WHO IS YOU?

by Terry 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Terry

  The mind is what the brain does; not who you are.

  The soul is an idea that would seem to have testable consequences. Specifically, if the human mind is the product of a "ghost in the machine" and not simply the result of electrochemical interactions, then the mind should not be dependent on the physical actions of the brain that houses it. In short, there should be aspects of the mind that owe nothing to the physical functioning of the brain.

  Modern scientific innovations have thrown light on the subject. Medical techniques such as CAT scans (short for computed axial tomography), PET (positron emission topography), and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) allow the structure and function of the living brain to be studied. Scientists can see which areas of the brain "light up" with activity when a healthy person performs a mental task, or they can examine patients who have suffered injury or disease to see which parts of the brain, when damaged, correspond to which types of deficits of neural function.

  And already, a disappointing result for theists has emerged. Some mental functions are localized, while others are more diffuse, but there is no aspect of the mind that does not correspond to any area of the brain. In fact, we know precisely which brain regions control many fundamental aspects of human consciousness.

  Who then, is YOU?

  Whoever or whatever I AM must be responsible for three things: identity, personality, and behavior. Simply stated, identity is consciousness, self-awareness, recognizing myself as a distinct and autonomous being that is continuous through time.

  These three things (identity, personality and behavior) are not separate from the brain, are not even linked to the brain, but are unified with the brain. The evidence shows that they are completely determined by the physical configuration of the brain, and that a change to this configuration can alter, reduce or eliminate any of them.

  Do you have a problem with this?

  Do you think that you are MORE than what your brain does?

  Why? What evidence do you present to yourself?

  Who is you?

  (The above is a condensed version of an interesting webpage EBON MUSINGS which I thought might lead to interesting discussion.)
• 

  minimus

  WHO CARES?
• 

  AlmostAtheist

  My 6-year-old asks me every once in awhile, "Dad, what makes me, me?" I try to explain that he's the product of everything he experiences and decides, but how can I explain to a 6-year-old what I hardly get myself?

  Because of the type of information you've presented, I don't feel there is another aspect to a human that isn't traceable to something physical. I have been toying with the notion recently that the mind may leave some sort of "imprint" on the universe, and it is that imprint that people see as ghosts. Of course, I've only been kicking it around, and don't intend to pursue it.

  Dave
• 

  unbeliever

  You're not use to these thinking threads are you Minimus?
• 

  lawrence

  Yes Terry, continuous throughout time. Very essential point. But once we've been through the "musings", if you ask; I would respond- I AM.
• 

  dh

  I think right here right now in this moment in space & time, I am me. The combination of what I've experienced in this lifetime and my physical body. I think it's possible that there may also be a part of me that lives on and was in another body and had another set of experiences before the ones in my lifetime, and maybe that is or was 'me'.

  I don't think it's insane to think that an immortal 'me' travels through eternity, one lifetime at a time, one life at a time, being a different person each time around, but each time forgetting what went before... of course I don't know if that is true or if it's just imagination. Maybe one day I will be another person saying the same thing.

  I guess my view is that a person may be able to be a different person if they have their memory erased and a new life programs them from birth.

  Anyway.
• 

  Little Red Hen

  Terry, this kind of reminds me of a book I read awhile back. Pascal's Brain or something. The case of Phinneas Gage who had a steel rod go through his skull. He lived, and was functional, but his personality changed radically. (of course, an event like that would leave more than a physical impression). Could you, or someone as versed and eloquent expand upon that?
• 

  Leolaia

  I like to think of consciousness as the brain's operating system. Like Windows or Mac OS, or Linux, it is a user-friendly simulation of what is really going on in both in the brain and the world outside that the whole organic system uses to process information and interact with the world.

  Like any operating system, it is a huge simplification of all the processing really going on inside the brain and the user (e.g. the organic system) has awareness of mental concepts and representations (analoguous to documents and files) but not the neural connections and processing involved in constructing those representations.

  Because the user "sees" the outside world (including user's body) through an internal simulation produced by the brain, and is aware that the rest of the body is not involved in mental processing, there is an illusion that the body contains an internal essence that is seperate from it. It would be as if your computer's CPU was self-aware and knew that there was a printer, monitor, and scanner attached as part of its overall system, and knew that the processing mostly took place within the CPU, but believed that there was some essence within the CPU and spread throughout the rest of the computer that controlled it. This essence is identified by the computer as the operating system simulation, even tho this simulation is itself part of the CPU's programming and ceases to exist or operate when the computer is shut down or dismantled.

  I know analogies can be pushed too far, but what do you think?
• 

  outoftheorg

  I doubt that our brain at this stage, has the ability to thoroughly analyze itself and our mind and its functions.

  If it reached the stage to do so, it would have evolved far ahead of our new brain and again not able to analyze itself.

  So we settle on "beliefs". Which usually are how we wish things would be or things we would like to be.

  Outoftheorg
• 

  frankiespeakin

  Leo,

  I like your analogy of "you" the minds operation. I tend to think of it like a computor and software too. Also like a computor hooked up to the internet where it is able to get information outside its componants.

  Terry,

  The mind may not be wholly in the brain, I think Nova has a video out that has some scientist stating the whole body may be involved, they pointed out that every cell has these neural peptides receptors that act as an antena and is in communication with the rest of the body. The brain may also be connected to the rest of the universe in ways we have yet to discover. Inovative creativity may actually come from outside the brain and consciousness. The brain could just be a reciever like the radio or TV. There are many possiblities for sure, if we are dogmatic about it we fail to gain more info usually.

  As far as Who is "You" I would say it all depends on your concepts of you, it is all mental constructs after all. There really is no "You" it is all in your head just like the color red. The color red is just a sensation of the minds interpetation of the wave frequencies with in a certain range and that is all. It the same with ultra violet, and infra red they are invisible only because our minds don't see them. Everthing you experience with the mind is by way of mental pictures it is not really the way things are it is just interpatations, in fact it is an illusion of the mind by way of mental pictures.