A Little Understanding Of Neuroscience Is All I Ask

My more regular readers – and by that I of course mean 'my father', as I personally signed you up to my email alerts, so I can only guarantee your visitation – will know that I all too often have arguments with people regarding spirituality, religion, the existence of souls, ghosts, and other kinds of made up mental stuff.

Many people believe that we as humans are embodied by something 'other', something not physical that makes us us. Some people believe it's not just humans that have this mystical inner being, and that animals also have this blessing. Although its uncanny how the animals they think are without-soul aren't personified in Disney films, while the cute, furry, fluffy ones that are do, of course, have souls.

As I wrote previously, scientologists attempt to define this with logic, asserting that if you have your appendix removed, you don't become any less you. They claim your body is merely a tool that you use for survival, equally your mind is a tool used to decipher the world.

The hilariously named 'Thetan' – pronounced like Mike Tyson would say 'Satan' – is the equivalent of a soul, but is somehow different from a soul, but the only differing attributes between the two seem to be the arbitrary label attached...

Anyway, this soul's existence is justified by our consciousness and morals, something supposedly lacking in other animals. Aside from this simply not being true, as many animals exhibit morals and clearly conscious thought (see below), the fantasy of a soul has concrete science against it. And yet the myth perpetuates...

Unfortunately, this evidence is no new discovery. The brain cells that are thought to give us consciousness were first noticed under the microscope of  a little-known Bulgarian neuroscientist in the 1920s.

When Constantin von Economo first saw them, he thought they were signs of disease, but over the past century our understanding of them as improved and it is now thought that these cells – as they are present in similarly intelligent animals (dolphins, elephants, chimps, etc) – are a sign of our heightened intelligence, social bonds and moral consciousness.

Various things have been used to differentiate us from 'the animals' and – as with most incorrect theories – they are all slowly falling down, with one of the few claims remaining to be the 'soul'. Surely a decent understanding of the masterpiece of evolution that is the human brain would open people's eyes to rational thought, but I find myself despairing at the continued ignorance of simple neuroscience.

Please stop being mental and start using the brain that you is so incredibly intricate that we're barely starting to understand it.

That's true