Why are we no soulless automatons?

[warpus]

Hmm. But then you could say all sorts of things about the brain. Like it's a just a book. The brain is essentially just a collection of events arranged sequentially, with a beginning and an end.

Well, no, that's not true. You could say it's an information storage device, in some ways like a harddrive though. The comparison works on the "used to store information" level only, it doesn't mean that a human brain stores bits and bites and can be attached to a personal computer or whatever.

The "The mind is like the software and the brain is like the hardware" is a comparison meant only to highlight the fact that the brain is the stuff you can touch while the mind is the abstract system that "lives inside".

 

[Hygro]

And it's not just neurons, El Mac, but a lot of other chemicals, directly felt, involved in feelings as well.

 

[Mouthwash]

I brought this up before, but this time I wanted to dedicate to it its very own thread. It deserves this because to me it is the only grand mystery of our time.

Why are we no soulless automatons?

I just can not make sense of it, I have no answer, it just seems utterly strange and mysterious to me.

The more we know about our bodies and specifically about our brain the more everything seems to indicate that there is nothing mysterious about how our bodies function. It is just a particular organized and at the same time complex conglomerate of matter following the same old laws of nature as everything else.
There is no "soul" controlling things. No magic.
Yet - somehow - a new sphere of reality is born by it. This sphere is our stream of consciousness. "It is alive!" And not just in the biological sense, but in a sense natural science can not begin to comprehend. And frankly, nor can I.

Why are we alive? Why is our body not a soulless automaton?
"It is the brain" you may say, believing to have answered my question. But it is only a specification of the question. Why is our brain not a soulless automaton, then?

We have some hints. The brain has a very unique structure. It sorta is a stable interacting electricity grid. So one may say being alive is related to electricity and interaction. On the other hand, feelings seem to rest on chemical compounds. So perhaps electricity is just the carrier, and the chemical... I stop right there. It gets me nowhere. I can think about it all I want - in the end it is an utter mystery.
There is soulless matter - BAM - there is awareness? How does this make sense. Where did it come from?

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia/

 

[AdamCrock]

Personally I think the religion might be right for once. We are no soulless automatons exactly because we have souls. I think it might be the soul which makes us self aware. If we would want a scientific proof of the existance of the soul we would need to perform a "frankenstain" experiment and create exactly the same copy of the human being and determine if he/it has a will of it's own.

 

[El_Machinae]

And it's not just neurons, El Mac, but a lot of other chemicals, directly felt, involved in feelings as well.

What do you mean 'other chemicals'? I know of no theory that suggests that chemicals (that influence emotions) do anything other than influence neurons.

I don't really know what my point is. My main point is that while there might be specific neurons that cause specific percepts, we cannot 'feel' those neurons being influenced. Our consciousness appears to be more of a 'macro' thing than neurons. This is another reason why it's okay to believe that it's an epiphenomenon of summed neuron activity.