(September 24, 2014 at 5:08 pm)Blackrook Wrote: 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.
First of all as I'm sure several people have already pointed out, whether the brain is a biological machine is a factual question having nothing whatsoever to do with atheism. Nor strictly speaking is the question of whether humans have souls an atheist question. Why? Because the answer to neither question would either prove or disprove the existence of a god or gods.
Second, you assume that souls are something which must be disproved. To the contrary, there is no evidence that there is any such thing as a soul, if by soul you mean some aspect of the human mind that exists separately from the human brain.
The brain is a highly complex organ which functions but chemically and electronically. It's functions include supervision of involuntary functions such as heart beat, interpretation of senses, bodily movement, and a variety of different activities that we collectively call thinking. It's functioning can be altered in a number of ways including drugs, hormones, compromised liver and/or kidney function, concussions, strokes and a host of other physical causes. So far as I know, no one has ever produced credible evidence that the human mind can exist without a functioning brain.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
