lied@ihlts.UUCP (Doctor Bob) (05/02/84)
> I am curious. Do any of the atheists or agnostics out there believe that > man has a soul? You know, as in "an eternal spirit"? If so, what leads you > to this belief? And if not, why not? I don't believe man has a soul, for two reasons, neither of which I can defend particularly well (oh, well). But then, we are talking about personal belief, aren't we? First, I believe that life is ultimately linked to the chemical processes of the body, and once that chemical process stops working, that's all she wrote. Far out of my expertise to defend this. Second, the term "soul", like the terms "god," "eternity," and "omnipotence" are so vague, yet so complex, that I can't attach any real meaning to them. What is a soul? Is it just the concept that life exists? Or is it some real, physical entity that we could actually see if we only had the right test equipment? Do souls map one-to-one to individual human beings? Do they have any characteristics besides existence? What function do they serve? Since I find these questions difficult, and since I find no contradictions in simply saying, "There's no such thing," I choose (emphasis on the I) the easier answer: no such thing as a soul. As for para-normal experiences: extremely skeptical. You're right in saying that science has a multitude of unanswered questions. I would be the last to assert that science as practiced today will solve all the riddles of the universe. On the other hand, parapsychology doesn't seem to be doing well under scrutiny. Granted that unexplainable things happen, I think (and again, I am far out of my area of expertise) that psychic events (if any) eventually will be explained by a breakthrough in some "legitimate" area of science (unified field theory? artificial intelligence?). Probably not in my lifetime, though. And anyway, why should there be any connection between a soul and parapsychology? Bob Lied ihnp4!ihlts!lied "Once, my spirit went to Miami for a weekend, and once it was arrested for trying to leave Macy's without paying for a tie. The fourth time, it was actually my body that left my spirit, although all it did was get a rubdown and come right back." Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"