Comments by "June VanDerMark" (@junevandermark952) on "Daniel Dennett Explains Consciousness and Free Will | Big Think" video.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when it’s components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” Stephen Hawking
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@sopanmcfadden276 Stephen Hawking believed, as did and do other scientists, that consciousness always existed because the universe always existed ... no creation or creator involved ... and that suffering of all forms of life was and is, natural.
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@sopanmcfadden276 If the universe always existed, that would explain that consciousness did not start because of a conscious creator, but rather consciousness always existed, because the universe always existed. Having been taught religion, I also was heavily indoctrinated to believe that a god was responsible for all life. I left religion at age 70, after all those years of always asking question about why nothing I was taught ever made sense to me. I'm 83 now, and believe that when I die, thought will be no more. Peace ... at last. Until then, I know that if I want to be content, I have to try my best to be as kind to others, as circumstances allow.
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@sopanmcfadden276 I agree that we don't have proof of the unknowable ... but neither do those that preach religion. We just guess and continue to debate, and learn from each other. I suggest that we must always be humble enough to admit that we are seekers of knowledge ... not owners of knowledge. But, who would want to be a follower of a religion ... if the preacher said "I don't know if a god exists?"
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@sopanmcfadden276 I suggest that all animals and other forms of life are sentient. No deity involved.
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@sopanmcfadden276 No creation or existence of a creator would be possible, if the universe always existed. If the universe and consciousness always existed, they could not have BEEN created.
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The Protestant theologian John Calvin was certain that he knew the answer. Forest G. Wood is the author of “The Arrogance of Faith.” From that book comes the following ... Calvin argued in Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559 edition); “but eternal life is foreordained for some and eternal damnation for others.”
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