RE: It's Always Sunny - evolution versus Christianity
February 26, 2016 at 5:11 pm
(This post was last modified: February 26, 2016 at 5:31 pm by Simon Moon.)
(February 26, 2016 at 4:29 pm)Crossless1 Wrote:(February 26, 2016 at 3:04 pm)Huggy74 Wrote: That's actually taken from the definition.
Computers have the ability to problem solve, yet they can't reason... you know, the whole "Cogito ergo sum" thing
Fair point, but computers aren't other species. Do chimps, rats, or crows have souls? Is the ability of an organism to engage in self-reflection the hallmark of having a soul? If so, do people in vegetative states that result from disease or accident retain a soul somehow, or is their soul lost? If lost, what's the difference between "having a soul" and having certain higher brain functions?
This brings up many questions.
Here are 3 that come to mind. I have asked theists about these examples many times. Not once have I received a coherent answer.
Human Chimeras - in somewhat rare instances, while twins are developing in utero, one twin will absorb the fetus of the other twin. It is unknown how rare this is, because it does not always show up in lab tests.
What happened to the second soul? Does the surviving twin have 2 souls? Does "god" recall the extra soul?
"Personality reset" - sometimes due to brain injury, a person can literally have their personality reset, to the point that they are almost unrecognizable.
I have an aunt that had a brain injury that went from being a sweet, caring person, to a raging, paranoid bitch. My uncle had to divorce her because she was literally not the person he married.
If the soul is responsible for what makes "you", "you", what happened to my aunt's soul?
Epilepsy surgery (corpus callosostomy) - to prevent seizures, surgeons will cut the connection between the 2 hemispheres of the brain. After the surgery, patients will have 2 different personalities.
There are even cases where one personality is a theist, the other is an atheist.
Does the soul get to go to heaven based on the theist side of the brain? Or is it doomed to hell based on the atheist side?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
