
Life After Death: A Case for Extinction - CMartucci
http://whatblag.com/2011/10/18/life-after-death/
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comsolo
A very disappointing article.

While there is little to no scientific (physical) evidence of another
'dimension' or of the existence of a soul or consciousness, there is also no
evidence against it.

The claim that chemical reactions in the brain have been proved to be
responsible for everything we experience is simply not true.

We are still not really sure of what causes dreams, what causes near death
experiences.

We also have no scientific explanation for a surprising correlation between
all of the worlds religions (even those of civilizations milennia removed from
one another), or of a surprising consistency in the experiences of those who
have been clinically 'dead.'

While I am not religious, this is a classic example of arrogance in the name
of science.

We do not have any recorded data on what happens after death.

And if we were to rely purely on claimed observations (of which there are
literally millions), then there is definitely a plethora of evidence for the
existence of some plane above our own.

Indeed we cannot even develop a method to get rid of the common cold, or of
cancer. Which compared to understanding precisely what causes self awareness,
consciousness, that 'knowledge' that there is something 'seeing' out of our
eyes, using our brains, something maybe more than we know of already...
compared to understanding all that, beating cancer or the common cold should
be a walk in the park.

The fact is, we can't solve either, and our knowledge of the human body is
still incredibly infantile. Let's try to take some baby steps before we can
claim to know what happens in the mind, or the 'soul.'

------
disgruntledphd2
From the article:And yet, we know today that it’s just not true. Biology is
that things that makes you you. Genetics. Neurochemistry. There is no “mind”
and “brain” — there’s just the brain.

This is speculation, albeit compatible with that of many scientists. We have
no proof that mind/brain are the same thing, we have correlations between
brain activity and subjective self reports, but these do not necessarily imply
causation.

It annoys me when people assign extremely high probabilities to matters about
which we, as a species, have very little understanding (even if I may agree
with the particular viewpoint expressed).

~~~
CMartucci
Would you agree at least that, even if there is a mind, that it requires a
brain in order to manifest itself, such that "mind-minus-brain" makes no sense
at all?

~~~
comsolo
No because nobody has any idea what the 'soul' or 'mind' is. For all we know
it may be possible to completely remove our soul from our body and exist in a
different way and enter into another. Nobody knows

