Simple

Forget simple chains from genes to brain to behaviour; neuroscientists are overturning decades of dogma. | iai.tv/articles/neuro… Award-winning neuroscientist Nicole Rust argues that the brain is a dynamic complex system, more like the weather than a machine, whose parts interact through feedback loops that can't be studied in isolation. The revolution is also practical: a bold cohort of experimentalists is uncovering mental health treatments that go beyond traditional drugs like SSRIs—such as psychedelic therapy, which may be able to rewire brains trapped in destructive loops.

@DingusDinguist @___mithrandir_ @atarimoe @angcathalex Yeah Jason Eberl argues something like this but I'm not persuaded

@SimonSimplicio @___mithrandir_ @atarimoe @angcathalex I know some scholars have tried to accommodate DNA to evidence of a human form since it’s a kind of organic structure, but I haven’t read enough to know if it works. It’s certainly not the kind of thing Aristotle, Avicenna, Aquinas, or Liguori would have known of, at any rate.

outlandish thing to believe; was Augustine a heretic?

@atarimoe @DingusDinguist @___mithrandir_ @angcathalex The issue for Aquinas, iirc, was that until specifically human organs were sufficiently developed the body could not be properly called a human body and was therefore inhospitable for a rational soul

@DingusDinguist @SimonSimplicio @___mithrandir_ @angcathalex We can’t really measure ensoulment… but the ancients’ measure of “quickening” doesn’t work, as we know that the embryo is active and dynamic from conception.

Might go to the beach today

@DingusDinguist @___mithrandir_ @atarimoe @angcathalex Modern embryology doesn't actually decisively answer the question of hominization, at least if we're still committed to hylomorphism (and abortion is wrong regardless, as you say) theologicalstudies.net/wp-content/upl…

@___mithrandir_ @atarimoe @angcathalex I think it’s significantly more likely that rational ensoulment is immediate, given modern insights into embryology, but I’m not so convinced that I would be floored if some strong reason emerged indicating the contrary. Abortion is wrong, regardless.

I would die for my country chicago

@JosephBenJ2 Yes it's still bad even if it achieves that end

@SimonSimplicio Also, this usage of "reenchantment" can give some people whiplash because I recall many Christians using that term to mean having a non-materialist view of reality

Yes, because the inner self (no scare quotes needed) is good and real and nonsense like the "corpus hermeticum" needs to be placed back on the Index

@JosephBenJ2 You should read my substack post on self and identity!

@SimonSimplicio So the CH denies the inner self is real? Okay. But what does the inner self amount to then, in your view? Like having a private life in your own thoughts, inner monologue?

@JosephBenJ2 Even if it's not, reenchantment is bad in it's own right

@SimonSimplicio So it's blobbery, isn't it?

@JosephBenJ2 It's bad to be interested in pagan esotericism

@SimonSimplicio What do you mean by that? Is the CH blobbist?

@emmathebeloved x.com/SimonSimplicio…

For the last time. I. Am. Just. Autistic.

@nonanswernom Ah, not there yet...

@SimonSimplicio I think all you need is a doctorate but I will check?

Anyone want to be 4th reader on my dissertation committee?

@ChudNarodnik Epic reenchantment moment

In 2000 years you will have tradlarp about how Helena Blavatsky was actually 100% Catholic and that Freemasonry was like how the Franciscans related to the Waldensians

@m966021 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣

G-guys 😳😳😳

this book was amazing my favorite part is when an old stodgy academic asks the new hot shot intellectual how they found all this success with such little experience and he says “it’s because i’m smarter than you”

@PhiloCasey You bet!

@SimonSimplicio I didn't know about these works. Thank you!

I write about it here

👀

Hard to think of anything that compares to it in depth, erudition or sweep

*wise Middle Eastern priest accent* My child, do not seek to learn of evil. Seek to learn only of good. Do not become curious about the, how you say, counterfeit, for there are many. Become focused on Christ alone, and He will protect you from all evil, and show you the Way.