VitalOne,
Because - The definition of "matter" in modern philosophical materialism extends to all scientifically observable entities such as energy, forces, and the curvature of space. In this sense, one might speak of the "material world". From wikipedia.
This is the usual expectation of the meaning of material and the corollory i.e. "immaterial" is none of those things, i.e. undetectable by science.
These are the usual definitions of these terms as used in philosophy and it becomes very confusing when you proceed to invent your own.
Do you also understand that matter is composed of particles bound by forces. I.e, when we talk of material things it automatically includes the necessary forces.
Actually, modern definitions of matter say that light isn't matter, electromagnetism isn't matter, gravity isn't matter, etc....Therefore they are "immaterial" (or not matter). For instance quarks and leptons are known as the smallest bits of "matter". You would never call gravity or electromagnetism matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter
According to the definitions by Princeton, words meaning "not made of matter" would be "immaterial", "nonmaterial", "incorporeal". Its irrevelant if something is undetectable my science or not, in the past many things were undetectable, so what?
However if you equate "nature" with "material" (which would be foolish) then, gravity, electromagnetism, time, etc...are part of nature.
VitalOne,
It is not a matter of narrow-mindedness but one of perspective, credibility, and evidence.
You are arguing for duality, an entity that can exist seperate to the brain, and that is not supportable, necessary, or credible especially when considering the power and complexity that the brain provides. It doesn't make any sense to me to consider these peripheral fantasies before we have made much more headway in understanding the undoubtable complexity that faces us with the material brain.
Actually, I already listed many theories suggesting consciousness exists independant of matter. The neural-correlate explanation fails on a Quantum level and fails at explaining the "hard problem of consciousness". What you're saying is that "even though there's a great possibility that consciousness exists independant of matter, I some how magically know that it isn't independant of matter". Not only this, but you don't even
consider that consciousness can be independant of matter, this is blind faith, how ironic.
Did you just simply invent that last sentence for effect? How do you come to the conclusion that 'most' Neurologists think that conciousness has nothing to do with the brain? Neuroscience is a physical science just like any other, therefor the soul is not a concept I would imagine is endorsed by any majority of reputable neuroscientists.
Why do I feel confident in saying that even though I don't have to bother seeking references? Because concepts of a soul are 'devoid of meaning', baseless and have no relevance to any science. I would be shocked if journals on the immaterial soul were peer reviewed and embraced by consensus in neurology.
No, at arrive that conclusion to what is found in modern text books. I stated that most neurologists will tell you that there probably is more to consciousness than just neural activity. Go read one and see how many missing pieces there are in explaining consciousness based only on neural activity. Look up what the "hard problem of consciousness" is.
The fact is, atheists, using blind atheistic faith, do not even
consider that consciousness can possibly be independantly of matter (and therefore continue on after the death of the body). You can't even handle that it can be true.
Also, you face a great dilemma. You state in this post that you believe whatever the evidence moves towards. But evidence is ever-changing, an ancient man has no reason to believe in electromagnetism, in other words, evidence is proof of something, but evidence doesn't cause something to be true. Its true with or
without evidence. Oh yeah, prepare to be shocked.