Help, tragedy, neurology and the soul

[DanAl]

Hi everyone, I really need some help please. I’m barely hanging onto my rational believe in God, and I don’t know if I will get it back. A few months ago, my family experienced a tragedy. My father was helping me walk, (I have physical disability) When we both slipped and fell because of the snow. We twisted in the air down our front steps. Maybe he twisted deliberately to protect me but I Will never know. He sustained massive brain damage. The head neurosurgeon said that his brain was at a 3.5 out of a 15 point scale, Basically meaning very bad news. He spent 18 days in the hospital, most of it in an induced coma. He never woke up. In the end we took him off the ventilator because that is what his power of attorney directed us to do. I feel devastated. I feel tremendous guilt, Doubt that there is a God, And really really doubt The existence of an immortal soul. I did some research on neurology, And I’m sure you guys are familiar with the hard problem of consciousness, And the theory that the mind and brain are the same thing. Trouble is, I now think those materialists may be correct. How do you exist without a functioning brain and body? There is the theory that the mind and brain are not the same thing, That the mind is really the thug driving in the car a.k.a. the soul, And just can’t express itself when the brain has been severely damaged . This would appear to fit with theology , But how realistic is it? Many neurologists have done experiments with things like the "God helmet"which gives people mystical experiences. This might suggest that every vision is really a hallucination. I have even run across theories that that St. Paul and St. Joan of arc were epileptic, And the disciples were hallucinating when they had the resurrection experiences. I’ve run across theories that the resurrection story could be made up. many atheists think that religion itself may be a construct of the mind an evolutionary or social construct. They say thoughts and emotions are just chemicals, And death is the end. The afterlife is just made up. I really don’t want to believe them, But my daddy’s brain was so damaged that they could be right. He wasn’t even there. It felt like no God was in control during the accident, And to make matters worse, I had just prayed to God to spare my parents from tragedy. The very fact this happened felt like no God had heard my prayer. What kind of loving father would allow my father to be taken away from my family in this way? While he was helping me, and when he knew that I would feel tremendous guilt and doubt because of the accident? When you have a disability, you’re supposed to be able to trust that The person helping you Will not get hurt and ultimately die from the injuries, Much less your own father. When I google “what happens after you die” There are a lot of atheists out there, who basically again, say that heaven is made up, And that everything you are is in the brain. Neurologists can stimulate parts of the brain to initiate experiences, and can even do an experiment in which, by putting a special helmet on the head , They can predict correctly your choices from options on the computer screen, therefore showing that there might be a correlation between brain chemicals and free will. Which there obviously is. Think of people on heavy medication. I would like to believe that my dad has an immortal soul, And in the existence of God but how can someone exist without a brain or body, Especially if the two are really correlated, As they appear to be? I’ve even looked into things like near-death experiences and deathbed visions all of which appear to have a scientific explanation. So, my question is this: are we just deceiving ourselves given what we know about modern neuroscience? Again, I’m familiar with the driver in the car analogy, But this really might be an unrealistic explanation, Especially if our thoughts and emotions are chemicals as is often claimed. I’m really scared, sad and don’t know how to gain my believe in God back after what I have experienced. I just think believing in an immortal soul is unrealistic, And that the atheists are right : death is
end. I don’t want to think this way, but I think I’m being realistic. Could anyone help me please? How do I regain faith and trust in God and does anyone know when the pain will start to get better? Thank you and God bless everyone

I’ll keep this simple and to the point: Do not be baffled by science. Many people smarter than you and I and better at neuroscience have been christians. Keep in mind that belief is an act of the will first and foremost. Remember that many people when presented with the same facts come to different conclusions. How would you explain that they become or are affirmed in their atheism while others believe in God? By God’s (or lack of) grace and a disposition of the will to see things however they are predisposed to see them.

Pray to God for grace so you won’t fall away from the faith.

 

[Padster]

But what of the resurrection and eternal life? If you read the Bible, you’ll see that, in the resurrection, we have bodies. We are “awakened” to life. There is not the slightest hint, in the Bible, that we will spend time as disembodied souls. This is not part of the Christian belief system; rather, it is a superstition. It’s Plato, not Christ.

So you see, we die, in these bodies, and are awakened (immediately, I suppose) to life in new bodies. In both sets of bodies, I would guess that the brain is just as critical.

Such thoughts and beliefs are nonsensical. I know it is the Catholic position but I strongly disagree with it. Because it limits us to a human existence once again after we die. If the brain is ‘just as critical’ in both bodies then we need all the other accoutrements necessary to support life too. And all the problems of earth get transported to heaven. For example, If we need a stomach, we need to eat, and would have to compete with each other for food, and therefore survival of the fittest comes into play again. Personally speaking, should I get to Heaven I want to be disembodied. I don’t want to be lumbered with a body again. I’ve had enough of that down here. The idea of a ‘reconstituted body’ is utterly depressing, like floor scrapings off a meat production line. If I seriously accepted it as an idea or a belief I would no longer have a faith.

Since it is, I think, impossible for a form to exist without matter, the form must be instantiated in a body, in Heaven.

This is incorrect. There are in existence beings which do not have physical bodies. We cannot see them, and so assume that it is not possible. But it is possible. In fact, for those people fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to interact with them, it is reality.

Best wishes,
Padster

 

[Prodigal_Son]

Such thoughts and beliefs are nonsensical. I know it is the Catholic position but I strongly disagree with it.

It is not “the” Catholic position. It is a possible Catholic position.

Because it limits us to a human existence once again after we die.

We are humans. Of course, we are limited to a human existence.

If the brain is ‘just as critical’ in both bodies then we need all the other accoutrements necessary to support life too. And all the problems of earth get transported to heaven. For example, If we need a stomach, we need to eat, and would have to compete with each other for food, and therefore survival of the fittest comes into play again.

False. There will be no scarcity in Heaven. And one need not assume that the resurrected body is exactly like our current bodies. But it is necessary that there BE a resurrected body – that is Scriptural.

Personally speaking, should I get to Heaven I want to be disembodied. I don’t want to be lumbered with a body again. I’ve had enough of that down here. The idea of a ‘reconstituted body’ is utterly depressing, like floor scrapings off a meat production line. If I seriously accepted it as an idea or a belief I would no longer have a faith.

Resurrected bodies would not be subject to the vicissitudes of our bodies in the here and now.

This is incorrect. There are in existence beings which do not have physical bodies. We cannot see them, and so assume that it is not possible. But it is possible. In fact, for those people fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to interact with them, it is reality.

I think you’re right about this, actually – my bad. God is pure action, pure form. So are angels. But human beings are not. Just like it is the nature of Legos to have connectors, it is the nature of humans to have bodies.