I am not sure if I'm posting in the right thread or forum here, but I have some questions. I still consider myself an atheist, but until recently I held the false notion that consciousness was localized to the brain. I had a limited definition for consciousness. I now realize that consciousness is a great mystery and nobody can really sufficiently explain it, and apparently it extends beyond the mind; I still don't really have a firm grasp on what consciousness really is. So, no longer can I assert with any confidence that when you die and your brain dies that your consciousness is eradicated. I used to think it worked that simply. It's got me thinking I really can't provide a sufficient explanation as to how the brain simply dies and you're gone. Of course, there's more to selling the idea of how there's no afterlife, but this is one crucial part of it.
So, as an atheist, how do you explain to others that when we die we simply cease to exist through explainable science and that we don't migrate to any kind of afterlife? Can it be explained scientifically how we simply are no more - how the essence of what was you is gone - without the absence of consciousness, if consciousness indeed (or the lackthereof) plays no role? What do you think the consensus definition of consciousness is?
So, as an atheist, how do you explain to others that when we die we simply cease to exist through explainable science and that we don't migrate to any kind of afterlife? Can it be explained scientifically how we simply are no more - how the essence of what was you is gone - without the absence of consciousness, if consciousness indeed (or the lackthereof) plays no role? What do you think the consensus definition of consciousness is?
