Where does the soul reside?

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June 10th, 2016 at 6:35:01 PM permalink
FrGamble
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 67
Posts: 7596
I believe the soul doesn't reside in any one part of the body but is rather the essence or core of who we are. It encompasses our personality, sense of humor, our freedom, likes and interests, dislikes, and it is infused throughout our body. We don't lose a piece of it when a limb or finger is cut off. When we are "brain dead" and our body alive our soul is very much still there and still immortal. We may have lost our ability to interact with the world around us but our soul still feels and knows. For example when our loved ones are in the room caring for us, our soul feels and knows this even though our body cannot perceive or acknowledge this. Death is the separation of our soul from our body. However, we are never fully human or fully complete until we once again are reunited with our bodies, in their glorified state, in Heaven. As human beings we are this amazing combination of body and soul. As just a body we are a corpse. As just a soul we are not fully human.

By the way this brings us back a little bit to the very interesting discussion we were having about the nature of humanity. We are deep thinkers, reasonable beings, we are able to wonder and be in awe and ask big questions about the world we live in. This is essential to who we are and what makes a human soul so unique and extraordinary in my opinion.
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” (
June 10th, 2016 at 7:06:26 PM permalink
kenarman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 14
Posts: 4470
Quote: FrGamble
I believe the soul doesn't reside in any one part of the body but is rather the essence or core of who we are. It encompasses our personality, sense of humor, our freedom, likes and interests, dislikes, and it is infused throughout our body. We don't lose a piece of it when a limb or finger is cut off. When we are "brain dead" and our body alive our soul is very much still there and still immortal. We may have lost our ability to interact with the world around us but our soul still feels and knows. For example when our loved ones are in the room caring for us, our soul feels and knows this even though our body cannot perceive or acknowledge this. Death is the separation of our soul from our body. However, we are never fully human or fully complete until we once again are reunited with our bodies, in their glorified state, in Heaven. As human beings we are this amazing combination of body and soul. As just a body we are a corpse. As just a soul we are not fully human.

By the way this brings us back a little bit to the very interesting discussion we were having about the nature of humanity. We are deep thinkers, reasonable beings, we are able to wonder and be in awe and ask big questions about the world we live in. This is essential to who we are and what makes a human soul so unique and extraordinary in my opinion.


Padre when do you believe our soul is created?
"but if you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." Benjamin Franklin
June 10th, 2016 at 7:09:55 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18633
Quote: FrGamble
I believe the soul doesn't reside in any one part of the body but is rather the essence or core of who we are.


Somewhere, someday, two mature animals (apes) will have their brains successfully switched by an operation.

I predict they will be where their brain is.

Who knows, maybe in some place like N. Korea they will do it in humans.

(that sort of brain surgery might eventually be possible with further advances in healing spinal injuries.)

Quote:
In 1970, after a long series of preliminary experiments, White performed a transplant of one monkey head onto the body of another monkey. Because the surgery included severing the spine at the neck, the subjects were paralyzed from the neck down. After the surgery, because the cranial nerves within the brain were still intact and nourished by the circulatory system from the new body, the monkey could still hear, smell, taste, eat and follow objects with its eyes.[6]

Ultimately, immune rejection caused the monkey to die after nine days.[7] Dr. Jerry Silver, an expert in regrowing severed nerves, called White's experiments on monkeys, "fairly barbaric."[8]

During the 1990s, White planned to perform the same operation on humans and practiced on corpses at a mortuary. It was hoped he could do head transplant surgery on the physicist Stephen Hawking and the actor Christopher Reeve[7] The continuation of White's work in head transplantation research and application has been discussed recently in the neurosurgical literature by Dr. Canavero;[9] the feasibility of spinal cord reconstruction and cephalo-spinal linkage in humans has received recent support by a German study.[10]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._White


I'd have to be pretty desperate to try a whole body transplant, but I suppose one could be that desperate.
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
June 10th, 2016 at 7:16:40 PM permalink
FrGamble
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 67
Posts: 7596
Quote: kenarman
Padre when do you believe our soul is created?


I believe the soul is created at conception.
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” (
June 10th, 2016 at 7:18:21 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: FrGamble
It encompasses our personality, sense of humor, .


This makes no sense. Ever know somebody
with advanced Alzheimers or dementia?
They no longer have a personality or
sense of humor, has their soul departed
them? Your soul is the essence of who
you are and has nothing to do with your
like of bacon and eggs or Jeopardy on
TV. Your personality and memories are
connected to your body, not your soul.
They are place holders your brain makes
so you don't lose your way in your current
reality.

When someone dies an unexpected quick
death, the memories of the last personality
that soul had inadvertently travel with
it to the next incarnation. But as the child
matures, those memories are forgotten
because they aren't relevant anymore.

Your personality is part of your brain; your
soul, your essence, is separate. Even the
Buddha spoke of this at length. Don't
get too connected to anything in this
life, it doesn't carry over to the next.
Concentrate on being in harmony with
your inner self, that does carry over.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
June 10th, 2016 at 7:27:47 PM permalink
FrGamble
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 67
Posts: 7596
Quote: Evenbob
This makes no sense. Ever know somebody
with advanced Alzheimers or dementia?
They no longer have a personality or
sense of humor, has their soul departed
them?


I don't think so. Their is an illness of the body that effects the ability of the soul to manifest itself in things like personality and sense of humor, but it is still there. There are often glimpses of this beautiful soul of the person even in the midst of the debilitating disease of Alzheimer's.

Quote:
Your soul is the essence of who
you are and has nothing to do with your
like of bacon and eggs or Jeopardy on
TV.


Yes, I think when I meant your likes and dislikes I was thinking of bigger things like music or athletics, etc.
“It is with the smallest brushes that the artist paints the most exquisitely beautiful pictures.” (
June 10th, 2016 at 8:03:51 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: FrGamble
There are often glimpses of this beautiful soul of the person



Personality is a product of the brain. It's the
interaction between our experience and our
genetic make-up that makes us who we are.
We aren't born with it, we develop it. A baby
has no personality at birth, but starts to
develop one immediately.

It's interesting that some people who die
on the operating table for a few minutes,
report floating above their bodies. They
say they see loved ones nearby and know
them but don't have feelings for them
one way or the other. They remember their
life, but it seems very unimportant. This
has been reported happening numerous
times in near death experiences.

The person your brain developed is not
important, it serves you in the here and
now. Your soul is eternal, your personality
is something you shed when you die
because it's no longer needed.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
June 11th, 2016 at 5:11:08 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: FrGamble
I believe the soul doesn't reside in any one part of the body but is rather the essence or core of who we are.


You are half right.

But saying the soul does not reside in any one part of the body is akin to saying the heartbeat doesn't reside in the heart.


Quote:
It encompasses our personality, sense of humor, our freedom, likes and interests, dislikes,


This is all true. And the proof that it is a a function of the brain is simple. Brain damage can change it. Not all instances of brain damage and not in every case, but the cases where this happens are well documented. If the damage is severe enough, as in cases of comma or ischemia so severe parts of the brain die, the soul is shut down along with the brain.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
June 11th, 2016 at 5:26:08 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
Quote: rxwine
I'd have to be pretty desperate to try a whole body transplant, but I suppose one could be that desperate.


It has been seriously suggested to treat cases of quadriplegia, that's when one's spinal cord is severed high up and one is paralyzed from the neck down.

It sounds reasonable.

BUT.

But transplanting the whole body would involve severing the spinal cord from both the host body and the recipient's head. If a means were found of successfully knitting it back together and getting it fully functional, then why not apply that method to the paralyzed patient instead?

It might work very well, though, as a means of extending life. But then we get into Niven territory. How many people die of injuries or diseases that leave the body whole and healthy? There is a loophole, though, or there may be...
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
June 11th, 2016 at 8:25:53 AM permalink
kenarman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 14
Posts: 4470
Quote: Nareed
You are half right.

But saying the soul does not reside in any one part of the body is akin to saying the heartbeat doesn't reside in the heart.




This is all true. And the proof that it is a a function of the brain is simple. Brain damage can change it. Not all instances of brain damage and not in every case, but the cases where this happens are well documented. If the damage is severe enough, as in cases of comma or ischemia so severe parts of the brain die, the soul is shut down along with the brain.


Although I expect you are right and the soul would reside in the brain what is the proof that makes you so positive it is true Nareed?
I am reminded of something right up your alley. An old sci-fi book I read as a kid (probably Heinlein but I'm not sure) where alliens arrive on earth and could communicate telepathically. The only problem was the organ used by the humans was the tonsils so many people who had their tonsils removed couldn't communicate with the aliens.

If brain damage can destroy the soul does the soul slowly 'die' as the brain damage increases or does the soul remain fully functional until it 'dies' suddenly?
"but if you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." Benjamin Franklin
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