Q&A 189
Q. So let’s get back to that story you mentioned earlier…
A. Which one?
Q. I said scientific laws are different from religious dogmas because the former are repeatable and the latter are not. Then you said you would agree with that as long as we don’t say that a fact has to be repeatable for it to be true.
A. Correct.
Q. Then you gave the examples of the Big Bang in science and my own birth in history as true facts that are not repeatable.
A. Correct.
Q. Then you added that there are many religious dogmas that are not repeatable either just like the Big Bang or my big bang, though some others are repeated and repeatable. And then you volunteered the fact or dogma that every human has a soul as a repeated religious dogma.
A. Right.
Q. Well with the Big-Bang we can observe evidence for it in things such as cosmic background radiation which can be repeatedly experimentally observed. The existence of a human soul is not something we have observed nor can we observe.
A. I find it really amazing that you say this!
Reminds me very much of a conversation I had years ago with an atheist friend who avered that the difference between a live body and a dead one is electricity.
I was honestly lost for words when he said that.
Q. Haha! Well he did have a point! The brain and nervous system are largely electrical communication channels! 😂
A. I honestly find this opinion befuddling.
Electrical as they are, all electricity needs a generator or dynamo of some sort. What would you say is the generator/dynamo in the case of the human body?
I'm personally more of the opinion that electricity in the body is an effect of life (in the body), not its cause.
If it were its cause then we'd have immortality solved.
Q. Well the "generator" in the case of the human body is the flow of ions through the cell membrane of these nerve cells. The ions are sodium and potassium ions. Now without these signals death ensues as no breathing or heart-beat excitation can happen.
A. Isn't the flow of ions what we call electricity? And if so, then the cause of electricity can't be electricity otherwise we'd have immortality solved.
I think we agree all these are symptoms or effects of the cause. Though I include the "signals" you mention as effects as well.
Q. So the cause is life? And there I somewhat agree with you.
We as an organism are multicellular. Certain things have to be happening to keep the cells alive. The nervous system is critical for that. The nervous tissue also does require to be made up of living cells for this to happen.
So this life force is what we call a soul?
A. Exactly.
Q. I have two questions. Is the soul of a brain dead person still in his/her body? Let's assume functions such as circulation and breathing are still active. Secondly, do you posit that a soul exists for single-celled organisms?
(To be continued!)
17th Dec 2018