Reply to comment

All this discussion about the brain reminds me of a brilliant New Scientist that came out a year or so ago. It was the 50th anniversary edition of the magazine and inside were prominant scientists who tried to answer some of life's more complex questions (i.e is there free will? Is the universe deterministic etc.) Inside there was an article about the brain (that I would have posted but it costs money and I am, sadly, an impoverished student) talking about the 'ghost within the machine'. Or the lack thereof. If we want to discuss the idea of culture as disability as regards to mental health then, at this point, I think there is no greater cultural disability for the study of the brain than religion. 

The 'less wrong story' that we have come up with at this point states that all human functions and experiences are a product of the brain. The brain and the mind are the Same Thing. Religion inherently separates the mind from the body/ brain and skews universal perceptions of self. The 'ghost in the machine' serves no purpose other than to jam the gears. Many religions dislike the notion that we can 'trivialise' the human experience down to the firing of a few synapses. What if we acknowledge that the human experience is a creation of the brain but that doesn't make it less wonderful. In fact, I would argue that we don't need a ghost because the machine alone is deeply subtle and complex.