Perceptions

Perceptions. What are they? Anyone? From a mathematical, purely physics standpoint should they be there? Does all matter experience perceptions or only some kinds of matter? Is the matter what experiences perceptions or is matter just a mathematical device to communicate what eventually will become a perception? What is the difference between matter and our perception of that matter? The atheist or neurologist might say, well they come from the brain. The theist or someone with general spiritual inclinations might say, well there is this thing called the mind, which isn't the brain, and the perceptions come from there. But honestly I don't think there is an accepted casual explanation for perceptions. The mind as something apart from the brain is unstudiable, and the brain if it is purely a mathematical substance, operating similar to a computer, then where do perceptions come from? Or to put it another way does a robot given optical sensors actually see or does it merely consist of a series of physical reactions, mathematically describable, and believing a robot has senses is humans anthropomorphizing our human-centered viewpoint onto a non-living thing?

Gay Marriage

It is a strange idea. When I was younger, the idea never even occurred to me. Of course even the idea of marriage would have never occurred to me, had I not been taught it. When you are younger, you are taught that a man and women who love each other or for political reasons like nobility from two kingdoms or arranged marriage. You read about various fairy tales where a girl mets her prince charming. But when you think about it, marriage is a completely artificial construct mainly for the community and to promote the raising of children. It doesn't have much to do with the actual people getting married. It has mainly been pushed by various religions in the past, but it has recently become increasingly secularized and more allowances for getting divorced have been allowed. Divorce is still expensive business, especially if you have property and children. The United State is predominately made up of citizens with Christian viewpoints with varying stances in regards to gay marriage; some with no problem with it. I honestly don't care if two people want to get married or if gay marriage has to be called domestic partnership to get passed into law. If two men or two women want to get married and it isn't just to get the other citizenship or something similar, then I say we should allow it. If you are Christian see Mark 12:25, basically put according to your bible, marriage is only something for when you are alive and really it has no consequence in the bigger scheme of things. Basically in other words, it is an artificial construct instituted for a specific function and nothing more and Jesus knew it.