Are we governed by chemicals in the brain?

Watch the following video clips:   Not just machines Meaningful moral choices

 

Some atheistic neuroscientists have claimed that behaviour is all about chemicals in the brain. What evidence might they cite? We know that we can treat chemical imbalance in the brain to help people with depression or mental illnesses, so brain chemicals do influence behaviour.

 

So, why is this view inadequate? The two presentations above point out that it is, once again, a reductionist view. It claims that brain function is just about chemicals whereas we know the truth is much more complex than this. This is the same problem as Richard Dawkins’ now rather outdated book The Selfish Gene. We now know that we are governed by much more than just our genes; they interact with other substances and processes in our bodies in quite complex ways. 

 

Atheistic scientific approaches often seem to me to present themselves as scientifically pure, not contaminated by a priori assumptions about religious beliefs, for example. This is actually a sleight of hand. They have made an a priori assumption that rules out a Creator. The result often, as here in terms of brain biochemistry, seems to be actually an inability to address complex interactions or to cope with multiple parallel processes.

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