You Are Brain

When you think about it there is very little we actually know. The contemporary fashion to call scientists the new fundamentalist priests has some truth in it. Unless we are prepared to do the science ourselves we must rely on what we are told. I feel they are stretching it somewhat with claims I can barely grasp; multiple universes, the universe expanding from a single point in the first trillionth of a second, stuff like that. There are however some things I am pretty sure I know. One of These is that our consciousness is dependent on the brain. This may seem obvious yet in virtually all areas of life we act as if souls exist. As if there is someone in our heads controlling what we do. Nearly every criminal in court has a narrative to justify what they have done. We can all spin stories to justify our actions, however reprehensible they are. This takes place after we act. Everything we think or do is preceded by chemical shiftings we are totally unaware of. This shows up when we judge people not by their actions but by their predisposition. If a man shoots dead a dozen strangers we blame him. If he is found to have a tumour pressing against his brain we do not hold him  accountable. If it is found he was within a psychotic delusion that ten demons were about to curse the entitle planet to destruction and only he could help by killing them, we place him in a mental hospital. But in all cases it was the biology of his brain that brought the deaths about. We act as if we believe there is a little man inside people's heads that assesses the urges and impulses coming in to his control panel and chooses which to act on . We act as if it wasnt really that person who committed the crime, as if there was a higher them, a soul who was temporarily absent during their killing spree. This is not the case.
The attack on science comes largely from the religious lobby. There are also frustrated or underachieving scientists who feel that their work has been overlooked in favour of others. Ideas of little substance can and do rise to prominence in the scientific field. Many ideas we hold as unquestioned truths will undoubtedly be proven wrong in the fullness of time. Just as the flat earth theory was abandoned so we will abandon much of what we believe now. But the accusation that scientists are like fundamentalists is weak. It is true that scientists have all the personality flaws of priests from closed minded ness to arrogance. Pivotal to there thinking though, is the idea of empirical evidence and the concept of growth, development, expansion and abandonment of ideas. The fundamentalist religious people brook no argument. Their knowledge is complete.
Brian Cox, Chris Packham, David Attenborough are increasingly open to admitting, even advancing their atheist views. Often it is difficult for them not to. When Cox invokes a universal law of physics beyond most of our scope of understanding we can ask how he knows that it is always true but unless we are prepared to study enough to argue with him we have to trust him. And it is for this reason that I can not dispute or wholly place my trust in quantum physics.
I can, however, put forth that I know that consciousness is dependent on the brain. I have seen people die. But what most committed me to exploring what the implications of a materialist view on consciousness was drugs. In the past I have been prescribed anti depressants. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Selective serotonin and neuradrenaline reuptake inhibitors. Opiates. Benzodiazepine tranquillisers. These can all be addictive. They all alter who you are. Playing with neurotransmitters is some thing we have practiced in one way or another for a long time but it is only in the last two decades that we have begun to properly start to understand what is happening. I would like to claim that I was not responsible for some things I have said and done when drunk, I bet most of us do, but does it hold up to scrutiny. Was my responsibility diminished or because I brought glass to lips was I responsible. Or if some impulse I have no knowledge of brought me to drink and be a dick, is there a seperate 'I' at all. It would seem not. And do you really care if the mugger was deluded when he robbed your granny? Or do you just want him safely banged up?