Do you believe humans have souls?

[Elvis]

I'd like souls to be real, but not in the catholic sense. idk

It's ok Sol baby, http://image.com.com/gamespot/images...6985_front.jpg

[hey]

however, it doesn't explain why the chaos is there in the first place.

Does it need to? I do believe orson was referring specifically to us people, not the entire universe. While we of course cannot explain the first step, once it is in place (whether via magic or some other unknown process), it does not take a far leap to get from there to life.

[Dantrag]

I say yes. But not in a religious sense. But I believe pretty much all sentient beings have a soul.

[Kainos]

I believe anyone who buys 50 cent headphones with their souls.

[Ragnus]

http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp

Personally I'm still a skeptic but I'm not ruling out the possibility. /onthefence

[Brutala]

I'll believe I have a soul when someone offers to buy it.

[Elvis]

I'll believe I have a soul when someone offers to buy it.

1 penny

[Brutala]

I had a feeling the devil posted on BG, just wasn't sure who it was. If that's a serious offer, I'll PM you an account number!

[Elvis]

just give me your lunchables w/ the fun size snickers

[Kaylia]

Does it need to? I do believe orson was referring specifically to us people, not the entire universe. While we of course cannot explain the first step, once it is in place (whether via magic or some other unknown process), it does not take a far leap to get from there to life.

I thought he meant it in a more general way, but I agree with that. Once the first step is set, it doesn't take a huge leap to reach human.

[Demosthenes11]

That's causality not understanding. Even based on that there is some indication of something being infinite. Even if that's just the odds, the universe and/or multiple dimensional planes it's still currently outside of our understanding.

what? Again, if you were to roll 1000 20 side dice, eventually they will all land at "1" at the exact time. That's not "outside of our understanding," that's called probability. You could do it, I could do it, anyone could. Life developing is the same thing. Very specific conditions need to be met for life (as we know life) to be formed. Very specific conditions not too dissimilar to something like those dice. While that seems incredible that it happened, it's really not. There's an estimated ~200 billion galaxies in the universe. That's 200 billion of the milky way galaxy, more or less. And in each galaxy, there are likely around 100 billion stars. Each star is x% likely to have planets, and each planet had equally a y% chance of developing life, just like earth. Even the smallest fraction, multiplied by a few billion, has a pretty good chance of happening.

It's also good to note the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy theory. Though we don't currently believe the universe to be infinite, if it is, every possible planet and event is not only possible, it's guaranteed. There would be an infinite amount of planets, literally exactly like earth - same things happen at the same exact times, all names are the same, languages are exactly the same, but the only difference in the entire history of life there is a single thought by 1 single person. Or one eagle doesn't get a fish at a certain moment. When you deal in infinity, all things are not only possible, but guarantees

[solanis]

judaism says, for the most part, "you can't understand so don't worry about it too much" which is a good approach I think.

[Greatguardian]

No.

Do I know what caused the Universe to form in the first place? Nah. But I do know that we know a hell of a lot more about it now than we used to. I know that countless ideas that our ancestors believed were "unfathomable" or "incomprehensible to the mortal mind" have long since been explained and documented. I know that the sun is a giant ball of Hydrogen and Helium which utilizes multi-step nuclear fusion to generate energy, light, and neutrinos and is not, in fact, "just there".

There's a ton of armchair science and armchair philosophy going on in this thread so I'm just not going to mess with it. Suffice to say, it's not a matter of if we're capable of understanding the human mind and consciousness, it's just a matter of when. We'll figure it out. It's what we do. Humans are not static creatures. They are, like every other life form on the planet, dynamic and evolving. We strive to better ourselves and our understanding of the world around us. To be content in one's knowledge or understanding - most especially to be content with saying "I don't know" - is to lose a little bit of what it means to be alive.

[solanis]

whoa, that post was MASSIVE deja vu. has this discussion happened before?

[Xantavia]

My biggest gripe about souls (from a religious POV) is that it doesn't leave room for intelligent life outside of humans. If man was made in the image and likeness of God, where does that leave E.T.? Do they have a soul, too? How is that even possible?

I loved how in the book Strangers, "image of god" was described as being the positive intangible qualities of people (compassion, empathy), and not physical appearance at all. I think religion would be a lot less messy if we didn't concern ourselves with the way other people looked.

I'll believe I have a soul when someone offers to buy it.

This guy bought them for a beer.

[Kuya]

To the thread title:

No.

[Greatguardian]

whoa, that post was MASSIVE deja vu. has this discussion happened before?

Probably about a bajillion times, give or take

[Kaylia]

There's a ton of armchair science and armchair philosophy going on in this thread so I'm just not going to mess with it. Suffice to say, it's not a matter of if we're capable of understanding the human mind and consciousness, it's just a matter of when. We'll figure it out. It's what we do. Humans are not static creatures. They are, like every other life form on the planet, dynamic and evolving. We strive to better ourselves and our understanding of the world around us. To be content in one's knowledge or understanding - most especially to be content with saying "I don't know" - is to lose a little bit of what it means to be alive.

No, it's not. As long the origin of the world is left unanswered, there will always be room for people to believe in concept like "soul", "free will", or "God".

Sure, we discovered the brain, we discovered cells, we understood chemistry and quantum mechanics, but the questions never changed, and we aren't closer to answerthem.

[Greatguardian]

No, it's not. As long the origin of the world is left unanswered, there will always be room for people to believe in concept like "soul", "free will", or "God".

Sure, we discovered the brain, we discovered cells, we understood chemistry and quantum mechanics, but the questions never changed, and we aren't closer to answerthem.

The origin of the world? Or the universe? We already have the answer to one of those. We didn't before, but do now. Aren't you a physicist?

Edit: And what the hell does discovering how the brain manifests consciousness have to do with the existence of God? Even if Astronomy hits a wall for a while, Biopsych and Neuroscience aren't going to just stop working because people don't know what caused the Big Bang. These are two completely separate ideas.

[RKenshin]

I think the point is more that it doesn't matter how well science can explain something, many people simply won't believe it. Especially if they don't actually understand the science; and by default the majority of the people usually will not.

I mean, in the past 50 years the number of people that believe the 'theory' of evolution has actually decreased.

I think we're an incredibly long, long, long time from everyone embracing scientific explanations in these areas (if it will ever happen).