Here’s Harris refuting the dualist idea of the mind,
or soul, being somehow separate from the physical brain. We can confidently say
that our increasing knowledge of the brain – and its connection to the mind – has
discredited dualism. But this is a bitter pill for religious believers to
swallow, because it negates one core tenet of their faith: the survival of the
mind/soul after death. If human consciousness is entirely generated by the
brain, then upon the brain’s destruction, that consciousness ends. Forever.
Harris makes clear the absurdity of the idea that our souls
go to an afterlife when we die:
What we’re being asked to consider [by dualists] is that you damage one part of the brain and… something about the mind and subjectivity is lost, you damage another and yet more is lost, and yet if you damage the whole thing at death, we can rise off the brain, with all our faculties intact, recognising Grandma and speaking English.
And here we have Hitchens hitchslapping the creepy practice of
religious believers trying to convert dying people.
This statement hits the nail on the head:
If Sam [Harris] and I were to form a corps of people to go around religious hospitals, which is what happens in reverse, and say to people who are lying in pain and say, “Did you say you were Catholic? Well look, you may only have a few days left, but you don’t have to live them as a serf, you know. Just recognise that was all bullshit, that the priests have been cheating you, and I guarantee you’ll feel better”, I don’t think that would be very ethical.
Ah Hitch, you left us
too soon.
21.2.12
I have no idea why you think the mind-brain correlations discredit dualism. Could you explain?
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