Where does the soul reside?

Quote: kenarman

Unfortunately Nareed, Alzheimers is a disease I am very familiar with loosing both my father and my mother-in-law to the disease.

I'm very sorry to hear that. It as not my intention to awake painful memories.

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The puzzle of life is scrambled for them most of the time but it is not gone.

No, it's not gone. Alzheimer's does not disable the brain. My point is that if the soul were distinct from the brain, then things like dementia wouldn't happen. Disorders of the motor cortex, sensory processing and such would, but none involving how the soul thinks or feels. The fact that you see the personality affected by how the brain is affected is a perfect correlation between one and the other.

Quote: rxwine

The latest suggestion I've read is the plaque could be the normal result of the body fighting recurring infection. But it's either fighting a lot of infections, or it's overreacting.

I've read something about that recently. It seems the amyloid beta peptides involved in forming the plaque, actually are part of the brain's defenses against infection. It could be a malfunction of that particular mechanism, or it might be due to a persistent infection which cannot be fought any other way (the brain is a funny organ in how it interacts with some of the body's other systems). What was incredible is how the condition could be switched on in rats simply by infecting them with a specific bacterium.

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So, if you took goo that screws up a transmission device, yes, there could be underlying brain tissue function that might occasionally show through (for reasons unknown).

Metabolism is an ongoing process. Nothing stays still for long within cells or between them. Additionally neurons constantly interact with other neurons, and the brain retains a great deal of plasticity for life (that's how come you can always learn something new and form new memories as well). So there are bound to be ups and downs so long as no structures are wiped out entirely.

Quote: Evenbob

I'm not going to start a ghost religion
and force others to believe as I do.

Well that's good. If you change your mind, just don't ask me for a donation and I'll be happy.

That's a pet peeve. If someone's religion says, their god will provide. Then let 'em. I sure don't want to donate to your able and worthy provider god. Maybe I should get that on a T-shirt.

Quote: pew

There is no evidence that a soul exists.

Not in the classical sense as an immaterial, incorporeal, eternal something, no.

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Atheists are materialists in that they believe that only matter and energy actually exist, therefore the scientific method based on materialism is the barometer of knowledge about our universe.

That's overly simplistic.

To be sure, that's true of some atheists, but hardly all or even most. A great many may not believe in the Biblical god (the common definition of atheist), but that doesn't keep them from being taken in by equally nonsensical beliefs like astrology, numerology, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc.

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You can't be an atheist/materialist and also say that there is an immaterial/ supernatural anything.

Why group the immaterial, which is real, with the supernatural, which is not?

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Science wont allow it and science is all the atheist has.

Oh, hell no. See above. But for the rest of us, we also have logic, philosophy, history, the social sciences (massively flawed as they are), scholarship and more.

Quote: Nareed

I'm very sorry to hear that. It as not my intention to awake painful memories.

No harm done I have reconcilled to the inevitable death of loved and myself sometime ago. Death is as natural as life and can't be avoided forevever.


, it's not gone. Alzheimer's does not disable the brain. My point is that if the soul were distinct from the brain, then things like dementia wouldn't happen. Disorders of the motor cortex, sensory processing and such would, but none involving how the soul thinks or feels. The fact that you see the personality affected by how the brain is affected is a perfect correlation between one and the other.

So your basis of the above is that he soul is immune to disease, mistake, damage by oneself or others. I am not sure this follows from a soul that sits and waits for an embryo to become a thinking being. What it if the soul gets it wrong? Aren't we getting close to an all knowing God if we assume it can never screw up?

Quote: Nareed

..keep them from being taken in by equally nonsensical beliefs like astrology, numerology, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc.

I thought there was a lot of evidence showing some pain relief or help in smoking cessation with acupuncture?

Quote: kenarman

So your basis of the above is that he soul is immune to disease, mistake, damage by oneself or others.

it would if it were not a function of the brain.

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I am not sure this follows from a soul that sits and waits for an embryo to become a thinking being.

An embryo has no soul. It develops one as it develops a working brain.

Quote: petroglyph

I thought there was a lot of evidence showing some pain relief or help in smoking cessation with acupuncture?

There's a lot of evidence that sticking needles into people and calling it "treatment" produces a placebo effect.

IN particular, if you perform "real" acupuncture, carefully pacing the needles where they're supposed to go, or you perform "sham" acupuncure, placing the needles in random spots, the effects are about the same.

Quote: Nareed

There's a lot of evidence that sticking needles into people and calling it "treatment" produces a placebo effect.

IN particular, if you perform "real" acupuncture, carefully pacing the needles where they're supposed to go, or you perform "sham" acupuncure, placing the needles in random spots, the effects are about the same.

I knew a guy who was a moderate smoker. He had tried nicotine gum and meditation and whatever else. Nothing seemed to work for him, so he tried acupuncture.

I saw him a couple weeks later and he hadn't smoked since his treatment. I asked him if he thought the treatment had cured him and he said, " I don't know if it was the treatment that helped me quit, or the guarantee? It seems the lady had stuck a dozen or so needles into his cheeks and a few in his earlobes, and just the thought of going back and letting her do it again, even if it was free, helped him not smoke.

Kenarman, I intend to reply to most of your questions soon.

But first consider this to think outside of the box.


If I take a "flat" piece of cardboard and shape it like a cross, I can fold it a certain way to form a cube, like this:

https://sites.create-cdn.net/siteimages/24/7/1/247166/17/2/3/17239224/769x501.jpg?1553611226

It's like going from 2 dimensions (2D) to 3 dimensions (3D).

If we add time as another dimension, such as x,y,z,t, 3D is really 4D.


If I take the 4D cube (including time), since I'm associating time as another dimension, and then add another dimension to 5D, a cube becomes a tesseract, like this:

https://ds055uzetaobb.cloudfront.net/uploads/Jm5EyZc0cU-8-cell.gif


I believe a soul is in the 5th dimension.