Ophiolite
Recalcitrant Procrastinating Ape
I have no idea and frankly only a minimal amount of interest in that question. It is certainly not relevant to my point, which was the contrast between faith based and evidence based world views.
As you can no doubt see my answer is not one that requires proof. Moreover, since you are responding to my post, perhaps you can go back and read it and this time note my rejection of the importance of proof in my world view. Science does not prove things. It does disprove some things, but mainly it gathers evidence and fashions explanation that represent our best current understanding of the different aspects of the universe. If new evidence emerges, or different perspectives are developed that understanding may change.
There is a way of dividing people into two groups: those who are comfortable with uncertainty and those who are not. Obviously that is a simplistic division, but it does give some insight into the disparity of thought between scientists and fundamentalists. Scientists are perfectly fine with the knowledge that today's best explantion could be overturned in a moment. That readiness to reject the old, based upon evidence, is one of the strengths of science. In my experience, fundamentalists generally see it as a weakness.
I was very interested in dreaming half a century ago. I know it remains an area of active research and there are a number of hypotheses to account for it. I am not current with any of them, but they all are based upon rigorous, peer reviewed research where evidence is key.
As noted above I cannot prove I have had a dream. And I see no need whatsoever to do so. Why do you think it's important?
I do seem to have regular dreams. They seem to sufficiently differ from my waking experiences that they represent a different milieu. The massive amount of experience and investigation of dreaming strongly points to dreams being internal activities of the brain. So, for practical reasons, I accept that as the best current explantion. If you have a better one I should be delighted to hear it. Remember it needs to be supported by a massive quantity of evidence if it is to replace my practical, current evidence based explanation.
As I note above I am not up to date with dream theory. The tone of your post leads me to question the sincerity of the question. Are you genuinely interested in science's current views on the nature and mechanisms of dreaming, or do you imagine that such a question will somehow befuddle me? If it is the former I shall take the time to find some review papers on the subject and pass these to you. Let me know.
Please! Are you serious? If I came from my great, great grandfather, why do I have distant cousins? You concede, I hope that I have distant cousins, as - very likely - do you. I am not identical to my distant cousins, yet they exist and we share a common ancestor. So it is with the other apes and humans. They too are distant cousins, just a lot more distant.
Advanced intelligence doesn't seem to be necessary for success at living. (Just look at how well Covid has done and in some biologists minds it isn't even alive.) Certainly, for the last several thousand years we would have made pretty certain that nothing too smart got to remain around as a potential threat to us.
Please. There are many excellent books on Egyptian history and on the construction of the pyramids. If you want me to educate you on such matters I charge $150/hour. You will find it cheaper to buy one of the books. But just so you know, the construction methods of the pyramids are quite well understood and the techniques employed have been duplicated and tested.
How do they fit into my reality? They represent an interesting phase of my life. I've been inside Cheops more times than I've been to a football match. And the evidence tells us who built them, when they built them and why they built them. And that is a great deal more fascinating and magnificent than a cart load of risible bunkum peddled by paltroons and shysters. I advise you to avoid that sort of nonsense, look the actual evidence in the face and be amazed.
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