The human brain is under a delusion that it is a mind

[Mister Agenda]

The human brain is a physical object under a delusion that it is something more than a physical object -- a mind, that exists outside the realm of the physical.

An atheist's task is to convince the human brain that it is nothing more than a biological machine, which operates with neurons and chemicals, rather than gears and levers.

Once that task is complete, we can abandon all belief in the soul, the spiritual world, and the afterlife.

Discuss.

There's a certain kind of person who, when made aware of the wondrous complexity and power of the human brain, starts using phrases like 'nothing more than' and words like 'just' and 'merely' in order to imply that it is obviously insufficient and inadequate without magic. They do this solely because they desperately want it to be magic, and thus rob themselves of proper amazement and awe towards what may be the most complex and versatile object to be found in our universe.

[Cato]

I'm trying to agree or disagree, but can't make up my mind.

[Chad32]

I'm trying to agree or disagree, but can't make up my mind.

Are you having trouble wrapping your brain around the concept?

[Blackrook]

Agree or disagree: the mind is not "real."

A mind is the delusion the brain has that it exists somewhere that is not purely physical.

We are all sacks of meat, with no more inherent value than a side of bacon or a beef patty on a hamburger.

All we have to do to change a mind is pump the brain up with the proper chemicals and neurological impulses.

Even personality can be changed with the right drugs and electrical inputs.

So "we" (our minds) don't exist.

Our emotions aren't real.

Everything we think, feel, love, hate isn't real.

Nothing is real, other than the material world.

And since our experience of the material world is processed through a "mind" that is a delusion, we can't even be sure of that.

[Chad32]

Our emotions and such are real. They just change from time to time. Having a physical source for who we are doesn't mean we aren't real. It just means there's nothing that transcends that.

[Exian]

*cough* naimless sock *cough*

[Whateverist]

Everything we think, feel, love, hate isn't real.

What are you on about?

What I think are real thoughts. They are not real rocks or other physical objects because they're different in kind.

What I feel, including love and hate, are real feelings. My feelings are of the same stuff yours are, just minus the supernatural theories. If we studied how electrodes and chemicals could affect your feelings, they would be affected similarly to the way mine would be. The facts of how physical phenomena affect our feelings does not exhaust what our feelings are, neither does poetry. Feelings are experienced first hand by subjects.

Do you think existence of subjects argues for the supernatural? (I fail to see how.) What we know first hand is that we experience things so subjects exist. What the underlying requirements may be for subjects to exist is something we can argue about. But the fact that we exist is hardly an argument for magic.

[Exian]

I tend to agree with the notion that the mind and the sense of self are non local emergent qualities of the brain. I work on the assumption that the universe is real and I have the ability to learn from it.

[Whateverist]

My brain bows will bow to none, lacking the necessary anatomy.

[Angrboda]

All we have to do to change a mind is pump the brain up with the proper chemicals and neurological impulses.

Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person’s thoughts. Every waking moment—and even in our dreams—we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value ... Drugs are another means toward this end...

~ Sam Harris

So "we" (our minds) don't exist.

Our emotions aren't real.

Everything we think, feel, love, hate isn't real.

Nothing is real, other than the material world.

You have a rather restricted sense of the meaning of 'real'. Processes are just as real as objects. If the mind is a delusional process which thinks itself an object, that does not make the process itself any less real. The properties of that process, emotions, thoughts, reasons, are still very much real.

I almost forgot. "So what?" You seem to be rushing headlong toward the fallacy of the undesirable consequence.