The radio waves aren't comparable to souls, though, are they? The radio waves are frequencies that contain information, same as a book or your computer screen displays information. It has no capacity to interpret or understand that information.
Consciousness question
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The radio waves aren't comparable to souls, though, are they? The radio waves are frequencies that contain information, same as a book or your computer screen displays information. It has no capacity to interpret or understand that information.
Well, if I could look into my mind and see what appeared to be "other" souls, what would you compare it to? Or, even if it were merely a hallucination, to what would you ascribe the effect? Obviously something is being generated in order for you to see it, correct? ... But how?
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I couldn't tell you how, except to say that that's how the brain was programmed to work.
Would you imagine that the soul is the information processed by your brain, or is it separate from the information processing altogether?
If it is part of the process: Since the information (processed from your senses by your brain) is created by the brain, is your soul created by the brain as well?
If it is completely separate: Does your soul then contain any information at all? If your soul leaves your body, does it take information away from the brain and carry it to wherever it goes? Ex. If my soul were to enter your body, would it be able to carry with it information from my brain?
This is all hypothetical, and I won't call or think of you as nuts, regardless of how you answer.
You don't see these as signals that are being generated (from the brain or, whatever), by which you, "the observer" interact with? And what happens when you're dreaming? How do these imgages get created? And why do you seem to be able to "morph" just as readily as any of the other images in your dreams?I couldn't tell you how, except to say that that's how the brain was programmed to work.
I don't have time to get into the rest of this right now, I'm at work. Sorry.
I understand them as being sensed by my sensory organs (ear, nose, mouth, skin, etc.), and the information is only processed in the brain. I don't think the brain creates any images, only interprets.
For instance, your eyes create the visual images, then sends the signals to your brain. Your brain determines what those images represent.
As far as images in dreams, that is the REM. There is a lot of stuff that goes on during sleep, so it's difficult to pinpoint what is responsible for what. But something about REM is responsible for dreams.
I don't have time to get into the rest of this right now, I'm at work. Sorry.
Do what ya gotta do! Hope you enjoy it.
Obviously if the soul lived on after death, there would have to be more to it than just the informaton processed by the brain.
No, the brain merely entertains the soul.
The soul exists, I believe, through its association with the spiritual world. All of which exists (throughout) by means of a continual exchange/influx of information.
What, do you mean if your soul were to leave your body first? I'm not sure. What I do know is that those spirits (or souls) who were most like us in real life, are the ones who are closest to us now, even as we speak. Whether we're aware of their presence or not.
Fair enough.
(Sorry! I looked over your post!) Optimistic, of course.
What I think I'm trying to get at is the fact that, as we experience more things, our mind changes. We have critical stages in life, particularly early life but also throughout our lives, where we process information differently. Since our thought processes change, does that mean that our spirit changes as well?
If our spirit is linked to the information we input into our brains, then our spirit should be in a constant state of change, as is the rest of our body.
If the spirit, from birth to death, does not change, then it is not connected to the information process, because as we processed new information that changed our perceptions, the soul would have changed as well.
Do you believe that the soul retains information and, as long as you are alive, is constantly in a state of change; or do you believe that the soul is disconnected from the information your brain processes and remains constant throughout your life?
Z
Variable Constant
Not if God cannot die.
And, if the soul were indestructible?
Z
Variable Constant
Then the 'soul' would not be alive, either. Luckily, all indications - mystical and otherwise - indicate that, IF the 'soul' exists, it can most certainly be destroyed. In fact, according to Christian beliefs, the soul is a rather fragile and fickle thing.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
I would say that if such a thing as "spirit" exists, then it must certainly change. When does a person acquire their "spirit"? Is it at conception? Birth? And what would you say about a spirit in such a person. You would almost certainly have to say that it was inexperienced. As a person gains experience, their personality changes. I would think that spirit or soul must certainly reflect the personality of the person. That is what we almost always talk about when we say a person's "spirit" will live on. It was the way they lived their life that we are describing.
And if the way a person lives their life is their "spirit" then a person who dies at age one has a much different spirit than one who lives to 95. In fact, it is different at each phase of their life.
Frankly, I don't believe that spirits actually exist. I think it is a term used to describe certain aspects of personality and perhaps knowledge. But even if you do believe that these survive, you ought to agree that such things change during your life, sometimes drastically.
Using the hypothetical 'IF', what of people whose mental states deteriorate as they grow older? Does their spirit also suffer a deterioration?
If you use this as a measure of spirit, you are defining spirit circularly, from observation of behavior. Spirit, then, is superfluous, and parsimony dictates we remove it from the equation.
If you define spirit as independent of such things, you are defining it as unobservable. As such, there is no, and can be no, evidence for it.
Spirit is not a logically supportable concept.
I know, I was trying to break the spirit down to two groups:
1. The spirit carries with it the knowledge you possess in life. Therefore, your spirit develops as your experiences increase. It also deterioriates as your mind does.
2. Your spirit remains static throughout your lifetime. It is not connected to the brain or its functions, and does not carry any knowledge of your experiences.
It's gotta be one of the two, right? Either it's in a constant state of change, or it remains constant - if it exists at all.
Tricky
Briefly immortal
I'd have to say yes. After all, have you not heard aging people say something to the effect of "my spirit is not as bold as it once was."
No, it could be conceived as some combination of the two. Like perhaps major catharses will change your spirit, but not the humdrum of day to day.
As for number 2, what do you call "lifetime". From the moment of conception? It seems more than a little silly to say that a single-celled zygote has a "spirit", but if not, then when does it enter?
But as you say, we are speaking purely hypothetically here. And since we are being hypothetical, we can say any damn thing we like about the nature of the spirit.
I've already stated that I find the concept of a spirit that exists apart from your body to be incoherent, but I like talking about it because it makes it more apparent that such a concept is fraught with self contradiction and unjustifiable assumptions.
I already wrote this, but just to be explicit about it, to address each of these:
1) As I wrote before...this is a circularly defined entity.
2) Exhibits no evidence of itself. Cannot be detected.
If it has to be one of these two...choose one or the other. Either it has no logical backing, or it has no empirical backing. Either way works. It does not exist.
I don't have to choose either, because I'm the one posing the hypothetical question! I don't believe in a spirit, either, I'm just having a little logic fun with the possibilities.
Perhaps if it is a combination of the two - the soul contains an absolute awareness of the universe, but is not directly connected to the brain in a way that it can communicate with the brain. How can it experience life as a human, though?
God did it through Jesus pretty much this way. (Remember, hypothetically.) The spirit of God was inside Jesus' body, but Jesus was not aware or able to communicate 1-1 between his mind and spirit.
Any ideas on how to make this make some sort of sense, maybe start a new religion, or are we just done with this thread?
Remember, that upon death this mysterious thing called "life" leaves the body? Obviously the "physical" body doesn't persist.
Yes. In fact we need not look any further than our dreams. Our spirit (the entity within the dream) is always changing with respect to the background of the dream environment, where we continue to play different roles. In fact I once had a dream where somebody picked me up by the scruff of the neck because they thought I was a little kitten. Strange ...
And understand this. When we call up some sort of mental imagery from our brain (or previous memory), we are also calling up a previous association with the spiritual world. So in that sense both are linked. It's sort of like in conjunction with our brain, which is local (to us), there's also a great big harddrive up in the sky which, is the supporting network. Everybody's mind is hooked up to this network in other words.
Yes.
I believe that everything pertaining to the soul is contained within the processes of "the network." Oh, and to the degree that we are hailed as "good programmers," our work becomes incorporated and is implemented as part of the processes above.
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