Friday, October 18, 2013

Brain Death and Other Happy News

The belief of a soul or spirit that can exist independent of a brain is a romantic idea that I don’t often go out of my way to debate. After all, believing that the essence of one’s identity continues after death is an understandable comfort to those dealing with mortality. That said, I’ve been asked recently why exactly I don’t believe in disembodied consciousness and figure that here is the perfect place to record my thoughts.

Strictly speaking, this isn’t an atheist issue. The existence of a God doesn’t imply an afterlife nor does the absence of a deity imply that there can’t be a hereafter. The fact that the two beliefs are so often tied speaks to how religions have positioned themselves to appeal to desires in order to gain a following. By this I mean that a master who must be worshiped and a church that must be paid doesn’t fulfill many emotional wants, however, a master who can eternally reward worship and a church that serves as the proxy for heaven--that’s desirable to many. Still, the afterlife, like God, is an issue for skeptics. Neither can be proven or specifically understood and they both rely on supernatural assumptions. It’s impossible to say for certain that we don’t wake up somewhere else post-mortem, but below are my reasons for doubting.

There are many ways to show that my consciousness (or my mind/spirit/soul/self--depending on definitions) is directly tied to my physical brain. Drink too many beers and I become less inhibited, more friendly, and slower to process new information. Drink enough, and my consciousness goes on hiatus entirely--and booze is just the tip of the iceberg. When considering the full range of effects pharmacology has our brain, how can anyone deny that chemicals are a catalyst for how we think and behave? We observe higher levels of serotonin or dopamine when happy. Age wears down the brain as much as any other bodily organ--resulting in sluggish thinking, memory loss, and confusion--which in some cases are diagnosable as Alzheimer's or Dementia. There is a laundry list of contributing evidence that shows as goes the brain, so goes the mind. The reasonable conclusion is that when the brain goes completely, (dies) so does the self. I get it, it's a bummer, but desire does not dictate reality.

7 comments:

  1. The more we learn about neuroscience, the more it seems clear that the mind is just what the brain does.

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    1. I agree completely. I really enjoyed the god helmet experiments where they can induce experiences, and this is exactly what is happening everyday with serotonin etc. I think the god helmet is the answer to many things, but now they need to work out the processes that are involved that induce these feelings.

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  2. Does one reality have to exist? I mean to ask this because quite a few famous mathematicians believe in the possibility of multiple dimensions past the four our "universe" exists in. Is it wrong to hope for and act as if there is more than this reality? Is it a sign of weakness to act as though it might be possible? I would say that no it is not. In all actuality the best minds of science and math believed in the possibility of a ultimate being or creator existing. Issac Newton for instance was a devoted Christian. If they could carry out good science and figure out amazing new things about the universe then why can't anyone else do so too? They could be wrong, but they still acted as if it were true and still did science. Just because we cannot physically observe something does not give us the power to say it doesn't exist or that it is not possible.

    What if the two dimensions affect each other? Like when we drink beer and take medicine then it actually changes and affects our other self that exists in the other reality where we actually do go on and live forever? Maybe the brain is the communicator to the "soul"? I just want to bring this up to further discussion and help us grow in our search for the truth. For, the greatest thing a man can do is search for the truth.

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    1. The concept of multiple dimensional while not testable is something that could exist, however that still does not address the issue of a soul. Even if multiple dimensions existed we could still test for a soul in our dimension, and so far that has shown that no soul exists.

      Regarding people affecting themselves in multi dimensions, this is not possible as the idea of multi dimensions comes from quantum theory which says that another dimension is a another outcome of a decision and is independent, not like entanglement. But that is my understanding of multiple dimensions.

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    2. Multiple dimensions have multiple theories. One such theory is the one you mentioned which has to do with decisions and each decision results in a new dimensions. My statement actually has to do with another such theory which I will refer to as the membranes theory. This one states that our universe which is the observable universe we see is just one membrane of all the different verses in the actually multiverse. Thus, lets say that there are nine dimensions total. That means that in each dimension has the possibility of having multiple verses that have that dimension such as time. This means that object from multiple verses can exist in both verses as long as they have a common dimension. This is where the soul comes in. It exist in both realities because it shares a common dimension with both.

      But, then we still have the problem with not being able to test for a soul in our universe. This can be explained easily for if you have studied physics and have heard of I believe it is called the neutrino particle then you would understand. The neutrino is observable. We cannot by the laws and regulations of good science prove it to exist. That doesn't mean however that it doesn't. In all actuality for a lot of quantum physics to correctly work we need to assume that it does exist. This I relate to the soul and even God. For the universe to make sense and work correctly we need to assume that there is a soul and an ultimate creator.

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  3. Membrane theory, I have heard of it. The problem is even then the concept of this joining force (soul?) is not what we know as a soul which transcends life. It just exists multidimensionally, but there is no proof that it exists after death of these various people. Even if one person lives eternally, then yes this so called soul live eternally, but now its only in one dimension and is in effect one entity with the person.

    Regarding the neutrino, it is observable through its decomposition products which are governable by the laws of physics. So it is observable and as such it exists as it obeys the laws of physics. But to jump from something observable (neutrino) to something that has not been observed (a creator) is a large leap which defies logic. Quantum physics is showing all the time that things exist and work, and they have long ago moved away from the realm of assumption, like the Higgs Boson.

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  4. The desire for personal continuance produces all kinds of strange beliefs. The self, as an entity does not exist; self is a process, not an entity. There is nothing there to continue! So "die to self" and realize ALL IS ONE!

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