Author Topic: What are souls?  (Read 16490 times)

ekim

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #100 on: May 18, 2017, 08:54:01 AM »
That's not really surprising, given that all ancient societies, were, eerrm, ancient, pre-science.  I think we ought to be a bit more clued up by now.
In the New Testament the Greek word 'psyche' was translated as 'soul'.  We now have psychology, psychiatry, psychosomatic, psychotic etc.

floo

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #101 on: May 18, 2017, 09:14:21 AM »
The human psyche is created by the brain, no brain no psyche/soul. Some people seem to think the psyche/soul is separate to the brain, but have never explained in a coherent fashion where else in the body it is supposed to reside.

torridon

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #102 on: May 18, 2017, 09:41:49 AM »
In the New Testament the Greek word 'psyche' was translated as 'soul'.  We now have psychology, psychiatry, psychosomatic, psychotic etc.

Yes I get that.  Traditionally, the soul was considered the fundamental essence of a person; the body was something that a person 'had'.  Now that is reversing, it is a body that is fundamental, and a person/soul is derivative; a person is something that a body 'has'.

Sriram

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #103 on: May 18, 2017, 10:48:29 AM »
Yes I get that.  Traditionally, the soul was considered the fundamental essence of a person; the body was something that a person 'had'.  Now that is reversing, it is a body that is fundamental, and a person/soul is derivative; a person is something that a body 'has'.

No..its not reversing or anything of that sort. In fact there is now greater evidence through NDE's, for an after-life.

Science is just focusing more and more on the body and its mechanisms, while the ancients focused more on the soul because the body is temporal anyway.

Ricky Spanish

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #104 on: May 18, 2017, 10:55:04 AM »
So it's a construct to create something imagined to go somewhere imagined...
UNDERSTAND - I MAKE OPINIONS. IF YOUR ARGUMENTS MAKE ME QUESTION MY OPINION THEN I WILL CONSIDER THEM.

torridon

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #105 on: May 18, 2017, 11:02:39 AM »
No..its not reversing or anything of that sort. In fact there is now greater evidence through NDE's, for an after-life.

He he, in your dreams, mate, in your dreams.

Meanwhile back in the real world ......

Sriram

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #106 on: May 18, 2017, 11:23:26 AM »
He he, in your dreams, mate, in your dreams.

Meanwhile back in the real world ......



What is the REAL world is the contention!  You think it all starts with the body and that the soul is an emergent property. I think it all starts with the spirit/soul and the body is only a reflection of the soul.


torridon

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #107 on: May 18, 2017, 11:24:29 AM »


What is the REAL world is the contention!  You think it all starts with the body and that the soul is an emergent property. I think it all starts with the spirit/soul and the body is only a reflection of the soul.

And where exactly were all these souls before bodies evolved ?

Sebastian Toe

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #108 on: May 18, 2017, 11:31:11 AM »
And where exactly were all these souls before bodies evolved ?
.......and do they procreate?  :-\
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Sriram

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #109 on: May 18, 2017, 12:09:06 PM »
And where exactly were all these souls before bodies evolved ?


Such questions can be asked about anything. Infinite regress and initial origins  are questions that don't go away in science either.   How did the Singularity arise? How did all those energies and elementary particles arise from nothing?

Sebastian Toe

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #110 on: May 18, 2017, 12:35:02 PM »

Such questions can be asked about anything. Infinite regress and initial origins  are questions that don't go away in science either.   How did the Singularity arise? How did all those energies and elementary particles arise from nothing?
Is that a "don't know"?
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #111 on: May 18, 2017, 12:42:39 PM »
Vlad,

Quote
What is it I am supposed to have dismissed?

Why is this a reputable source?......and Paul Davies articles, where he identified the conflict between an understanding of emergence and your warmed over reductionism, are disreputable. Have you read that? No?

Baby step Vlad, baby steps.

Start with what observably happens.

Here for example is a description of the way termite mounds harness solar power 

Termite mounds are meter-sized structures built by millimeter-sized insects. These structures provide climate-controlled microhabitats that buffer the organisms from strong environmental fluctuations and allow them to exchange energy, information, and matter with the outside world. By directly measuring the flow inside a mound, we show that diurnal ambient temperature oscillations drive cyclic flows that flush out CO2 from the nest and ventilate the mound. This swarm-built architecture demonstrates how work can be derived from the fluctuations of an intensive environmental parameter, and might serve as an inspiration and model for the design of passive, sustainable human architecture.

Further details are here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/37/11589.full

Try as you might though, you’ll never find one termite with a hard hat and a roll of blueprints, or another assiduously designing a solar “lung” on his laptop. Rather the properties described in the article emerge from the much simpler components that are the termites and their behaviours.

That’s why your:

Quote
I actually think it's worse and the emergent property is truly in its existence different and unconnected with the property of both substrate and organisation

...is so wide of the mark. The emergent property is fundamentally dependent on and connected to “both substrate and organisation”.

If there weren’t termites there’s be no termite mounds!
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Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #112 on: May 18, 2017, 05:30:33 PM »
Vlad,

Baby step Vlad, baby steps.

Start with what observably happens.

Here for example is a description of the way termite mounds harness solar power 

Termite mounds are meter-sized structures built by millimeter-sized insects. These structures provide climate-controlled microhabitats that buffer the organisms from strong environmental fluctuations and allow them to exchange energy, information, and matter with the outside world. By directly measuring the flow inside a mound, we show that diurnal ambient temperature oscillations drive cyclic flows that flush out CO2 from the nest and ventilate the mound. This swarm-built architecture demonstrates how work can be derived from the fluctuations of an intensive environmental parameter, and might serve as an inspiration and model for the design of passive, sustainable human architecture.

Further details are here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/112/37/11589.full

Try as you might though, you’ll never find one termite with a hard hat and a roll of blueprints, or another assiduously designing a solar “lung” on his laptop. Rather the properties described in the article emerge from the much simpler components that are the termites and their behaviours.

No problem with that......just how, in the case of an emergent property is that particular property connected with the previous organisational level which doesn't demonstrate that property...given that an emergent property is not lots of little properties all added together?
Do you know?

You have accused me of dismissing something, Hillside.....again I shall type this slowly for you......what is it I am supposed to be dismissing?
« Last Edit: May 18, 2017, 06:03:29 PM by Emergence-The musical »

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #113 on: May 18, 2017, 06:09:19 PM »
Vlad,

Quote
No problem with that......just how, in the case of an emergent property is that particular property connected with the previous organisational level which doesn't demonstrate that property...given that an emergent property is not lots of little properties all added together?

Do you know?

Actually yes, but we were taking baby steps remember?

The point here is that emergent properties – ie, properties more complex than the sum of their components – do occur, and that’s all that’s necessary for this purpose. There’s no mystical quality about consciousness that would exempt it from that basic model, and the prevailing reasoning and evidence we do have suggests that it probably does.

If your response to that is, “Yes, but I don’t see how that works exactly…(therefore it doesn’t)” that’s just the argument from personal incredulity – a basic fallacy. How emergence works is interesting in its own right but it has nothing to say to the fact that it observably does, and moreover that it depends on its constituent parts to occur.         

Quote
You have accused me of dismissing something, Hillside.....again I shall type this slowly for you......what is it I am supposed to be dismissing?

Bottom up emergence, inextricably connected to its component parts (“I actually think it's worse and the emergent property is truly in its existence different and unconnected with the property of both substrate and organisation”).

(Bit rich by the way you complaining about a non-answer given your history of running away from pretty much every question put to you, but there you go.)
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Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #114 on: May 18, 2017, 06:45:10 PM »
Vlad,

Actually yes, but we were taking baby steps remember?

The point here is that emergent properties – ie, properties more complex than the sum of their components – do occur, and that’s all that’s necessary for this purpose. There’s no mystical quality about consciousness that would exempt it from that basic model, and the prevailing reasoning and evidence we do have suggests that it probably does.

If your response to that is, “Yes, but I don’t see how that works exactly…(therefore it doesn’t)” that’s just the argument from personal incredulity – a basic fallacy. How emergence works is interesting in its own right but it has nothing to say to the fact that it observably does, and moreover that it depends on its constituent parts to occur.         

Bottom up emergence, inextricably connected to its component parts (“I actually think it's worse and the emergent property is truly in its existence different and unconnected with the property of both substrate and organisation”).

(Bit rich by the way you complaining about a non-answer given your history of running away from pretty much every question put to you, but there you go.)
You are just quoting examples of emergence.
The only emergence from any bottom is your definition coming from your own.
An emergent property is a novelty not demonstrated by any components at the previous organisation. Otherwise it is ''more of the same.''

Of course if those components were not there, there would be nothing to emerge from, however the emergent property is definitionally a novelty.

This might help....Paragraph 3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence

If you can explain one example of how an emergent property is explicable completely in terms of the previous level I think you deserve a prize. Your present pretence of explaining any emergent by a reductionist approach does not however deserve plaudit.

Go on then.

Vis Paul Davies he was writing when reductionists baulked at the word. You demonstrate that todays mechanistic dinosaurs reductionists merely seem to have pirated the expression.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2017, 07:09:45 PM by Emergence-The musical »

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #115 on: May 19, 2017, 09:57:30 AM »
Vlad,

I've tried to reply to you several times but keep getting this message when I do for some reason:

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

I have no idea what this means or why it's happening.
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #116 on: May 19, 2017, 09:58:59 AM »
But the last post did work so presumably there's something in the formatting of the text I've been trying to post that this site doesn't like?
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Nearly Sane

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #117 on: May 19, 2017, 10:11:19 AM »
But the last post did work so presumably there's something in the formatting of the text I've been trying to post that this site doesn't like?

The overall server seems to have issues with certain words/phrases. It is all a bit random and not something we control. It doesn't loke some combinations of words on 'sex" and also some branding on medicine.

And you can get round it if you put spaces in if you work out what is triggering it.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2017, 10:13:32 AM by Nearly Sane »

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #118 on: May 19, 2017, 11:05:14 AM »
NS,

Quote
The overall server seems to have issues with certain words/phrases. It is all a bit random and not something we control. It doesn't loke some combinations of words on 'sex" and also some branding on medicine.

And you can get round it if you put spaces in if you work out what is triggering it.
Quote

Thanks for this. I've tried changing some words that might be causing it but haven't found the offending one yet (it's nothing obvious). Trial and error I guess.
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #119 on: May 19, 2017, 11:09:20 AM »
Vlad,

Quote
You are just quoting examples of emergence.

Yes, thereby showing you that it’s a real phenomenon.

Quote
The only emergence from any bottom is your definition coming from your own.

Crass ignorance noted.

Quote
An emergent property is a novelty not demonstrated by any components at the previous organisation. Otherwise it is ''more of the same.''

“…at the previous organisation” is odd wording, but essentially yes. An emergent property is different from but inextricably connected to its constituent component parts and their interactions. It doesn't float free in some unspecified way as you seem to be implying

Quote
Of course if those components were not there, there would be nothing to emerge from, however the emergent property is definitionally a novelty.

Depends what you mean by “novelty”, but essentially yes – none of its constituent parts exhibit the same characteristics as the emergent property.

Quote
This might help....Paragraph 3

You perhaps. Try reading it.

Quote
If you can explain one example of how an emergent property is explicable completely in terms of the previous level I think you deserve a prize. Your present pretence of explaining any emergent by a reductionist approach does not however deserve plaudit.

Go on then.

Oh dear. Think about what you’re saying here. If you really wanted to discuss how emergence works, we could do that. If we did though, whether I could explain everything about it, nothing about it, or something in between is entirely irrelevant to the point.

Emergence observably happens. There’s nothing mystical about consciousness that would exempt it from the same process. Emergence is the only rational model in town that would explain consciousness.

Does that provide a cast iron guarantee that consciousness is an emergent property?

Of course not.

Does that mean that emergence is the only model we have that’s rational, robust and fits all the available data?

You bet your sweet jacksie it does.

What you’re trying here is equivalent to, “if you can’t explain how gravity works how do you know it works on Alpha Centauri?”

The short answer is that I don’t. The longer one though is that it’s the only model we have that fits all the data, so probabilistically it’s the best answer we have.
So yeah, we can talk about how emergence (or gravity for that matter) works as much as you like if you really want to. Both of them observably happen though, and each of them provides the only available credible explanations for consciousness and apples falling respectively.   

Quote
Vis Paul Davies he was writing when reductionists baulked at the word. You demonstrate that todays mechanistic  reductionists merely seem to have pirated the expression.

The Templeton Prize guy? Anyways, once again you demonstrate that you have no idea what “reductionist” actually means. If you want to accuse someone of it, then you need to show something that’s been reduced from remember?

You may recall that I helpfully explained to you recently how to spot a BS argument. Do you think that you are a reductionist from the arguments and assertions I make about leprechauns?

Why not? 
« Last Edit: May 19, 2017, 12:28:48 PM by bluehillside »
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #120 on: May 19, 2017, 11:10:37 AM »
NS,

Somewhat bizarrely, turned out the offending word was "sca tology"!

(Space added to fool the system)
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SusanDoris

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #121 on: May 19, 2017, 01:27:20 PM »
Vlad,

I've tried to reply to you several times but keep getting this message when I do for some reason:

"Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request."

I have no idea what this means or why it's happening.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the, 'This page can't be displayed' which I get every day for some part of the day. The Tech chap who fixes things on my computer occasionally says it is 'an internal service error'. For instance, I had the 'This page....' notice this morning, left it on while I did the washing up, then did F5 and this site came up. It's quite irritating!
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Sassy

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #122 on: May 19, 2017, 01:40:15 PM »
I think there is often a simple explanation in that the belief held that God abode with man from the beginning and
so man understood a lot more then than we do now regarding the word 'soul' the living person.

Genesis 2.7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

When God created the first body it must have been a living thing. But till he breathed life into the man there was no living person.

It would suggest that the person the breath of life became a living person only at that point. A living soul meaning a living being someone able to think, speak and move.

I believe within us we all ask the same questions... I believe the most common is at some stage in life:-  " Why am I here?"
Everyone of us a separate living soul a person within a body not uniform in nature in or in our thought patterns but individual.
Life is from God but who we are our souls are individual to each of us he created.

We are not a product of our brain. Because all would be uniform and identical. Pretty much like robots off a conveyor belt.
Our separate identities show we are living souls according the person not the life.
Our souls who we are can only be available whilst life is within us. But the soul and body can both be thrown into hell by God.
For Christ to have said this shows that the body and soul two separate things.





We know we have to work together to abolish war and terrorism to create a compassionate  world in which Justice and peace prevail. Love ;D   Einstein
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Nearly Sane

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #123 on: May 19, 2017, 01:42:36 PM »
I wonder if it has anything to do with the, 'This page can't be displayed' which I get every day for some part of the day. The Tech chap who fixes things on my computer occasionally says it is 'an internal service error'. For instance, I had the 'This page....' notice this morning, left it on while I did the washing up, then did F5 and this site came up. It's quite irritating!

No, they aren't related

torridon

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Re: What are souls?
« Reply #124 on: May 19, 2017, 02:02:21 PM »
We are not a product of our brain. Because all would be uniform and identical. Pretty much like robots off a conveyor belt.
Our separate identities show we are living souls according the person not the life.

That's way off the mark. Even our fingerprints are unique, never mind our brains.  Even identical twins develop differently as they encounter different formative experiences.