We Are Our Body and Brain and Thats It

Ok I can’t say that for sure cause there is no way to prove it. I also don’t want it to be true and it took me a long time to come to this, opinion, belief, whatever . However in my long life I have never seen anything that makes me think we are more than our body and brain. No soul and no spirit. Nothing that lives on after we die and nothing that existed before we were born.

I grew up in a pretty religious household in Indiana. My parents were methodist. Well mom passed a few years ago but dad is hanging in there and he still attends church. Anyway I found church boring and by the time I was 13 I had bugged them enough that they let me stay home.

Several years later my gymnastics coach whom I respected at the time, lead me into the Charismatic movement (look it up if you don’t know what that is). Long story which I may blog sometime. The short version is that I was in it for several years. We prayed, we fasted, we prayed some more but in the end I didn’t see any difference in people or outcomes for those who pray and those who don’t. I definitely didn’t see that religion makes people better than a good set of ethics would do. I also developed so many issues with God if it exists (cant be anything like a human so, IT). This is not to mention the Bible and its plethora of inconsistencies, prejudices, and just plain antiquatedness. Other religions I am less familiar with but ditto from what I have seen.

Anyway, big subjects and lots of conversation starters. The point I want to make here is that I think we most likely get one life and we are what our brains and body make us. Well and of course upbringing, culture… you know nature, nurture. Also a big subject.

Why do I think that we are probably only a body and brain? Because when the brain gets seriously injured people change. If we are really a soul divorced from the physical that shouldn’t happen. And yes I have heard all the round about explanations. The soul is tied to the brain till we die then it is freed yada yada. But at the end of the day the simple answer is usually the right one. The simple answer is that we evolved and we are no different than all the other creatures on earth. Nobody thinks bacteria go to heaven or those cute microscopic animals that look like bears get reincarnated. Well probably someone does…

According to some cases I have read about people can even lose their sense of self if they have certain types of frontal cortex damage. The famous case of the man who was empaled through the head with an iron bar and lived. His personality changed completely. PTSD from war can permanently change a person’s personality.

Why do I include the body and not just the brain? At one time I would have only included the brain but the body affects our thoughts too. Hormones like adrenalin have a huge if temporary effect on our thinking. Even what we eat can have an impact as I’m sure we have all felt. There is definitely a back and forth between the body and brain.

Let’s face it. It sucks that we would be born, learn so many things, have so many experiences, love so many people and then it stops when we die. Of course we have come up with religions and stories to make that not true. But it probably is and I think most people know it down deep whether they want to face it or not.

So why should we face it? I think the human race has to become better than hiding from the truth. Hiding from one truth leads to hiding from others. It muddies the water and leads to messy illogical thinking. It is also cowardly. Believing in something that doesn’t exist leads to believing in other things that don’t exist. Giving up your right to demand proof opens a can of worms.

We need to live our lives on an evidence basis. Yes there are unanswered questions and there probably always will be. What is wrong with saying I don’t know? It is much healthier than making up stories or cowering.

Iit is healthy to face our feelings and thoughts. We must learn to really be with them. That is the way to manage good mental health. Running from our fears and worries only makes them grow. We need to be better than that for the future and our children’s sake.