As I type it is just after 8:00 AM and I will not be checking my email
until this afternoon, but I wanted to note a coincidence. I am currently
reading a biology textbook I downloaded from Learning Ally. It is nearly
1400 pages long and has a playing time of 141 hours and 23 minutes. I
have only been reading it since July 14, but it is beginning to feel
like I have been reading it for years by now. It is apparently a first
year textbook and I do have a biology degree, but I was awarded that
degree back in 1978 and never got a job in my field. So I am definitely
learning from it, both because advances have been made in the field and
because I have forgotten so much. Even when I am reading parts that I
have not forgotten it is very much like a nostalgia trip. Anyway, just
yesterday I was explaining to Mustafa what constitutes the human
personality and what happens to it upon death. It just happens that I
spent two hours on this book this morning before logging onto the
computer and quit at page 1075 and the subject that was being covered
for the last twenty pages or so was the physical basis of cognition. I
can't repeat here all that it said, but it was a fascinating discussion
of the structure of the cerebral cortex and of which parts perform which
functions. It also went into the interactions of neurons with each other
and how the neurotransmitters facilitate the storage of memory and
process emotions and how external stimuli are processed by the cerebral
cortex. There was no mention of any kind of supernatural soul, immortal
or otherwise. It is very interesting how human consciousness is being
explained without any recourse to supernatural claims. But I suppose
that Mustafa will deny it all despite the mountains of experimentations
and observations that have been made over the years that have been well
documented in volumes that now make up entire libraries. All of this is
so complex and provides such a profound sense of wonder that it baffles
me that anyone would want to deny it in favor of completely unsupported
claims.