Is there only a physical basis to thought?

Question

I'm curious about this because I've read responses in here by atheists and evolutionists that thought is merely a series of electro-chemical impulses in our brain, and that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Not being a "science" person (obviously), my question is what happens to our thoughts after we die? They're enrgy according to atheists and evolutionists, so what happens to them if they cannot be destroyed? Are they just sort of hanging out somewhere in the soil? Where?

Only serious and intelligent responses welcomed. Thank-you.

Really good and interesting answers so far. I'm finding neuroscience to be a fascinating subject but the problem for me is that I'm just not wired for science, and it sucks, really. Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

You don't need neuroscience; you need philosophy of mind.

Reductionistic, physicalist science is simply incapable of accounting for the reality of conscious experience or the causal efficacy of mental events. Worth reading: "Unsnarling the World Knot: Consciousness, Freedom, and the Mind-Body Problem" by David Ray Griffin.

Answer 2

I've read somewhere that the thoughts kind of linger on for a few seconds then flicker out. After a few minutes the electro-chemical processes stop. I don't know if that's true though. Good question!

I found this fragment somewhere, couldn't get a link though:
"Scientists record erratic brain impulses long after death. That is why bodies in a mortuary sometimes move and twitch"

Anyway, to answer your question, yes, there is probably only a physical basis to thought. I do not believe that it is well understood, but that has never stopped science before from plowing ahead into the great unknown!

Answer 3

thought and memory are not the same thing. your question 'what happens to our thoughts after we die' is odd because i'd rather ask 'what happens to our thoughts after the thought is completed'. if thought is related to electrochemical impulses (and there is good evidence that it is, they're always found to be correlated when measurements are made), it is analogous to waves on the beach, the focused energy dissipating into the surroundings rather quickly. but thoughts tend to entail other thoughts of course, and may be remembered, if they're suitably interesting thoughts. the physical basis of memory is believed to be that the passage of the nerve impulse can change the physical properties of the nerve. one mechanism that has been well studied is long term potentiation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_term_potentiation

memories then are encoded patterns in the brain. when the brain dies, there is obviously no more physical basis for thought or memory.

vv "You don't need neuroscience; you need philosophy of mind."

you need both actually. philosophy has a way of disappearing up its own *** if it ignores science. see: cartesian dualism.

Answer 4

There is no reason to suppose thoughts are anything other than a result of the operation of the brain, and this is observably electrical and chemical in nature.

But you are getting confused in thinking of thoughts as energy - they are not, any more than the pictures on a TV screen are energy.

The light on the screen is energy - stop providing power and it goes away - but the picture is the organisation of the light. No power, no picture. In the same way, stop powering the brain and the signals go away - no more thought.