Is atheism a belief?

[bennyboy]

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I could care less how you treat me. 


No shit Sherlock. In this case it does., and that IS what your implied. 

I'm saying that given the brain, and only the brain, is the mechanism of human consciousness, we still don't know on what level of organization the most elemental essence of consciousness occurs.  If you disagree with this, and you seem very much to want to, you can clear up the mystery by answering this question: on what level of organization does the most elemental essence of consciousness occur?

And asking the question in that way belies your utter ignorance of neuro-science ... and in fact, I just showed you how asking that question in that way DOES NOT produce an answer. 

This is a non-trivial question, because the brain is a layering of very many systems of organization, from fully-integrated brain parts, right down to QM wave functions.  Some of those systems of organization are unique to the human brain, and some are not.  

It IS a trivial question, because without a brain, there IS NOT ONE example of consciousness, and you have none. You are DESPERATE to leave room for some sort of woo. 

We can all agree that the unique flavor of experience that is human being depends on a functioning human brain.  But that's not the question-- the question is on what level the simplest elements of subjective experience supervene.  What's required that minimal flash-in-the-darkness?  At what level of complexity can it be said, "There was no mind, but now there is?"

That may be YOUR question, and it may be important to you. It's not to anyone I know, and YOU don't get to tell science what is important. 
I do get you are also desperate to maintain the last vestige of hope for your possible god-in-a-box. I don't care. 

It seems to me that there's no cut-line, no critical mass of processing at which this can be said.  Rather, as you keep simplifying the processing system, you'll get something less and less human, then less and less recognizable as conscious by our standard.  Eventually, we'll say: "Yeah. . . I for sure wouldn't call that system conscious any more."  But so long as the system is capable of accepting inputs and producing outputs, it is in fact processing its environment.  And that basic functionality extends right down into the quantum world.

No. Take a class in neuro-science. "Processing the environment" is nowhere even near a definition of consciousness. The most simple one-celled organism "processes" its environment, but no one would say an amoeba is conscious. It has chemical reflexes. Your analogy is false and your reasoning totally stupid and irrelevant. 

Now, it may be that there IS some point at which there's nothing remotely like mind, but I don't know where that is. . . and neither do you.

You really are a patronizing arrogant ass hole. There IS NOTHING that can be referred to as MIND, and you have no evidence of any, AND guess what fuckwad ?
YOU don't get to tell ANYONE how or what they think. 

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Dude, it's like Tourette's, but you're typing.  I'm not sure what your deal is, but there's not enough intellectual or academic interest here for me to carry on with you.  I'd recommend you walk away for a bit and relax, maybe take a Valium or have a drink, or possibly do a lot of both.

As for me, I'm gonna go see what's on TV. Maybe I can go watch the Real Housewives of New Jersey and try to figure out which one is you.