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What's it like to be a robin?

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Saturday, 23 Mar 2024, 12:30


What’s that robin thinking I wonder what it’s like to be a robin this is a cheeky little robin he’s hanging around listening to our conversation no wonder my mother would say a little bird told me maybe he’s hoping we have something for him I’m sure it was Nagel that wondered what it’s like to be a bat Michael Jackson sung Rocking Robin he was just a kid with a prepubescent voice I wonder how this photo will turn out I am sure there was a song about a robin bob bob bobbing along

*****

If you think I have lost my senses, I’ve not. It is a stream of consciousness above. Hence, no punctuation and a flipping from subject to subject with the robin being the neural connector. That is how consciousness works.

But what is consciousness? Isn’t it an incredible gift? Think about this, we can look at the robin and be aware of looking at the robin.  We can think of incidents from our past and imagine ourselves in certain places in the future. we can love, hate, empathise, form complex mathematical equations in our head. Surely this ability to draw on abstract thoughts is nothing short of being miraculous.

If I ask you the capital of China, immediately you say Beijing. But, if I ask you about the last time, you had a meal with friends, a film will roll in your head. Where does this subjective quality come from? So far no one can account for it.

True, consciousness depends on neural connections. But that is as far as we go regarding present knowledge. Naturalists are at a loss as they attempt to fit this ability into an evolutionary context. Sure, they may say they will account for it in time, but, be careful when a naked man offers you a shirt.

 

The most obvious explanation is recorded at Psalm 139: 13,14,

For you formed my innermost being

You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Praise You, for I am wonderfully made, and I know this very well. (BSB).

 

 


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