Analytical thinking and belief in god

Several newspapers have reported on a study published in Science magazine that shows that thinking about rational processes or even looking at things like Rodin's statue 'The Thinker' erodes reported levels of belief in god. The discussion after the Daily Mail's coverage is particularly enlightening. Do not look left if you are particularly devout.

More Neuroscience

There is a very long article in the Observer this week called The brain… it makes you think. Doesn't it? It consistsw of a debate between David Eagleman, who thinks that consciousness can eventually be explained by neuroscience and Raymond Tallis who thinks that there is more to consciousness than simple brain processes. But as Thomas Nagel points out in What is it like to be a bat? no matter how subtle neuroscience becomes we cannot hope to understand the world from anything but a subjective point of view. 

Eagleman argues that most of our brain processes are beyond our conscious awareness and so our decision making is highly constrained; mere introspection will not get us very far. Tallis replies that claiming that the nuanced experiences of subjective thought, within communties of minds, are merely a series of brain processes reduces human beings to the status of automatons.

Gut Feeling

We normally associate consciousness with the brain but it is worth remembering that the brain is part of a body. 

According to an article in this week's New Scientist bacteria living in mammalian guts can affect behaviour and it seems that healthy gut bacteria are necessary for well regulated behaviour. This was shown when the gut bacteria from a particularly aggressive strain of mice were transferred to the guts of a notably docile strain and vice versa. The docile mice became aggressive and the aggressive ones became calmer.

Human and Alien Perception

The following clip from the film The Darkest Hour goes to some trouble to show the world from the point of view of an invisible alien lifeform. It then fails to show the world as real human beings see it.

When you look at the world with your head upside down the world does not appear upside down. This is a major clue that our brains process our visual inputs before we get to 'see' them.

Finger Tip

In November last year I was involved, like the drummer in Spinal Tap in 'a bizarre gardening accident' and lost the tip of one of my fingers. 

 

Because my brain still thinks I have a fingertip it assumes that lack of information from the end of my finger is caused by a gap or hole in any surface that I am touching.

 

If I run my finger through my hair, for instance, it feels as though my finger is poking into my skull. Unfortunately, as there is no information from where the end of my finger used to be, the inside of my skull seems empty. Thus my brain tells me that it doesn’t exist.

 

Apparently my brain will eventually work out that I have no finger tip and will be very annoyed about it.