Abacus

It isn't anything, just like so much of what the mystics would have us believe.

SimplyAtheistic

Wait, so a brain is like a computer. I can agree with this to a point. This proves to be a problem for you though. If a brain is like a computer, then the soul is completely useless. The brain holds "software", or your own unique composition of neurons, and receives input through the five senses. Just like a computer could receive input from a camera. We make decisions based on what we know, and a computer can make decisions based on what it can sense. Once we can program a computer to be self-aware, will you still believe in a soul? If you see the brain as somewhat likened to a computer, I don't see where this "soul" comes in.
Jake

yguy

By your reasoning, it appears that YOU are useless, since your computer can process lots of info that you cannot. I contend that the soul is as useless to the brain as you are to your computer.

Wounded King

Are you actually trying to draw an analogy here Yguy or just making the contention for the hell of it?

As analogies go the Human>Computer = Soul>Brain is a pretty poor one. Are you suggesting that the soul constructed the brain? That the soul programmed the brain? That the soul just got the brain but didnt actually read the user manual and is just fiddling with it to get the hang of things? That the soul needs a new brain every 3 years?

Could you think of a more explicit analogy?

As to embarassment being a measurable property of a soul, puhleease! I hope your soul is suitably embarrassed at that ridiculous suggestion. A subjective emotion is hardly the sort of factor people look for as repeatable and measureable. And if such emotions originate from the soul why are they affected by organic damage to the brain?

Goober

Thanks for the link, Wounded King. Interesting stuff, I'm still trying to get my head around it.

Anyway, back to adressing yguy.

Well you can't have the brain in heaven that you had on earth, all evidence points to the fact that it stays right here!

More to the point if you need a recreation of your brain in heaven anyway, and if neuroscience can offer a more plausible explanation than anything a soul theory can offer then whats the need to postulate the existence of a soul?

It seems to be totally redundant. We can't see it, prove it exists, we don't need it to explain how we think, and god would need to take your brain to heaven anyway regardless of the soul. Why do you need to postulate it's existence? Surely it would be easier to say it's all just a function of the brain and your brain is recreated in heaven (presumably with your body attatched).

paul30

I am sure everyone will agree that the Tenth Commandment, at least, is depraved.

It forbids us to "covet" things, yet that is precisely what the oceans of advertising we see every minute of every day want us to do.

And we all know that the True Religion is Capitalism.

(Blessed be its Holy Name.)

yguy

No more than I built my computer.

Nope. The soul is the operator. I don't have to know much about how my computer works to get it to access information. When someone posts a link here, I have only the vaguest idea how it ends up on my screen, but whether to believe or pay attention to that link is my decision, not the computer's.

Not at the moment.

If those qualities are your holy grail, you are wasting your time talking to me.

I don't know of evidence that the capacity for embarassment is affected by such damage directly. Obviously impairment of the capacity to interpret sensory input would affect it indirectly, but only with respect to interaction with other people.

Abacus

I have a question for any theists. Do you believe that other organisms besides homo sapiens have souls?

yguy

For my own purposes, I don't postulate the soul's existence, I know it. Postulation in this case is only a device which facilitates discussion.

I think we need it to explain why we think as we do - especially with regard to the exclusively human capacity for self-deception - and why we are able to observe our thoughts.

No, He wouldn't, for the reason I stated before.

yguy

No. At least no animal that I've ever looked in the eye has one.