Souls and Evolution

[AV1611VET]

The fact that your beliefs cause this smell doesn't bother you?

Do I sound bothered?

 

[Tomatoman]

Do I sound bothered?

I guess you get used to the smell of sewage if you're surrounded by it all day.

 

[AV1611VET]

I guess you get used to the smell of sewage if you're surrounded by it all day.

Well, there you go; that's why you guys keep asking questions.

(Unless you like the taste.)

 

[Hespera]

Vocab word of the day for them to whom it may apply:

fac·ile (f

s

l)adj.

1. Done or achieved with little effort or difficulty; easy. See Synonyms at easy.
2. Working, acting, or speaking with effortless ease and fluency.
3. Arrived at without due care, effort, or examination; superficial: proposed a facile solution to a complex problem.
4. Readily manifested, together with an aura of insincerity and lack of depth: a

 

[Tomatoman]

Well, there you go; that's why you guys keep asking questions.

(Unless you like the taste.)

You should think of us as Dyno-Rod.

It is interesting that you don't deny that your beliefs are causing you to post excrement.

 

[AV1611VET]

You should think of us as Dyno-Rod.

I'll pass -- I can think of more appropriate things.

It is interesting that you don't deny that your beliefs are causing you to post excrement.

Was I ever asked to?

And you called it 'garbage' at first, didn't you?

Now, it's Arab-phoned to 'excrement'?

I hope you make the distinction between the two in your own home --

(Maybe I should think of you guys as needing Roto-Rooter.)

 

[Nostromo]

Here's one scenario: the brain would reprogram the heart.

In this scenario does the brain have any other function but as a backup device for the heart?

Can't you think of something? if not, and if you don't have a better idea, or something constructive to say, I'll probably take any reply you make with a grain of salt.

I have a better idea, perhaps the soul doesn't reside in the heart at all.

It seems odd the mind is damaged when the brain is damaged, but not when the heart is damaged. Do people with artificial hearts have a soul?

 

[chris4243]

I consider souls to be the essence of who you are as a person. Thus your personality, intelligence, and knowledge add up together to form your soul. Thus most animals have souls (see also Ecclesiastes), but the human souls are more interesting. Also, there is no reason in theory why the soul could not be transferred to a computer or another body, or copied.

18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

 

[chris4243]

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Souls and atheism?"

Not atheism -- materialism. There's no reason an atheist can't believe in a soul, even in a supernatural one.

 

[Hespera]

I consider souls to be the essence of who you are as a person. Thus your personality, intelligence, and knowledge add up together to form your soul. Thus most animals have souls (see also Ecclesiastes), but the human souls are more interesting. Also, there is no reason in theory why the soul could not be transferred to a computer or another body, or copied.

could be, tho i personally never saw any reason to think there is a soul

anyway... if animals have a lesser sort of soul, would it mean human souls evolved over time?

 

[pgp_protector]

I consider souls to be the essence of who you are as a person. Thus your personality, intelligence, and knowledge add up together to form your soul. Thus most animals have souls (see also Ecclesiastes), but the human souls are more interesting. Also, there is no reason in theory why the soul could not be transferred to a computer or another body, or copied.

If you copied it to a computer & made multiple copies from that computer, would you end up with multiple souls?

Darn it, smeggen Zombie thread.

 

[gaara4158]

could be, tho i personally never saw any reason to think there is a soul

anyway... if animals have a lesser sort of soul, would it mean human souls evolved over time?

Ab-soul-lutely.


It would be interesting to speculate where exactly on the evolutionary timeline "souls" first started to appear, which brain structure(s) they're correlated with, and which animals had them.

 

[Hespera]

Ab-soul-lutely.


It would be interesting to speculate where exactly on the evolutionary timeline "souls" first started to appear, which brain structure(s) they're correlated with, and which animals had them.

Guess I'd first have to have more reason to think there is a soul.
i dont know how you'd study the origin and position of something that you cant detect!

 

[Tomatoman]

Ab-soul-lutely.


It would be interesting to speculate where exactly on the evolutionary timeline "souls" first started to appear, which brain structure(s) they're correlated with, and which animals had them.

It's all covered in this recent book about particular aspects of evolutionary psychology:

The God Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life: Amazon.co.uk: Jesse Bering: Books

This stuff is no longer a big mystery. It's also fascinating and shows why religious ideas are so deeply ingrained in our psychology.

 

[gaara4158]

Guess I'd first have to have more reason to think there is a soul.
i dont know how you'd study the origin and position of something that you cant detect!

Oh, I'm convinced there's a soul. It's not immortal and eternal or anything, but it's what I consider to be the requirement for self-awareness. It is the observer inside the person, the one who senses, feels, and tries to understand everything that happens to them. I could write pages and pages about how mind-blowing it is that sentience would ever get this far... so naturally, I'd like to see exactly how it came about.

You're right, though... I don't know how we'd test for a soul in animals that are already dead, unless we could isolate the soul to a certain physical feature.

 

[AirPo]

Oh, I'm convinced there's a soul. It's not immortal and eternal or anything, but it's what I consider to be the requirement for self-awareness. It is the observer inside the person, the one who senses, feels, and tries to understand everything that happens to them. I could write pages and pages about how mind-blowing it is that sentience would ever get this far... so naturally, I'd like to see exactly how it came about.

You're right, though... I don't know how we'd test for a soul in animals that are already dead, unless we could isolate the soul to a certain physical feature.

How about this, in live animals.

Animals that have passed the mirror test include: all of the great apes (bonobos,[5] chimpanzees,[5][6] orangutans,[7] humans, and gorillas), rhesus macaques,[8] bottlenose dolphins,[5][9][10] orcas,[11] elephants,[12] and European Magpies.[13] Initially, it was thought that gorillas did not pass the test, but there are now several well-documented reports of gorillas (such as Koko[14]) passing the test.

 

[Tiberius]

Well, I don't know how the white-coats define the soul, but in IFB basic doctrine, the soul is that part of the tripartite nature of man that houses the mind, will and emotions.

You told me that you had a scientific definition of what a soul is. Now you tell me that you don't. Have you been lying, AV?

 

[AV1611VET]

Two other people have given their view on what they think the soul is, Tomatoman.

Don't think I'm not noticing that you're not putting them through the same scrutiny you started with me.

To wit:

And where in the body would you locate it?

 

[Nathan Poe]

Two other people have given their view on what they think the soul is, Tomatoman.

Don't think I'm not noticing that you're not putting them through the same scrutiny you started with me.

To wit:

What we're noticing is you waffling like Aunt Jemima.

Run along and play, AV.

 

[CaliforniaSun]

What we're noticing is you waffling like Aunt Jemima.

Run along and play, AV.

I've always imagined this is what creationism does.

YouTube - A familiar smile... What me worry?