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{POSTED AT HTTP://SSAATSCSU.WORDPRESS.COM/ FOR SSAWEEK PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO HELP}

So, this week (June 6-16) is SSA Week. Now, you may be asking, isn't that 10 days? Why yes, it is. We need a 10 day week to fit in all of the awesomeness.

The main goal of this awesomeness is to raise money and awareness to our cause. That being said, our little readership at the SSA@SCSU blog is not necessarily filled with billionaires. That Is why I am asking you to donate anything you can. Even if it is only a few dollars, or just a hashtag on twitter. Please help us make this a great SSAWeek.

Our blog will be posting 24 blogs today, 1 per hour, and I thought the best thing we could do to start off is for me to do a little introduction.

For starters we have:

Me, Ben SweaterVest Blanchard. I blog at TheSweaterVest.com and am a president of Secular Student Alliance at Saint Cloud State. I have an affinity for all things sciencey, and sweater-vests. Along with that, I am an avid secular activist, and I really hate dogma more than just about anything else. I am also trying to make the word science officially a verb, but that is another story. 

Next we have:

Patrick Mefford. Patrick is a religious studies major, and our groups legendary interfaith panel moderator. He blogs at servileconformist.typepad.com/ and enjoys finding unique solutions to difficult problems. Finally, he is never afraid to call out anyone when they are wrong, even if they are on his side.

Next is:

Kate Appleby. Kate is my protégé and this year's communications/PR chair for SSA@SCSU. She is studying Mass Communications with emphases in Advertising and Public Relations. Along with that, she has been keeping up a daily blog for almost 900 consecutive days at 2011-and-beyond.blogspot.com/.

Next up is:

Lindsay Giacomino. Lindsay is a recent grad and current trilinguist. She holds the record for the most times I have stumbled over her last name, and is one of the most well traveled in our group. She describes her quest in life as "always on the search for knowledge, happiness, truth and meaning in my life."

And last, but not least, is:

Grant Norman. Grant is our resident Atheist in a foxhole. He also serves as our resident Cthulhu priest, and reminds us to repent so that we may be eaten first. He has been in our group for a few years now, and is one of the most active members we have. Finally, he is a big fan of The Doctor, but WHO isn't? 

See what I did there. I pulled a funny!

So, over the next day, please consider donating money, or at least sharing our blog and hashtag  #SSAWeek. For more info please visit http://www.secularstudents.org/ssaweek or to donate Visit here. Thanks for your support, and see you soon!

This is post 1/24 by SSA@SCSU for the SSA blogathon in support of the Secular Student Alliance! Go donate to them!

Conversation With A Cutie On Consciousness

     So, I recently got in a bit of a..... lets say conversation, with a particularly cute biology/ philosophy student, upon the subject of consciousness.... the following is the transcript:

• Me:

  well... what are your thoughts on consciousness..... purely chemical, or something else?
  
  ---------------
  TheSweaterVest saw this in Recent Activity...
  Q: Consciousness is... A: A good topic for debate; my answer is too long. Explanation: “Let's talk about it!”
• 
  

  Cutie:

  Haha - alright, here it goes (sorry if it gets super long and abstract. Philosophers. Jeez.)! 
  To be honest, I'm not totally sure. There's definitely some component of chemistry there, but chemistry can't be all there is to consciousness, can it? How we interpret what we sense adds another layer to the problem. 
  
  If everyone were guaranteed to interpret the world in the same way, then yes, consciousness would come down to a series of cause/effect relationships based on neurochemistry. But we don't all interpret the world the same way, making my consciousness different than yours. I suppose even the way we react to the same stimulus might depend on brain chemistry or the activation of a different neural pathway in response to registration of the stimulus in the brain. For example, we both see the same apple and it triggers the visual pathway in the same way. But once the signal hits the visual cortex, for me it activates different memory pathways than you, since we have different experiences with apples. So it could still ultimately be explained by chemistry. 
  
  Despite that, the specific memory pathway that ends up being activated in response to the apple still comes from outside us. That is, the formation of the path depends on our experiences. And while in some sense we might be said to own or be able to control our brain chemistry, many of our experience are beyond our control. So in that sense, consciousness is a summation of experiences. 
  
  But it's more likely a combination of the two. I think that who we are transcends chemistry, since chemical reactions are not the same thing as perception and understanding. That is, if you took the required cells out of my brain and stimulated them in the same way as if you showed me an apple, the brain cells in the petri dish wouldn't understand that what is in front of it is an apple. That depends on my experiences with apples and an integration of what I see with my memory. At the same time, the chemical signals and anatomical architecture of my brain are required for any of that transcendent stuff to happen. So I think it's really a combination of biology and experience, spirituality, instinct, etc. 
  
  What do you think?
• Me
  As a biologist, as well as a skeptic and a naturalist, I have yet to see anything beyond the biochemical (and anatomic, which is simply biochemical on mass) to explain consciousness. That being said, I am certainly open to the idea (true skepticism must include self skepticism).
  
  I do agree that everyone's consciousness is different, and that it is constantly changing, but I will posit that instead that the difference in consciousness is a result of new experiences, but also that experiences are experienced by a consciousness. As a result of this, you have a very dynamic, changing ordeal.
  
  Which I find to be one of the most beautiful things imaginable...
  
  That being said, I have yet to see anything that really transcends the chemical world. For instance, in work done with with the Koren helmet, people have described amazing, religious, or even nightmarish things, yet it was all due to electro-magnetic manipulation... beyond that, the fact that our consciousness can be affected chemically, without our knowledge by things like caffeine and ketamine, leads me to believe that that we are simply a dynamic, constantly changing, complexly firing, mush of brain cells....
  
  That being said, you built a very nice argument.... Sorry it took so long to get back to you... (life is kicking my ass right now)
  
  How are you doing today?

  
  

   

So, 

What do you think.... 

Who is right?

Are we both wrong?

Can anyone ever know?

Will I now make a cheap pun?

Comment below

Chemistry Cat will make my puns for me today...

100!!!

So, We here at TheSweaterVest want to make an amazing announcement...

We just reached 100 views for the day.... 

This is the first time we have gotten this many in a single day.

--Lets celebrate with some cake--

Not only is this an amazing achievement, but it is not yet 2pm,  so we are probably going to go higher. I just want to say thank you to all the readers, and I want to give you this present.

--I want to make a joke about a bone, but it would be soo easy--

Yea, I know.... It can't be un-seen

Happy Animals!!!

So, while I pride myself on being an angry atheist, and a skeptical scientist, on the inside..... I am still a big softie.... That is why, I am now presenting you with one of the best links I have ever seen, the happiest animals ever list..... http://www.buzzfeed.com/paws/happiest-animals-in-the-world

Here is just a taste:

 

A super happy bouncing elephant 

A LOLing Seal

and most importantly, 

The "come on in for a hug, bro" anteater 

Whenever someone says the natural world isn't enough to make someone happy, and thinks that we atheists are just kidding ourselves, I will show them these animals, because they are proof that atheists (animals) are super happy just the way the world is....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/paws/happiest-animals-in-the-world

Test.... Again

I am testing out a new system..... Sorry for any inconvenience.... For your trouble, please enjoy this picture of a fear of mine....

--It could happen some day, and then we are all doomed....--

Strength

Now, a personality is a very complex thing, and as a result, it has many sides. That's why, in different situations, you act differently. The mind is smart enough to know how to react in different situations. This is especially true in set personal groups you may have. For instance, in my premed group, I play a different role than I do at work, and a very different role than I played in high school. 

--This was not my role in highschool... i was more talented--

That being said, no matter what situation I am in, there is always a part of me that I always hide. There is a part of me that I don't like to think exists, yet I know it affects me, it’s something that I run from, and try to combat, but it is still a part of me. I always have a part of me that is hidden from everyone. It’s something darker, those emotions that I think no one should have, that I hide from, and it can be very tiring. My hidden part is a part of me, forged in my past, which is as much a part of me as what I show, but that I never can. 

That being said, it has made me strong. When you have gone through horrible things, it affects you. You really only have the options to get stronger, or get gone, and I have gotten stronger. When you can't talk about it, and things inside of you compound, they get worse, and weigh down on you. And you crack.

--Plumbers crack is never OK though... just saying--

You think that no one will ever understand what you are going through, and you know you are right. You know that things will probably never be the same as they once were, and you are right. You know that you will never, and can never be the same person, and you are right. Yet once again, if you can make it though, it makes you strong. 

That is why strength is such a backwards thing. Even though I know I am strong, and I am a better person for it, I know what it takes to be strong. That's why I hope the people around me never have to be strong; because strength is just proof of the burden you have to carry. 

And I would like to say that it gets better, that overtime, your weights are lifted, that you find relief, but I know that that's not true. Anyone who has so much strength knows that this is true. Instead, your carried weight begins to feel normal, and I believe that really that is better. If nothing else, it is more elegant. Going through difficult situations, just prepares you for worse things, it allows you to go through things others can't. Eventually, bad things don’t bother you anymore, and that may actually almost be worth the pain. 

--Remember, there is no Rainbow without Rain--

Because you can still be happy. If you acknowledge the past, and keep it in mind, it is like a shield against the bad, and you realize how wonderful life can be. When you keep the pain in mind, the bad doesn’t seem that bad, yet the good seems so much better. You essentially have a different baseline for emotion. And it is hard, because you must always have that strength, and carry your past with you, but that doesn’t have to hold you back. You can take it, and use it to make you a better person. And this takes a lot of time, and tears, and pain, but you can get there. And when you are there, it is amazing. Life is amazing!

--Wasent really sure why this had to do with life, but it was the first hit when i google imaged it--

Its been a while.....

So, it's been a while since my last post, but I promise, I will have a new post up within the next 24 hours.

Thanks for reading, feel free to enjoy this masturbation joke.