Do you have a soul?

[gunnut]

Atheist though I may be, I believe in ghosts. There certainly are many unexplained occurences and phenomena that are (sometimes falsely) concluded as paranormal activity. These occurences are caused by leftover energy from the person who once was there. Therefore, my conclusion is that people must have souls.

[gunnut]

Atheist though I may be, I believe in ghosts. There certainly are many unexplained occurences and phenomena that are (sometimes falsely) concluded as paranormal activity. These occurences are caused by leftover energy from the person who once was there. Therefore, my conclusion is that people must have souls.

So what exactly is your evidence for the the bolded portion?

Spend the night in the Queen Mary.

[gunnut]

To answer my own poll, most definitely.  A soul is what gives our bodies life and intelligence.  Without it, the critical parts of our bodies (i.e. the brain, the heart) cannot function.  

I absolutely have a soul.  Everyone has a soul.  The soul is who I am.  I am not a brain or a beating heart or functioning organs.  I am a living, caring, breathing soul with a heart that cares for other soul's destinations.  When I die, my physical body will stay 6 feet under in the ground and rot away and turn back to dust, but my soul will be taken to heaven to be with its Creator and live forever and be given a new body, a body without pain, without tears, without any kind of sickness or sorrow, a body that will never break down.  Those who have not believed in Christ in the life they were given, will still live forever, but it will be judged and sent to an eternity in a lake of sulphur fire and eternal separation from God.  No one will ever get used to hell and no one will die once in hell, it will be constant excruciating torment and torture that has no end whatsoever.  Once a soul is sent to hell there is no hope for it anymore, it can never get to heaven after that.  The reverse is true, as well.  Once a soul enters heaven, hope is turned to reality, and does not have to worry anymore about being sent to hell.

How do ghosts fit into this?  Do you believe in the possibility that -for some of us- our souls may not immediately go to either heaven or hell, but remain in a sort of earthly purgatory for a variety of reasons, awaiting assistance from the living to move on 'into the light'?    

Well in my ideology there is no heaven or hell. They both exist here on Earth.

To Ride, Rangers, Ride!: Whatever happened to the Christ dying for our sins? Wouldn't the souls be savéd from Hell?

[gunnut]

The experience of thinking is inherently non-physical.

If the brain is indeed the sole source of consciousness and thought is the result of neurochemical processes then thinking is purely a physical action. What is your evidence that thinking involves more than purely material processes?

My evidence is purely the reason why when we attempt to teleport living beings, the energy and way of living is left behind. Energy is not and cannot be controlled by matter.

[gunnut]

The experience of thinking is inherently non-physical.

If the brain is indeed the sole source of consciousness and thought is the result of neurochemical processes then thinking is purely a physical action. What is your evidence that thinking involves more than purely material processes?

My evidence is purely the reason why when we attempt to teleport living beings, the energy and way of living is left behind. Energy is not and cannot be controlled by matter.

1. As danny has pointed out we don't have teleportation technology at this point in time, so either you're from the future or you're just pulling things out of your fanny.

2. When you say energy isn't and can't be controlled by matter, are you taking into account the energy manipulation required by the matter that makes up your computer and all of the matter based infrastructure in order for you to even post here? Or how about the chemical energy your body manipulates in order to continue functioning?

1. I believe you both missed the word attempt

2. Explain to me, Mr. Dibble, why honey is sweet.

Oh and by the way, I post from a kindle fire, not a computer

[gunnut]

1. I believe you both missed the word attempt

Is English not your first language, because "missed the word attempt" is not a phrase that has actual meaning.

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When a substance touches your taste buds they detect the rough chemical composition of the substance and send electrical signals through your nervous system to your brain. Five types of signals can be sent that are associated with certain types of tastes - sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and savory. The brain will translate these signals into a distinct taste for the individual substance based on the combination and strength of the signals.

Sugars make taste buds send the signal for sweet. Since honey is mostly composed of sugars, so when it touches your tasted buds they will send the signals for "sweet" stronger than any other signal. It doesn't taste the same as when you put pure sugar on your tongue due to the presence of other substances which result in additional signals being sent at varying levels of strength.

The reason behind this mechanism is explained by evolution. Animals that can detect the chemical composition of foods have an advantage over those that don't for a few reasons. For humans, "sour" and "bitter" are generally regarded as unpleasant (at least on their own) as they may indicate that food is rotten or poisonous, whereas "sweet", "salty", and "savory" indicate the food contains calories and nutrition and are generally regarded as pleasant. Combined with the ability to store information, knowing which foods have what tastes can let the brain indicate which foods an animal would need to pursue if it is running low on a certain type of nutrition - for instance, if you are low on vitamin C you might crave oranges, lemons, or other vitamin C rich foods you've eaten before.

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A kindle fire or any other tablet computing device is still a computer.

1. The phrase makes complete sense, save the absence of italics. It really bugs me when the people who argue against me seem to find weakness not in the content of my speeches, but the grammar. Please don't turn into Obama, Mr. Dibble.

2. I asked "why?", not "how?". Why must sugars be sweet? What if they're actually sour or spicy and we just assume them to be sweet? It's all how our brain perceives the signals, true. But why are those signals perceived as such?

3. By specification, a kindle fire is a eReader, which is neither a tablet nor a computer. In general, all three work in the same way (save the heat sensor touch screen) so therefore are the same.

[gunnut]

1. The phrase makes complete sense, save the absence of italics. It really bugs me when the people who argue against me seem to find weakness not in the content of my speeches, but the grammar.

No, it doesn't, and neither does your teleporter nonsense. We neither have teleporters nor have we ever tried to teleport a human being. If it bugs you that people find weakness in your ability to communicate, I suggest making efforts to improve it. It might also help if you knew what the hell you were talking about.

Oh, come on. This is a subject where no one really knows what they're talking about. To assume intellectual superiority based on the conclusions one comes to in a religion and philosophy forum is pretty disappointing.

Hagrid, did you not see where this guy was trying to use teleportation as his evidence? The guy clearly has no clue what he's talking about.

What was the topic again? Souls? Really? I'd think it was about a bomb threat with all these heated insults thrown by Mr. Dibble. I'm very sorry I haven't met the expectations for the holder of a degree in computer science. Maybe its because I'm 14! Perhaps I shouldn't have said attempts at teleporting humans, but rather said scientists have rendered it impossible. I don't come from the future (as the universe prevents time travel) and I do know what I'm talking about, as scientists have teleported information from one atom to another instantaneously at a distance of about 1 meter http://www.switched.com/2009/01/26/scientists-succeed-with-teleportation-experiment/