Mind = Brain?

[Purple Rabbit]

I know you asked me to explain it but, like i said, I'm not well versed in neurology, but your analogy of the cartoon professors was completely inaccurate as i did not simply say "it just happened", i explained that i don't know a whole lot about Neurology and then offered my simple understanding of how mathematics is possible / takes place in the mind/brain along with some articles i had bookmarked which i thought would be able to answer your question better. I'm fully aware that the Brain is one of the single most complicated areas of study imaginable and we are only at the very beginning of our ventures into understanding it.

OK, VOID, fair enough. I just felt you overstated with "because i see no function of the mind that cannot be explained by the brain". It suggests all about the relation between brain and mind is explained already, which is not the case at all.

As for why i feel confident with my position:

I consider the mind being an abstract of the physical brain the most likely scenario due largely to occams Razor, that being the mind brain relationship does not require an assumption where as the opposing position requires the introduction of a separate state of reality (supernatural) in which a process of mind could take place. So this is a case of choosing the conclusion that requires the least number of assumptions and not one based on any empirical certainty, though even empirically the absence of evidence for anything supernatural as opposed to the evidence for mind/brain correlation lends strong credence to the latter and none to the former.

From all positions to choose from, I too feel most confident with the naturalistic position simply because the other positions, most notably the supernatural position, have no predictive and explaining power at all. That said, I think my stance is more accurately phrased as "body constitutes mind" for the brain is not separate from the body and the rest of our nervous system and the physical level does not equate to the conceptual level.

And if you are looking for someone to pick over neurology with then might i suggest taking it up with someone more knowledgeable in the area - i'm not equipped to argue on the subject - but if you can find someone here who's up to it it'd be cool to follow the arguments for and against and gain a little context over the disagreement.

I'm afraid there's not much available here on that topic. My attempts in the past here to delve some deeper in this debate (on qualia, first person experience, emergent properties) all encountered the same entrenched opinion of both theists and atheists. While I think that skepticism is a tool to gain knowledge. A skeptic ultimately has no friends in debate, and shouldn't want any.