RE: Moral Compass
April 5, 2015 at 4:29 pm
(This post was last modified: April 5, 2015 at 4:31 pm by Lakul.
Edit Reason: typos
)
Yes, consciousness is a product of the brain. Without a brain you have no consciousness.
Consciousness ends when the brain ceases to function (properly) or is destroyed.
There are also different levels of awareness, either due to brain damage, disease, or disorder, among other things. It is very easy to trick the brain into 'seeing', 'hearing', and 'feeling' things (ever hear a loud boom just as you're falling asleep? Yup, it's all in your head!). Drugs can cause or magnify these effects. Often times you'll see tribal leaders from various parts of the world partake in drugs so that they may connect with their gods.
The brain, and likewise 'consciousness', didn't come from just 'nothing', but rather, it is a product from a lone line in evolution. The same process in which your eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, fingers, belly-button, and nose hairs co-evolved alongside the innards of your noggin ^^
You are free to believe as you wish, however. But it will not change what we have learned, or will come to learn. The Earth did not become round when scientists said it was round. It's always been round, even when scientists said it was flat, and will, hopefully, continue to be round until the sun blows up into a red giant in 5 billion or so years.
Likewise, the answers to our many questions about the universe and life are also out there, have always been out there, and will continue to be out there as we seek to find them. It is dishonest to assert something as true just because we don't have all the answers, or when reality states something else.
And, as it is, reality states that consciousness ceases when the brain ceases ^^
Consciousness ends when the brain ceases to function (properly) or is destroyed.
There are also different levels of awareness, either due to brain damage, disease, or disorder, among other things. It is very easy to trick the brain into 'seeing', 'hearing', and 'feeling' things (ever hear a loud boom just as you're falling asleep? Yup, it's all in your head!). Drugs can cause or magnify these effects. Often times you'll see tribal leaders from various parts of the world partake in drugs so that they may connect with their gods.
The brain, and likewise 'consciousness', didn't come from just 'nothing', but rather, it is a product from a lone line in evolution. The same process in which your eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, fingers, belly-button, and nose hairs co-evolved alongside the innards of your noggin ^^
You are free to believe as you wish, however. But it will not change what we have learned, or will come to learn. The Earth did not become round when scientists said it was round. It's always been round, even when scientists said it was flat, and will, hopefully, continue to be round until the sun blows up into a red giant in 5 billion or so years.
Likewise, the answers to our many questions about the universe and life are also out there, have always been out there, and will continue to be out there as we seek to find them. It is dishonest to assert something as true just because we don't have all the answers, or when reality states something else.
And, as it is, reality states that consciousness ceases when the brain ceases ^^
