[Arryn]

Originally posted by spirokeat:
If most sensations, pleasure, pain, touch, taste etc are generated by physical sensory receptors and transfered to the mind/soul via specific neural pathways and nerve transmitors (or animal spirits depending on archaic, you wanna get).

Then should you die but continue on as a disembodied soul, you would no longer have those receptors and thus be unable to feel anything, except abstract conceptualisations.

It's worse than you think. Mood is caused & regulated by chemicals within the brain. No brain (you're a disembodied consciousness), no moods and emotions. It gets worse yet: no brain, no neurons. No neurons, no thoughts at all. Sounds like oblivion to me.

It's the fear of oblivion that causes people, even in the absence of religious teaching, to invent an afterlife, god(s), and all the associated trappings of the mystical and mythical. Humans have always feared the unknown, and what can be more unknown than oblivion? Humans also have an infinite capacity for self-deception. If you don't believe that, you've never seen a drug addict (i.e.: people in denial and unable to cope with reality), nor are you capable of enjoying a Hollywood movie (which require you to suspend disbelief, suspension of disbelief being self-deception).