Well, technically and biologically speaking, we are “just” animals. And what, exactly, does it mean to be “more” than the sum of one’s parts? What about being the product of one’s parts? All species of animals - and plants too, for that matter - have at least slightly different parts too, so noting our differences from other animals still doesn’t support the argument that we are somehow special and supernatural.
a personality can largely be chemically explained and gender can be biologically explained. intellect, at the current time, cannot be completely explained neurologically, but it might be in the future. what about morality? civilization? math? science? philosophy? culture? all these things that come with being human have to do with finding and/or glorifying God. even the most intelligent non-human animals, our fellow primates, do not have these things, or (in the case of culture) they don’t have them in the way that humans have them. this is what i mean by being more than the sum of our parts. we humans are not that different, biologically, from other primates, but we sure have a lot more than they do. where did it come from? it doesn’t stem from things that can be scientifically investigated. it comes from our human souls.
They certainly don’t disprove the existence of a soul, but they don’t support it either. If there were actual scientific evidence for souls, that would support the idea that souls exist. Until such time as there is direct evidence, then believers in souls and other supernatural entities may take comfort from a lack of decisive disproof, but nothing more.
that was actually my point. you can’t use science to prove or disprove the existence of a soul, so any study on the matter is kind of superfluous. intriguing, yes. useful, possibly. but, for the purposes of actually proving (or disproving) the existence of souls, no.
The soul is 3 mm? Come on, I really hope you don’t actually believe this. There is no logical argument for the soul. That is why they call it “faith.”
please be polite. disagree if you want, using reason and being civil, but don’t attack christine85.
If God sends you to hell for not believing in him, he isn’t worthy of worship. Makes God sound like a big bully to be honest.
i don’t think you understand. romedii didn’t say (and i’m sure didn’t mean) that God actually
sends people to hell. they go there of their own volition. i can’t imagine why someone would want that, but there you go.
Exactly…very smart animals. That is what we are.
i dunno… as mentioned above, i don’t think that mere intellect could account for all of the other aspects that come with being human.
I do seem to recall hearing or reading about experiments done regarding weighing human bodies before and after death, to determine whether the soul has weight - and, therefore, presumably, some detectable substance. At the very least, this does represent a scientifically serious attempt to address the subject! It appears,
according to Wikipedia at least, that there was a Massachusetts doctor named Duncan MacDougall who did actually carry out such experiments in the early 20th century. They don’t seem to have been accorded much weight by the scholarly scientific community, although they have gained a place in popular culture - hence the idea that the soul weighs around about 21 grams.
christine85 posted the snopes article already.
When you look into someones’ eyes you can see their soul. When someones’ eyes sparkle, may it be curious eyes, or happy eyes, or surprised eyes, it’s always an emotion that’s beiing reflected. Reflected from what though? It’s not the lacrimal fluid that makes someones’ eyes sparkle, it’s not the light reflecting the eyes either, and it’s not the smile and face around the eyes either cause if you take that away and only look at the eyes they still sparkle. It’s the soul, it’s always an emotion being reflected, and it’s the soul that does that.
that is perception, since different people see this sparkle differently.
