A question for spiritual/religious people
I have no idea. My guess is that there are different dimensions and spirits come through the mind via the brain. So, a person who knows a deceased person can make contact with the departed person through the universal mind. That is my own private belief.
_________________
As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.
-Pythagoras
leejosepho
Veteran
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock
I do not know, but I still seem to be doing well enough at the moment ...!
More seriously: Death is sleep, and any spirits wandering around were never human.
_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================
Interesting question. I am not aware that Christian theology addresses this point. Based on common mythologies, I would say that most common belief is that it depends on the level of unresolved ties to the earth at the point of brain death. That makes sense to me.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).
Last edited by DW_a_mom on 27 Jan 2010, 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I don't know. When you're dead, you're dead. I was with my husband when he died, and it was as quick as shelling a pea... he just popped out between one second and the next. He was utterly gone, and he's never coming back.
Which isn't to say that I don't believe he's somewhere else. Just, I know for a fact, that he's not here.
I do not know, but I still seem to be doing well enough at the moment ...!
Haha. Well said.
I perhaps should have more correctly said the soul.
(this isnt just aimed at you leejosepho) What of, say, a headless body? Perhaps a mostly crushed brain, or a non functional nervous system?
I'm thinking specifically of someones body(or a portion thereof) which has far outlived expectation(the reasonable lifespan), long after the person portion(be it personalty, soul, whatever), has, to borrow a colloquialism, left the building.
_________________
davidred wrote...
I installed Ubuntu once and it completely destroyed my paying relationship with Microsoft.
leejosepho
Veteran
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock
Ah ...
Do you mean something like "walking dead" in the sense of "cognition gone" or "just a shell of a man" still breathing only because breathing is automatic?
_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================
iamnotaparakeet
Veteran
Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 25,091
Location: 0.5 Galactic radius
leejosepho
Veteran
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock
How many definitions are needed to answer this properly?
Enough to zero-in on this:
_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================
How many definitions are needed to answer this properly?
Enough to zero-in on this:
Is that enough? Its a hard subject to articulate.
There was once the debate over the retention of a soul in a person who was revived(after a heart attack, drowning, etc). I dont think anyone these days would suggest that such a person would be soulless after experiencing that sort of trauma.
The purpose of the original post was to discuss the social/spiritual aspects of the changing definition of death. Unfortunately I posted it on far too little sleep.
There is an immortal human... i dont want to say human being. Probably more than one such.. entity. Its a strange thing coming from me, because I dont believe in the supernatural, but in this case it is a scientific fact, and this once person achieved a sort of human immortality over 50 years ago.
If she were alive she would be about Sands age, or my grand mothers. This lady was born in 1920.
Before she died, a portion of her body was taken as a sample, and those cells were provided with nutrition and a favorable environment and they have persisted ever since. In fact they have been made to grow and divide. In the 50 years since, what has developed from that sample is probably a not insignificant mass in proportion to her original body.
So.. not really a zombie, and not really a person either. The cells dont depend on a nervous or digestive system. But shes dead... and shes not.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks. And humanity owes her a great deal of gratitude for the good that her remains have done.
_________________
davidred wrote...
I installed Ubuntu once and it completely destroyed my paying relationship with Microsoft.
How many definitions are needed to answer this properly?
Enough to zero-in on this:
Is that enough? Its a hard subject to articulate.
There was once the debate over the retention of a soul in a person who was revived(after a heart attack, drowning, etc). I dont think anyone these days would suggest that such a person would be soulless after experiencing that sort of trauma.
The purpose of the original post was to discuss the social/spiritual aspects of the changing definition of death. Unfortunately I posted it on far too little sleep.
There is an immortal human... i dont want to say human being. Probably more than one such.. entity. Its a strange thing coming from me, because I dont believe in the supernatural, but in this case it is a scientific fact, and this once person achieved a sort of human immortality over 50 years ago.
If she were alive she would be about Sands age, or my grand mothers. This lady was born in 1920.
Before she died, a portion of her body was taken as a sample, and those cells were provided with nutrition and a favorable environment and they have persisted ever since. In fact they have been made to grow and divide. In the 50 years since, what has developed from that sample is probably a not insignificant mass in proportion to her original body.
So.. not really a zombie, and not really a person either. The cells dont depend on a nervous or digestive system. But shes dead... and shes not.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks. And humanity owes her a great deal of gratitude for the good that her remains have done.
Cells have memories. I don't know where a soul would reside, and I also don't think that a soul is a continuous spirit of the personality. Personalities change throughout a lifetime, so it seems as though they would change in the afterlife as well.
_________________
As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.
-Pythagoras
How many definitions are needed to answer this properly?
Enough to zero-in on this:
Is that enough? Its a hard subject to articulate.
There was once the debate over the retention of a soul in a person who was revived(after a heart attack, drowning, etc). I dont think anyone these days would suggest that such a person would be soulless after experiencing that sort of trauma.
The purpose of the original post was to discuss the social/spiritual aspects of the changing definition of death. Unfortunately I posted it on far too little sleep.
There is an immortal human... i dont want to say human being. Probably more than one such.. entity. Its a strange thing coming from me, because I dont believe in the supernatural, but in this case it is a scientific fact, and this once person achieved a sort of human immortality over 50 years ago.
If she were alive she would be about Sands age, or my grand mothers. This lady was born in 1920.
Before she died, a portion of her body was taken as a sample, and those cells were provided with nutrition and a favorable environment and they have persisted ever since. In fact they have been made to grow and divide. In the 50 years since, what has developed from that sample is probably a not insignificant mass in proportion to her original body.
So.. not really a zombie, and not really a person either. The cells dont depend on a nervous or digestive system. But shes dead... and shes not.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks. And humanity owes her a great deal of gratitude for the good that her remains have done.
Cells have memories. I don't know where a soul would reside, and I also don't think that a soul is a continuous spirit of the personality. Personalities change throughout a lifetime, so it seems as though they would change in the afterlife as well.
It's about the equivalent to saying there is a spare tire and a carburetor still hanging around from a model T Ford and therefor one can still consider the car existing.
I think I understand this topic now. I don't believe I have a soul, but there is obviously something that keeps me alive and I guess this energy could be called "spirit". I find life fascinating. I planted a hebe once and it died and that got me wondering about the nature of life. I have life and this little plant had life. After it died, that life was gone. But, yes, if you take cells from someone and keep them alive, is that still part of that person's life force? Or has it become something in it's own right.
But then is this similar to heart transplant patients who seem to have acquired some of the personality of their donor. Was that donor's spirit/energy/life force still in the heart and is this the same with all transplants?
This is a pretty deep subject. A good one though.
leejosepho
Veteran
Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock
That is no different than an old photo laying around and even being "reproduced":
She does not breath -- she is dead.
_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
Delusions of Grandeur - Religious/Christian
in Bipolar, Tourettes, Schizophrenia, and other Psychological Conditions |
Today, 3:15 pm |
Question about better alternative name for IDD |
16 Jan 2024, 7:29 pm |
Very important question. |
29 Jan 2024, 2:41 am |
DND Question: What do I need to know to be a good DM |
12 Mar 2024, 6:38 pm |