Talk:Soul

Cleaned up this article a bit, needs to cite sources though. - anon

Looks suspiciously like satire to me... but I cant take it out, it does make an argument, and I cant see the counter-argument! We need a philosopher to take a look at it and produce a nice solid proof that the soul exists. Or at the very least, explain what it does.

Cut from article:

To date, there is no definitive record of a soul being observed and detected, although Dr. Duncan MacDougall did conduct an experiment that recorded a weight of two-tenths of an ounce in 1907. As the soul clearly exists - without it, an afterlife would not be possible and all of Christianity would be wrong -the only possible explanation for the lack of observations is that the soul must me invisible in all wavelengths, able to pass through ordinary matter, and thus difficult to detect. As an undetectable object cannot be proven not to exist, it follows that it must exist.

The soul is widely considered to be responsible for some function [citation needed]. Exactly what this something is remains a subject of debate, as all of the traditional functions for the soul - higher thinking, emotions, a moral sense, memory - have now been identified as a function of the brain. However, as there would be little point in saving a soul without memories, it is likely the soul replicates the contents of the brain.

I dispute the part about "identified as a function of the brain". Researchers have merely determined that if various parts of the brain are destroyed or severed, then these functions are impaired. --Ed Poor 06:42, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Reverting: Already understood soul can not be viewed by what is stated above. Giving a list of devices that can not find it is therefore meaningless. Concept of the brain taking over the roles of the soul not cited; would need specific back up. Had already merged in thoughts on when soul enters the body. Little else of use except to be controversial to be controversial. Learn together 13:37, 30 May 2007 (EDT)

Oh, revert war, fun! I wont just rever though, I want to have a think about this and see if I can make what I wrote a bit clearer. But...

• I will try to be clearer regarding the implications of the non-falsifiability of the soul, and the idea that the absence of evidence after an intense search can be strong evidence of absence, even though it can never be absolute proof.
• I will see what I can dig up for citations on the brain thing.
• Thanks for the merge, but I was a little annoyed to see how much it shrunk.
• I was being controversial in the hope of provoking some debate here. The nature of the soul is a rather vaguely-defined thing, I would like to see some discussion take place over it.

- Suricou

I think you're spinning your wheels a bit unless you can get something more concrete. Wanting to debate philosophical questions isn't going to make it into the final article in any form that detracts from the 'concise' nature of conservapedia. This isn't wiki. Trying to be controversial for the sake of being controversial isn't what conservapedia is all about. On the other hand, if you dig up meaningful information that adds to the knowledge of the soul, then by all means it will find its way into the article. I included your question on the soul in regard to abortion because that is a meaningful consideration. Talking about if twins have 1/2 a soul or what happens with chimeras is silly. If you want to dig and get research on the early church fathers and their concept of a soul and how that ties into modern brain function, some form of that would probably stay as well. Learn together 14:03, 30 May 2007 (EDT)

Regarding the soul and animals

My knowledge on this is a bit rusty, but what is the official doctrine of churches on the presence of souls in animals? If my memory serves me well, the churches agree that animals are granted temporary souls in order in inhabit Earth, but only humans have permanent everlasting souls. The exception (again with the memory!) is Buddhism, which believe in reincarnation, hence, the soul is permanant untill achieving nhirvana (spelling?) EelisA 23:54, 15 December 2008 (EST)