Soul

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(Scientific view)
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Many people do still refer to the soul in a metaphorical sense without thinking of something magical and immaterial.
 
Many people do still refer to the soul in a metaphorical sense without thinking of something magical and immaterial.
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==Scientific Arguments against the existence of soul==
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The soul is usually described as an immaterial "thing" in a way that implies that it contains someone's conciousness, personality, personhood and memories. After all, what would be the point of a soul surviving death, that doesn't think or have any memory? In the objective universe however that worldview conflicts with the following realities:
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- Brain Damage
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- Strokes
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- Epilepsy
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- Electrode stimulation
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- Transcranial magnetic stimulation
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- Split Brain patients
  
 
==History of the Hebrew / Christian concept==
 
==History of the Hebrew / Christian concept==

Revision as of 22:30, 22 February 2010

The soul is the name given to the supposed immaterial part of an individual, which some believe can exist separately from the body in the afterlife. It's considered by those who believe in it to be a self evident and intrinsic part of humanity. It is an important aspect of much religious -particularly when concerning the afterlife- and political thought.

Contents

Scientific view

The concept of the soul it is not recognized by science because it is both non-falsifiable and supernatural. The soul is postulated by believers to be completely immaterial. Scientists who attempt, and without exception fail, to find evidence of the soul (see Weighing the soul below) will usually be told that they can't measure or characterise it anyway. Like other beliefs of its kind, this makes the idea of the soul somewhat immune to scrutiny because believers can always turn around and play this particular card against soulless scientists. This is considered odd among scientists and disbelievers in the "soul" because if something can't be measured or tested -directly or indirectly- in any way, then it can't affect the material world and therefore is, in all practicality and in all actuality, non-existent.

Many people do still refer to the soul in a metaphorical sense without thinking of something magical and immaterial.

Scientific Arguments against the existence of soul

The soul is usually described as an immaterial "thing" in a way that implies that it contains someone's conciousness, personality, personhood and memories. After all, what would be the point of a soul surviving death, that doesn't think or have any memory? In the objective universe however that worldview conflicts with the following realities:

- Brain Damage - Strokes - Epilepsy - Electrode stimulation - Transcranial magnetic stimulation - Split Brain patients

History of the Hebrew / Christian concept

Before the influence of the Greek concept of the psyche on Hebrew thought, the bible's authors only spoke of a man having breath (spirit), and any living creature was called a "soul". In fact, the belief in consciousness after death was explicitly denied in the Old Testament. Ecclesiastes 9:5: "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten."

New Testament

Even the New Testament speaks only of a promised resurrection of the dead at the end of time, with two notable exceptions: Jesus relates a parable of a rich man burning in hell, and later on the cross Jesus says to the Good Thief, "I say to you, this day you will be with me in Paradise".

The former was a parable which was intended to convey what Christians consider a truth about the need to convert before death and judgment, not necessarily to convey actual conditions in the afterlife. The latter can be explained by the fact that the original Greek text did not use commas, so the insertion of the comma after the word "you" was an arbitrary choice of the translators. If the comma is moved, the passage then reads "I say to you this day, you will be with me in Paradise" which allows for the traditional understanding of a bodily resurrection at the end of time rather than a disembodied state immediately after death.

In this sense it is similar to: "Woman without her man is an animal." and "Woman, without her, man is an animal." You make your arbitrary choice and chose the meaning that appeals to your existing beliefs.

Weighing the soul

In an effort to put the soul onto a more scientific footing Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts tried, in 1901, to weigh the soul.

He took a dying man and weighed him until the moment of death at which point he apparently noticed a reduction in weight of three fourths of an ounce. He subsequently repeated the experiment with fifteen unfortunate dogs and found no such reduction.

Over time he repeated the experiment with five other dying humans - and got a variety of differing results which rather invalidated his premise.[1]

Famous mangled quotes

  • "Soul is the brevity of wit"

See also

Footnotes

  1. snopes: Soul Man

External links

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