e. an 
electromagnet).  In the same way, the motion and spin of the particles
inside an atom cause the atom to be magnetized.  In the iron particles of a 
standard magnet, the atoms are all aligned in the "same direction".  Their 
magnetic fields work together to concentrate the field force.  The polarity 
of the magnetic poles (positive and negative) is determined by which way the 
atoms face.  Moving charges passing through a magnetic field exert a 
magnetic force that is perpendicular to the magnetic field line.  This is 
unlike electro-motive force (EMF) which radiates parallel to electric field 
lines.  Since electrical conductors radiate from electric charges, 
electro-motive force attracts charges toward (or away from) the charge 
producing the electric field.

It's common to metaphorically associate the behavior of things observed in 
nature with human emotions, such as "feeling", "wanting", and "valuing". 
But a magnet isn't attracted to an iron bar because it is "aware of it", nor 
does a ball thrown into the air fall because it "values" the ground.  When 
we succumb to a lteral interpretation of such expressions, we debase the 
value of subjective awareness.  The persistence of this myth is particularly 
insulting to those of us who are advancing a philosophy based on proprietary 
value.

Essentially yours,
Ham


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