[Suzerain of Sheol]

Originally Posted by MyPerfectPigeon

as you probably are aware, cetaceans are sentient beings. Do you think they fair better or worse than humanity? They have the same level of self-awareness, so I am curious of what you think of them in comparison.

I do remember hearing about the findings on this several years ago, I'm not entirely sure there's enough available data (from what I've seen) to be able to say on anything definitive on the matter. The human variant of self-consciousness comes with an intractable narcissism and self-aggrandizement, a constant desire to separate or elevate ourselves from the rest of the natural world, which in my view is the cause of the majority of our existential dysphoria. I would be willing to concede that the possibility exists for self-consciousness in other creatures lacking the characteristics that shackle the human mind to its fundamental state of misery. I find the idea of non-conscious intelligence rather intriguing as well; I don't believe in extra-terrestrial visitations, but if somehow space-faring alien lifeforms did arrive here, it would be very interesting to see if they possessed the same sense of self-awareness that humans do. Artificial intelligence, as well, may be able to shed light on this subject. (I'm something of a trans-humanist advocate as well, I think the best possible future for humanity would be essentially the inverse of the Matrix films: mind-uploading into personal digital universes that exist only to maximize the happiness of the person experiencing them. But that's speaking purely ideally. Eliminating biological mortality through medical science seems a much more plausible endeavor, at least in the short term.)

another question is what do you think about mental disorders? I know they occur in almost all animals, so I am curious what your opinion is on them in comparison to self-awareness (if that makes sense)?

I think in a way I'd define human consciousness itself as a mental disorder. It's a difficult subject to think about, as it's kind of abstract, but the experiences I've had on certain drugs seem to indicate that self-consciousness is pretty unnecessary to everything else about human functioning. I've had coherent conversations that were running completely off my sub-conscious, more or less, but I wouldn't take that as any kind of conclusive evidence, objectively, given the way the sub-conscious is directly tied to the conscious, let alone the complexity of memory-formation and the emergent quality of the personality.

I guess to answer your question, though, I consider mental illnesses something parallel to the conscious mind. Even if they manifest on the level of awareness, the root of them is in the physiology of the brain, but again, in certain cases, it seems almost impossible to distinguish the two.

although I personally am not a fan of being negative, I tend to think rather negatively myself. You said you know a lot about most religions. I am wondering if you mean religion as a whole or specific religions?
I'm asking this because I am wondering what your opinion is on religions that tend to support scientific explanations on the reasons we think and feel and exist, but try to (attempt anyway) form a community in which we can openly speak with one another as human beings?

Oh, I merely meant that in the course of my education I've been exposed to the details of quite of few religions (I have my degree in English literature and took quite a few philosophy courses along the way), though primarily the Judaic monotheisms and the various ancient paganisms of Europe and around the Mediterranean. I don't tend to read much about modern religions.

As to the second part, I'd say my original answer still holds. If we've evolved socially/culturally to flee from existential despair by drowning it out with more immediate concerns or by compartmentalizing our place in the cosmos, it really doesn't matter what shape that takes, religion or otherwise. It really comes down to whatever works for the individual(s).

Your answer was very interesting to read for me. Thank you once again for responding!

You're welcome. I hope my responses aren't too off-putting. As you may be able to imagine, I'm quite used to these ideas being met with hostility, so I appreciate you taking them in the spirit they're meant.