The human brain is under a delusion that it is a mind

[Crossless2.0]

Where is Chad? He takes the same position but he puts is so much more elegantly.

Thank you for the compliment, but I'm sitting this one out. I am however taking a keen interest in how many different ways there are to deny the relevance of the very feature that makes us human.

Perhaps I'm a bit low on coffee this morning, but I missed this. Who, exactly, has denied the relevance of mind?

On a side note, if mind is "the very feature that makes us human", I suppose you have no truck with those who insist that abortion is murder? Because, you know, that's a favorite hobby horse of many Christians.

[DeistPaladin]

I get the impression that the most obvious effect religion has had on you is to thoroughly annihilate your self-esteem.

The true purpose of any religion.

[Mister Agenda]

Agree or disagree: the mind is not "real."

Disagree. The mind is self-evident...to everyone but you, it seems.

A mind is the delusion the brain has that it exists somewhere that is not purely physical.

Speak for yourself. My mind is quite aware of its location.

We are all sacks of meat, with no more inherent value than a side of bacon or a beef patty on a hamburger.

Nothing has inherent value. Value is relational. Something has value only if someone values it. Normal humans can distinguish value in themselves and other humans greater than hamburgers on other foundations than magic; life, consciousness, moral agency, social ties, character, intellect, human rights, and so on. It would require moral idiocy to not be able to comprehend why a living human being has more value than a hamburger, immortal soul or not.

All we have to do to change a mind is pump the brain up with the proper chemicals and neurological impulses.

That is an experimentally-verified fact.

Even personality can be changed with the right drugs and electrical inputs.

Or injury. Or disease.

So "we" (our minds) don't exist.

You could have said 'so, rutabegas' and your conclusion would be equally justified. You can't change something that doesn't exist.

Our emotions aren't real.

Of course they are. They're just not magic.

Everything we think, feel, love, hate isn't real.

You think you're imagining all that? Can you not perceive the inherent issue with claiming that you think you don't really think?

Nothing is real, other than the material world.

Everything that exists, is real. Some real things are processes, some are abstractions. If materialism is correct, it only means those things depend on matter and energy and the laws of phyics, chemistry, and biology to exist. It doesn't mean they're not real.

And since our experience of the material world is processed through a "mind" that is a delusion, we can't even be sure of that.

Mind isn't a delusion and it doesn't need to be put in scare quotes. Mind is what a reasonably functional human brain does.

[Whateverist]

And since our experience of the material world is processed through a "mind" that is a delusion, we can't even be sure of that.

Mind isn't a delusion and it doesn't need to be put in scare quotes. Mind is what a reasonably functional human brain does.

Maybe he was just referring to his 'own'?

[Jenny A]

<snip>I am however taking a keen interest in how many different ways there are to deny the relevance of the very feature that makes us human.

Would that feature be the mind or the soul?

I find arguing against the mind rather funny because there's such a big platform problem.

I will now use my non-existent mind to contend that neither you nor I have a mind. I expect you to use your mind to understand and refute my argument. ----- Nuts!

[Anomalocaris]

RE: The human brain is under a delusion that it is a mind

Not quite. The religious mind is under the delusion that it has a brain.