Are you trying to pass $user variable to your controller ?

Can you post your complete code block.

//display login form Route::get('login', function(){ return View::make('login'); }); //login users Route::post('login', function(){ $user = array( 'username' => Input::get('email'), 'password' => Input::get('password') );

if (Auth::attempt($user)) {
	return Redirect::to('profile');
} else {
return Redirect::to('login')
		->with('login_errors', 'Your Email or Password is incorrect.');
}

});

1. Are the passwords stored in their hashed form in your database?
2. Is the password field in your database at least 60 characters in length?

The attempt method takes an array. How could it authenticate without passing in the password?

if (Auth::attempt(array('email' => $email, 'password' => $password)))
{
    return Redirect::intended('dashboard');
}