Copernicus
Industrial Strength Linguist
In my life, I have witnessed the changes in cognition--consciousness, awareness, moods, emotions, memory, reasoning ability, etc.--that can occur with brain damage. I saw its effects in my father after he came out of a coma after an automobile accident, and I saw it in my mother as she gradually succumbed to minor strokes and aging factors that damaged her brain. These experiences and others have led me to recognize the intimate relationship between the condition of a physical brain and mental cognition. Indeed, there is no mental function that seems unaffected by the physical condition of a brain.
Now the brain-body connection has religious implications. Virtually every religion on Earth assumes that the mind or spirit can exist independently of the physical body. Belief in immaterial ghosts, spirits, and demons, seems to flourish in just about every culture. In traditional Christian culture, the soul is somehow supposed to survive death and come to reside in heaven, hell, purgatory or some spiritual realm where non-physical beings can exist. God himself is thought not to have a physical brain (except perhaps among Mormons). So the idea of a mind that can reason, remember things, feel emotions, etc., is theoretically possible even without a brain. The ability of the mind to survive death seems fundamental to Christian doctrine, as it is to so many non-Christian doctrines.
Here is my claim: if it is true that a human mind requires a physical brain in order to exist, then Christianity is probably a false religion. Minds must be able to survive death in order for Christian doctrine to make sense. Do you agree? If not, then what is meant by "everlasting life"?
Now, a consequence of this theory is that all evidence that suggests a mind cannot exist independently of a physical brain is evidence against Christianity (and other religions that have a brainless mind requirement). Lack of evidence that minds can exist independently of physical brains is further lack of evidence that the Christian faith is a reasonable belief system.
To my knowledge, the only evidence that we have for minds existing indpendently of human brains is a report of either an out-of-body (OOB) experience or near-death-experience (NDE), but neither of these types of experience has been shown to be compelling evidence because they appear to be related to the cutoff of oxygen to a living brain that subsequently recovers.
Now the brain-body connection has religious implications. Virtually every religion on Earth assumes that the mind or spirit can exist independently of the physical body. Belief in immaterial ghosts, spirits, and demons, seems to flourish in just about every culture. In traditional Christian culture, the soul is somehow supposed to survive death and come to reside in heaven, hell, purgatory or some spiritual realm where non-physical beings can exist. God himself is thought not to have a physical brain (except perhaps among Mormons). So the idea of a mind that can reason, remember things, feel emotions, etc., is theoretically possible even without a brain. The ability of the mind to survive death seems fundamental to Christian doctrine, as it is to so many non-Christian doctrines.
Here is my claim: if it is true that a human mind requires a physical brain in order to exist, then Christianity is probably a false religion. Minds must be able to survive death in order for Christian doctrine to make sense. Do you agree? If not, then what is meant by "everlasting life"?
Now, a consequence of this theory is that all evidence that suggests a mind cannot exist independently of a physical brain is evidence against Christianity (and other religions that have a brainless mind requirement). Lack of evidence that minds can exist independently of physical brains is further lack of evidence that the Christian faith is a reasonable belief system.
To my knowledge, the only evidence that we have for minds existing indpendently of human brains is a report of either an out-of-body (OOB) experience or near-death-experience (NDE), but neither of these types of experience has been shown to be compelling evidence because they appear to be related to the cutoff of oxygen to a living brain that subsequently recovers.
