Here are the two really big questions, and I hope everyone stays friendly about this and the anwers ....

1) Do People have Souls or Spirits?
To say yes - you don't even have to believe in religion. Just your opinion or what you believe (no cuss words please)

2) Is there a Meaning of Life -or- A Meaning To Life? Again whatever you believe or opinion.


- Ed C.

1) I've never seen one and it has no effect on my everyday life, and (unlike say news stuff in other countries) it's so far removed and incommensurable to anything in my everyday experience (never had to deal with wars but I have seen people dehumanize other people and fight over stupid bulls... stuff) that I might as well go about my everyday business ilke such things didn't exist.

Same would go for black holes and quasars, I suppose, but at least people so much as bother to assert that I'd have a reasonable chance of being able to make such inferences through reasoning out the math and the data (which admittedly I would have to travel far from town to get), rather than to have "faith".

2) Meaning is what happens when people take stuff and put it together with other stuff in their minds to come up with some kind of narrative structure they can relate to. I think "Is there meaning?" is misleading since it implies that meaning exists in itself, but then people say "Is there a word that means...?" too, so either they've got a weird Platonic conception of words or it's just my own grammar pet peeve.

Quote1) Do People have Souls or Spirits?

There is a not evidence that the soul exists in any traditional sense.  Certainly not in the sense of a mind that exists beyond brain death.  The mind appears to be entirely embodied, meaning that it is a product of a living organ (the brain) and that it ends when the brain ceases functioning.

The strongest evidence for the embodied mind is the incredible effect that brain damage has on personality - causing formerly honest people to become pathological liars, etc.  If personality were a function of a disembodied mind, then brain damage shouldn't have this effect.

Quote2) Is there a Meaning of Life -or- A Meaning To Life?

No, the universe is an accident.  It was not created, it does not have purpose.  It simply is.  There is no meaning to life but the meaning we create in our lives.

Quote from: Jackalope;248433The strongest evidence for the embodied mind is the incredible effect that brain damage has on personality - causing formerly honest people to become pathological liars, etc.  If personality were a function of a disembodied mind, then brain damage shouldn't have this effect.

Perhaps the brain is just a conduit? And brain damage causes the conduit to be all fucked up and unable to route the EXTRA DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM COSMIC MIND SIGNALS or whatever anymore.

That having been said.

1. Nice thought, but doubtful.
2. There is no meaning beyond that which humanity forces into existence.

1. Yes

2. Yes

No to both, and to all mysticism, superstition and religion. I recognize the possibility of the supernatural, but reject it until there is evidence to support it.

Quote from: wulfgar;2484481. Yes

2. Yes

Short and to the point.

 Gary Cooper would be proud.


{{{:-)


- Ed

Quote from: jswa;248447Perhaps the brain is just a conduit? And brain damage causes the conduit to be all fucked up and unable to route the EXTRA DIMENSIONAL QUANTUM COSMIC MIND SIGNALS or whatever anymore.

Interesting theory, but I would want some evidence that the brain is a transceiver.

1. Probably not.

2. What ever you make it for yourself.

1. No.

2. We give our lives the meaning we want.

Has someone been drinking?

But seriously, no to both. Like the  machine masquerading as a man I'm not too strong in my belief of the supernatural.

Interesting , so far a lot of 'NO' answers to the soul question.

To clarify a little: it doesn't have to be the Judeo-Christian view of the 'soul' concept (or spirit). If you think there is some kind of spirit, essence , or 'ghost' that is part of being human - that still counts.

- Ed C.

1. I have no idea.

2. 42

My answer remains unchanged no matter what sort of trappings you add to it.

Same answer here too.