Soul Survivor?

Our memories and habits are bound up with the structures of the brain, in much the same way in which a river is connected with the riverbed. The water in the river is always changing, but it keeps to the same course because previous rains have worn a channel. In like manner, previous events have worn a channel in the brain, and our thoughts flow along this channel. This is the cause of memory and mental habits. But the brain, as a structure, is dissolved at death, and memory therefore may be expected to be also dissolved. There is no more reason to think otherwise than to expect a river to persist in its old course after an earthquake has raised a mountain where a valley used to be.
~ from Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell ~

Yes, there was a time in my life when I bought the concept of a soul and life everlasting, but the more I thought about it rationally, the more the position grew untenable. It simply ceased to make any sense.

Even if I still believed in a soul, it doesn't follow that this essence would retain the self-consciousness of this thing I call myself. As Russell explains, that part of each of us is bound up in our brains and, at death, the brain ceases to function. So, even if there is a paradise awaiting us and lost loved ones are there, I don't see how any of our souls would recognize them!

I realize this runs counter to the beliefs of most theists. They believe our self-contained souls go to heaven or wherever fully intact with all our memories and knowledge. Of course, they can't prove this belief; it's all based on faith.

But earthly knowledge would seem to contradict this belief. When a person suffers a serious brain injury (possibly from a fall, auto accident or some types of strokes), it can result in amnesia. The person no longer knows who they are and, like a hard drive wiped clean, their memories go out the door. In many cases, through a lot of work, they are able to get some of those memories back. In lots of other cases, however, the memories and the person's prior sense of self-identity are gone for good.

So, in my estimation, this creates a serious problem for those who believe in a self-conscious soul independent of the brain. If this type of soul does exist, then how could a person lose this sense of self-identity through a brain injury? One would reason that their soul would kick in to replace that information blocked in the brain.

The fact that this does NOT happen strongly suggests that memory is a brain function and nothing else. It strongly suggests that the self-contained soul is a f-a-i-r-y-t-a-l-e.