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.