Philosophy Discussion Forums | A Humans-Only Club for Open-Minded Discussion & Debate

[Spectrum]

Zombie parasite may not be the best analogy. The parasite is likely messing with the functionality of the brain in a different way than a mind virus does - we're really dealing with a mind virus where the nearest equivalent is a computer virus. People can be infected by false beliefs which spread like a virus and may be driven by this to behave in highly irrational ways by running instructions that are part of the virus. The virus is software: rules. People are programmable, and some people run better anti-virus than others.

I have no issue with using 'virus' as an analogy. The virus analogy is more complex to explain that the 'zombie parasite'. Using the computer virus example is too robotic.

Note the following;
Meet 5 "Zombie" Parasites That Mind-Control Their Hosts
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/new ... halloween/

The above are easily demonstrated and proven empirically.
Just infect the said victim with the specific parasite and the victim will turn into a zombie in time just like what most religious people are doing.

Once a person understand the principles of the "zombie parasites" we can use the 'virus' analogy to supplement understanding the point.
In addition there are tons of research from other aspects of neuroscience to support the point.

[Spectrum]

Note 'beliefs' are formed in the 'higher' parts of brain -cortical but the what drive the evils acts by religious believers are way below the limbic/emotional parts of the brain in the brain stem.
Since it is not from the cortical nor the limbic system, it has to be from the lower primal parts of the brain. Where else? You tell me?

Even if that is the case, it says nothing pointing to the existence of a “zombie parasite” in the human brain. I don't claim to know, and I'd rather not speculate to be honest.

You may not like the term 'zombie parasite' but my analogy demonstrated it is the most appropriate and effective.
Note human actions are heavily influenced by the subconscious mind, thus we must look deep for that 'zombie parasite.'

My dislike of the term is not relevant, I don't think that it is anything other than an analogy. By all means look deep for the “zombie parasite”, let me know when you catch up with Alice and Cheshire cat .

Again, my thesis is driven by this;

and the whole range of evils and violence from Islam and other evil laden [of various degrees] religions.

Humanity and every individual must take the above seriously and make noise of it. Problem is the majority has been cowed subconsciously by the real terrors and threat of terror by the true Muslims who are inspired by their religion. To be serious we need to look for precise proximate causes and answers in the brain.

There is obvious something X in the brain that drive evil prone Muslims and believers to commit terrible evils and violence when triggered by evil laden commands in their holy texts.
What is critical is the labeling of this 'X' must align, accommodate and correspond with the terrible evils committed by out of control evil believers. Why must humanity pussyfoot with such terrible evils. That is why I believe that 'X' need the appropriate label, i.e. religious 'zombie parasite' living within the brain of the religious.

Note I stated all humans has the potential and the majority are infected including the secular, thus a secular-based zombie parasite. This however is off topic.

I have already located and found the 'zombie parasite' it is just a matter of precision identification and empirical testings within humans to affirm the hypothesis.

[Spectrum]

What was driving you to do those theistic religious acts was an very active 'zombie parasite' which you have been able to suppress to a great degree [but not fully] at present.

It's nothing like a zombie parasite.
Any warrior or person that consciously puts himself in danger of death has over come his protective instinct with reason, and will power.
In the same way a paedophile who controls his instinctive attraction to children, or a celibate choses not to have sex. These are evidence of the human will overcoming base instincts.

Your prejudice is making you think poorly on this matter.

I have already demonstrated with the 'zombie parasite' analogy.
Meet 5 "Zombie" Parasites That Mind-Control Their Hosts
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/new ... halloween/

Controlling instinct by reason and rationality is off topic a straw-man in this case.
Who is the poor thinker here?

The point here is a matter of losing impulse control [losing control over their instincts] by religious believers to the extreme of blowing themselves up as suicide bombers, killing their parents, kins, other innocent merely based on the believe they are performing a divine duty to please God [an illusion].

The question is what is that 'X' that caused the religious believers to loose their impulse control of their primal instincts to kill, rape, maim, and other violence and evils?

I have demonstrated with an analogy, this 'X' is equivalent to a zombie parasite which take control over the mind of the host and drive them to an unnatural death to suit the purpose of the parasite. This is just like what is happening to religious-based suicide bombers.

Note the brain has many parts and 100 billion neurons each with up to 10,000 connectors.
If you think otherwise give me a clue on what is going on in the brain of the evil prone believers who commit terrible evils and violence in the name of a religion?
If you cannot you are a poor thinker in contrast to your claim I am a poor thinker.

[ThomasHobbes]

It's nothing like a zombie parasite.
Any warrior or person that consciously puts himself in danger of death has over come his protective instinct with reason, and will power.
In the same way a paedophile who controls his instinctive attraction to children, or a celibate choses not to have sex. These are evidence of the human will overcoming base instincts.

Your prejudice is making you think poorly on this matter.

I have already demonstrated with the 'zombie parasite' analogy.
Meet 5 "Zombie" Parasites That Mind-Control Their Hosts
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/new ... halloween/

Controlling instinct by reason and rationality is off topic a straw-man in this case.
Who is the poor thinker here?

The point here is a matter of losing impulse control [losing control over their instincts] by religious believers to the extreme of blowing themselves up as suicide bombers, killing their parents, kins, other innocent merely based on the believe they are performing a divine duty to please God [an illusion].

The question is what is that 'X' that caused the religious believers to loose their impulse control of their primal instincts to kill, rape, maim, and other violence and evils?

I have demonstrated with an analogy, this 'X' is equivalent to a zombie parasite which take control over the mind of the host and drive them to an unnatural death to suit the purpose of the parasite. This is just like what is happening to religious-based suicide bombers.

Note the brain has many parts and 100 billion neurons each with up to 10,000 connectors.
If you think otherwise give me a clue on what is going on in the brain of the evil prone believers who commit terrible evils and violence in the name of a religion?
If you cannot you are a poor thinker in contrast to your claim I am a poor thinker.

Your analogy is ****.
Terrorists are rational beings.

[Spectrum]

Your analogy is ****.
Terrorists are rational beings.

Your view is **** ****.
If terrorists are rational beings, why are they not exercising their rationality in controlling their instinct to survive and not commit suicide?

The point here is terrorists [not necessary all] are rational beings [some are highly intellectual and qualified professionals] but the intellect/rational parts related to their existential functions has been suppressed by a "zombie parasite" that loosen their inhibition to kill themselves together with others.

[Spectrum]

I have already located and found the 'zombie parasite' it is just a matter of precision identification and empirical testings within humans to affirm the hypothesis.

You are clearly showing signs of media manipulation. Please see a local psychiatrist so they can check the degree to which you have been brainwashed.

You are the more likely one to have been manipulated and brainwashed by the media.
Your best responses are straw-man[s], baseless and not supported by arguments at all and references/links rather your only counter is to use banned "****" words [I countered tit-for-tat].
On the other hand I have provided solid arguments supported by various references and links. You have not countered them effectively.

[ThomasHobbes]

Your analogy is ****.
Terrorists are rational beings.

Your view is **** ****.
If terrorists are rational beings, why are they not exercising their rationality in controlling their instinct to survive and not commit suicide?

Because they think that their values exceed the value of one life. Many such people who think likewise are revered by the West.
You are not thinking very clearly about this issue. You simply have no idea what motivates a terrorist.
When everything you believe in is under constant attack by foreign powers many reason that giving up their life is the best option. Just because you are too dull to see that, does not mean that they are zombies.

[ThomasHobbes]

You are clearly showing signs of media manipulation. Please see a local psychiatrist so they can check the degree to which you have been brainwashed.

You are the more likely one to have been manipulated and brainwashed by the media.

I can find a million articles and news stories to show how your personal ignorance has been steered into believing what you are told, when you have zero first hand knowledge of this issue.
I challenge you to find a SINGLE media outlet that shares my own view.!

[Spectrum]

Your view is **** ****.
If terrorists are rational beings, why are they not exercising their rationality in controlling their instinct to survive and not commit suicide?

Because they think that their values exceed the value of one life. Many such people who think likewise are revered by the West.
You are not thinking very clearly about this issue. You simply have no idea what motivates a terrorist.
When everything you believe in is under constant attack by foreign powers many reason that giving up their life is the best option. Just because you are too dull to see that, does not mean that they are zombies.

Point is you are very ignorant of what is really going and not up to date on the above, i.e. what motivates a terrorist.

Note I have given the answers to what motivates from the horses' mouth.
The terrorist stated 6 reasons and the major one is below;

1. Because you are disbelievers

• "We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers;
  you reject the oneness of Allah – whether you realize it or not – by making partners for Him in worship, you blaspheme against Him, claiming that He has a son, you fabricate lies against His prophets and messengers, and you indulge in all manner of devilish practices."

It reads: "What’s important to understand here is that although some might argue that your foreign policies are the extent of what drives our hatred,
this particular reason for hating you is secondary, hence the reason we addressed it at the end of the above list.

• "The fact is,
  even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to HATE you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... ns-8533563

Now can you explain why your reasons are correct and those reasons given by the terrorists themselves [agree with mine] are wrong.

[Karpel Tunnel]

Spectrum
1) the reasons you gave and the reasons Thomas Hobbes gave are not mutally exclusive
2) posting what a couple of people say were their motives is a) not a good sample, thus not good evidence 2) because we know - through cognitive science - that people often ratinalise what they do when in fact causes - unconscious, external - are otherwise.

[David Cooper]

If you believe you're going to have a high status in heaven by undertaking suicide attacks, it isn't irrational to act in that way from that irrational starting point. There is no parasite - just a mind virus where people are programmed to believe certain things and to think in particular ways. Some are more susceptible than others, of course, so they don't all throw their lives away for fairies, and their lives usually have to be pretty awful before they're driven that far. Your zombie parasite is a load of asterisks, and it detracts from your argument by being highly unscientific. The word "zombie" in particular turns it into an exercise in name calling, appearing to make fun of the infected people rather than restricting the attack to the virus that's infected them.

[ThomasHobbes]

Spectrum
1) the reasons you gave and the reasons Thomas Hobbes gave are not mutally exclusive
2) posting what a couple of people say were their motives is a) not a good sample, thus not good evidence 2) because we know - through cognitive science - that people often ratinalise what they do when in fact causes - unconscious, external - are otherwise.

Indeed.

I'm not sure he gets it.

[ThomasHobbes]

If you believe you're going to have a high status in heaven by undertaking suicide attacks, it isn't irrational to act in that way from that irrational starting point. There is no parasite - just a mind virus where people are programmed to believe certain things and to think in particular ways. Some are more susceptible than others, of course, so they don't all throw their lives away for fairies, and their lives usually have to be pretty awful before they're driven that far. Your zombie parasite is a load of asterisks, and it detracts from your argument by being highly unscientific. The word "zombie" in particular turns it into an exercise in name calling, appearing to make fun of the infected people rather than restricting the attack to the virus that's infected them.

Exactly.

To counter a problem requires understanding. Understanding your enemy has to be more sophisticated than "they are zombies", or "they are evil".

Millions of Germans participated in the worst killing frenzy in history just 80 years ago. Dismissing the German nation as evil about as useful as poking yourself in the eye with a stick, and about the same level of sophistication as 'terrorists are zombie ant viruses'.

[Spectrum]

Spectrum
1) the reasons you gave and the reasons Thomas Hobbes gave are not mutally exclusive
2) posting what a couple of people say were their motives is a) not a good sample, thus not good evidence 2) because we know - through cognitive science - that people often ratinalise what they do when in fact causes - unconscious, external - are otherwise.

What??
Don't you know I.S.IS was/is the mothership of 95% of all Islamic terrorist then and now.
Those words quoted were from I.SI.S official magazine.

Problem with is you are not interested in facts and truth in this case.

You tell me precisely where did I go off point from "ThomasHobbes" point as repeated below;

ThomasHobbes wrote:
You are not thinking very clearly about this issue. You simply have no idea what motivates a terrorist.
When everything you believe in is under constant attack by foreign powers many reason that giving up their life is the best option. Just because you are too dull to see that, does not mean that they are zombies.

[Spectrum]

If you believe you're going to have a high status in heaven by undertaking suicide attacks, it isn't irrational to act in that way from that irrational starting point. There is no parasite - just a mind virus where people are programmed to believe certain things and to think in particular ways. Some are more susceptible than others, of course, so they don't all throw their lives away for fairies, and their lives usually have to be pretty awful before they're driven that far. Your zombie parasite is a load of asterisks, and it detracts from your argument by being highly unscientific. The word "zombie" in particular turns it into an exercise in name calling, appearing to make fun of the infected people rather than restricting the attack to the virus that's infected them.

"Viruses of the Mind"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viruses_of_the_Mind
-Richard Dawkins: Meme, Selfish Gene.

Mind Virus
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Virus-Charl ... B07114G1V8

I have no problem with the very old idea of "mind virus" but I think the term have no specific bite to deal with this;

https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/TROP.jpg


and the full range and whole load of evils & violence committed by;
1. evil prone Muslims inspired directly by their holy texts plus
2. evil prone believers from other religions with evil elements.

Note there are scientific knowledge to support a crude hypothesis but note my point is eventually Science will produce empirical proofs to support my point regardless of what name is given to that cause.

If we can convince and get people to admit the fact [with proofs] they have a potential dormant or active parasite [zombie in this case] they will want to get rid or deal with it.