Sam Harris

The brain registers the decision and a second or so later we think we made a decision. This research is interpreted as: Free will is a biological event, not a function of our human cognitive capacity to decide our fate or direct our own will. At the base of the human brain the brain stem, which is the part of us humans that still thinks like a reptile. As we evolved, we left our reptilian parts in charge of the autonomic nervous system. We also left it the once imperative task of fight or flight response.

Biologists and Neuroscientist who work in the field, are still not comfortable with the fact that we have a lizard inside our brains—and it actually might be running some pretty important parts of our human existence.

There is another part of our brain that is more mammal than human. It is called the Limbic System. This part of us doesn’t respond much to words and abstract ideas. Science is irrelevant to the Limbic System. The communication between our inner lizard and our inner chimp is a chemical one, not a thought based one. This part of our brain has at its central most protected region, the amygdala. This is our little dictator. It registers everything happening in the body and it is this command central, and not our conscious forebrain, that makes all the important decisions.

A brain scan that shows activity before we become aware of making a decision is showing us that there is a little homunculus at the center of our brain that is capable of overriding any decision our conscious mind makes.

The illusion is that the mind is one unity. A thorough study of the brain will point to the fact that a purely biologically based reality devoid of freewill is only true at the level of the brain stem. Above that, invisible things enter the picture such as “relationship” and “conscience” and later “language” and “God”.

Each layer of our evolutionary development is real. Nature builds on the old, she doesn’t typically start from scratch. A biological -based reality is real. Our emotion/relationship based reality is also real. Our sense of free will is also real.

Free will is achieved when the lower two brains are switched off. The endless debates over fate versus free will represents the lack of making careful distinctions.

apologetica - 02 June 2011 06:32 AM

The brain registers the decision and a second or so later we think we made a decision. This research is interpreted as: Free will is a biological event, not a function of our human cognitive capacity to decide our fate or direct our own will. At the base of the human brain the brain stem, which is the part of us humans that still thinks like a reptile. As we evolved, we left our reptilian parts in charge of the autonomic nervous system. We also left it the once imperative task of fight or flight response.

Biologists and Neuroscientist who work in the field, are still not comfortable with the fact that we have a lizard inside our brains—and it actually might be running some pretty important parts of our human existence.

There is another part of our brain that is more mammal than human. It is called the Limbic System. This part of us doesn’t respond much to words and abstract ideas. Science is irrelevant to the Limbic System. The communication between our inner lizard and our inner chimp is a chemical one, not a thought based one. This part of our brain has at its central most protected region, the amygdala. This is our little dictator. It registers everything happening in the body and it is this command central, and not our conscious forebrain, that makes all the important decisions.

A brain scan that shows activity before we become aware of making a decision is showing us that there is a little homunculus at the center of our brain that is capable of overriding any decision our conscious mind makes.

The illusion is that the mind is one unity. A thorough study of the brain will point to the fact that a purely biologically based reality devoid of freewill is only true at the level of the brain stem. Above that, invisible things enter the picture such as “relationship” and “conscience” and later “language” and “God”.

Each layer of our evolutionary development is real. Nature builds on the old, she doesn’t typically start from scratch. A biological -based reality is real. Our emotion/relationship based reality is also real. Our sense of free will is also real.

Free will is achieved when the lower two brains are switched off. The endless debates over fate versus free will represents the lack of making careful distinctions.

“The brain registers the decision and a second or so later we think we made a decision. This research is interpreted as: Free will is a biological event, not a function of our human cognitive capacity to decide our fate or direct our own will.”

There is no will.
There is no fate.
There is no person at the center of the swirling mnemonic debris.

Chemical communication within the body is done with things like adrenaline, oxytocin, dopamine etc. Chemical communication between animals is done via pheromones and sniffing the private parts and feces of one another. These things are based in genetics.

Human communication is another order of evolution. I agree with Dawkins that there must be an intellectual equivalent to genes which he labels “memes”.

But what no one says is that the majority of human civilization was created by one thing that they all deny: the human ego. It takes an ego to do what humans do. Regardless of whether there is a real person at the center of the swirling mnemonic debris, empirical studies agree: everyone has a strong sense of their own ego. Research shows that when asked if they have an ego, nearly 100% of people answered a resounding yes! When asked if they have a soul, only about 30% said they were sure they had a soul. Most most people said they were unsure.

When devotion to science makes you start thinking stupid, its time to back away and get some perspective. Regardless of whether we can put our finger on the scientific explanation for our sense of self, it certainly exists.

apologetica - 03 June 2011 05:01 AM

Chemical communication within the body is done with things like adrenaline, oxytocin, dopamine etc. Chemical communication between animals is done via pheromones and sniffing the private parts and feces of one another. These things are based in genetics.

Human communication is another order of evolution. I agree with Dawkins that there must be an intellectual equivalent to genes which he labels “memes”.

But what no one says is that the majority of human civilization was created by one thing that they all deny: the human ego. It takes an ego to do what humans do. Regardless of whether there is a real person at the center of the swirling mnemonic debris, empirical studies agree: everyone has a strong sense of their own ego. Research shows that when asked if they have an ego, nearly 100% of people answered a resounding yes! When asked if they have a soul, only about 30% said they were sure they had a soul. Most most people said they were unsure.

When devotion to science makes you start thinking stupid, its time to back away and get some perspective. Regardless of whether we can put our finger on the scientific explanation for our sense of self, it certainly exists.

Of course the sense of self feels real.
That’s its job.
It even imagines that it has a soul so that it can feel real after its physical hosts dies.
Where was your self a hundred years ago?
Where does it go when the physical organism dies?
When does it enter a human baby?
What happens to it when its host develops dementia or receives a sever blow the head?
At what stage in the evolution of primates does the self and soul emerge?
Bring out one of these self or soul things and lets take a look at them.

The “self” is the ego. It doesn’t live on after the physical body dies. It is part of the physical body. The ego functions as a master coordinator. It is able to postpone or negate certain biological drives such as hunger, sexual desire and the need to urinate. The ego is the toolmaker, the abstract thinker, the lawmaker and the scientist. Human culture could not exist without the brilliant invention of Ego. Although other animals have something like ego, the human ego blossomed with the left brain specialization for language and abstract thinking. The left cortical hemisphere is what Dr. Mike Gazzaniga called THE NARRATOR. This is an amazing piece of evolution and the most important reason what human culture has soared past all other forms of life forms to dominante this planet.

The ego is witnessed through its memes. That is the way that ego achieves immortality—as opposed to the way the body achieves immortality through the generation of offspring.

Genetic replication is physical. Memetic replication is mental. And while we are probably talking about a continuum in physics, there is a jumping off point where you cannot point to mind, ideas, feelings beyond a level of corresponding brain waves or brain chemistry. Language enabled memetic replication and computer digital communication has a self-replicating quality which parallels genetic replication.

The soul is another level greater than mind. Soul realizes its connectedness to all things. Soul is cognizant of a transcendental layer of reality that is distinct from body and distinct from mind. This part of our nature is most often recognized as an insatiable longing for union. Most addiction is a perverted search for spiritual union. Hence the only successful therapy to curb addiction in the 12 step program. Some call that God, some call it the Tao or The Force. The soul is antithetical to religion. Religion wants you to conform, to follow a set of social codes that makes you part of a group. Spirituality is something that leads you away from away from the group, away from religion, to follow and trust in that longing to find a new, ultimate dimension of reality unfathomable to the lower parts of the brain.

Darwin’s brilliance mainly concern the physical aspect of evolution, but is inadequate to describe the mental or spiritual dimensions of human life.

apologetica - 04 June 2011 02:30 PM

The “self” is the ego. It doesn’t live on after the physical body dies. It is part of the physical body. The ego functions as a master coordinator. It is able to postpone or negate certain biological drives such as hunger, sexual desire and the need to urinate. The ego is the toolmaker, the abstract thinker, the lawmaker and the scientist. Human culture could not exist without the brilliant invention of Ego. Although other animals have something like ego, the human ego blossomed with the left brain specialization for language and abstract thinking. The left cortical hemisphere is what Dr. Mike Gazzaniga called THE NARRATOR. This is an amazing piece of evolution and the most important reason what human culture has soared past all other forms of life forms to dominante this planet.

The ego is witnessed through its memes. That is the way that ego achieves immortality—as opposed to the way the body achieves immortality through the generation of offspring.

Genetic replication is physical. Memetic replication is mental. And while we are probably talking about a continuum in physics, there is a jumping off point where you cannot point to mind, ideas, feelings beyond a level of corresponding brain waves or brain chemistry. Language enabled memetic replication and computer digital communication has a self-replicating quality which parallels genetic replication.

The soul is another level greater than mind. Soul realizes its connectedness to all things. Soul is cognizant of a transcendental layer of reality that is distinct from body and distinct from mind. This part of our nature is most often recognized as an insatiable longing for union. Most addiction is a perverted search for spiritual union. Hence the only successful therapy to curb addiction in the 12 step program. Some call that God, some call it the Tao or The Force. The soul is antithetical to religion. Religion wants you to conform, to follow a set of social codes that makes you part of a group.Spirituality is something that leads you away from away from the group, away from religion, to follow and trust in that longing to fin d a new, ultimate dimension of reality unfathomable to the lower parts of the brain.

Darwin’s brilliance mainly concern the physical aspect of evolution, but is inadequate to describe the mental or spiritual dimensions of human life.

“The soul is another level greater than mind. “

The soul is an invention of the mind.
It is a devise employed to relieve the ever accumulating stress associated with the fear of death.
It has no actual existential reality.

“Soul realizes its connectedness to all things.”

There is no connectedness between conceptually separated objects.
“Objects” exist only in the objectifying mind of man.
There can be no unity of things that exist only as ideas.

“This part of our nature is most often recognized as an insatiable longing for union. Most addiction is a perverted search for spiritual union.”

The ego IS longing.
It evolved to search for “happiness” but never can find it.
There is no such thing as “spiritual union”.
All spirituality is make believe.

“Hence the only successful therapy to curb addiction in the 12 step program. “

The ego IS addiction.

“The soul is antithetical to religion.”

The belief in a soul is merely another religion.

“Spirituality is something that leads you away from away from the group, away from religion, to follow and trust in that longing to fin d a new, ultimate dimension of reality unfathomable to the lower parts of the brain.”

It is brain that invents such schemata.
Conceptual thought can never grasp the “ultimate reality” simply because is itself the obfuscation of that which is real.

“Darwin’s brilliance mainly concern the physical aspect of evolution, but is inadequate to describe the mental or spiritual dimensions of human life.”

‘Spiritual dimensions” exist only in mental dimensions.

Other than a vague longing for eternal longevity, there is absolutely nothing to indicate a spiritual side of life.