The Seat of Man's Intellect: What Says Your God?

[Spooky]

More often than not I've heard "Heart and Soul" referred to as the same item.  Heart/Soul/Intelligence/Intellect/Etc.  Whatever adjective/noun is used is still describing the same thing.

Perhaps I misunderstood you.  The argument is not over what that "Thing" is?

No. The argument is over where such a "Thing" is active in relation to a human body. I can assure you, it's not the heart, and when the ancients speak of it floating "about through the whole body," being "enclosed in the head" or "the crown of the head," or "around the basis of the brain," or "in the membranes thereof," or "in the space between the eyebrows," there's no confusion over what "body," "head," "crown," "brain," "membranes," or "space between the eyebrows" may be referring to. But you think when it talks of the "heart" it has a non-literal, special meaning?

I do not consider the "heart" to be anything special.

As a Psychologist I believe everything that makes a person who they are, is contained the brain.  Personality, unconscious, subconscious and etc.  People are just organic supercomputers.  Rather unexciting when compared to a "soul". 

[Mudhammam]

What does "heart" have to do with "intelligence" or "soul" or "mind"? The assumption is that either God knows how to use the words he's causing his communicators to write down for all of history, or that the people who wrote the word "heart" understood exactly what everyone - such as Aristotle or Tertullian - would take it to signify: the seat of man's intellect, soul, ruling faculty, whatever you want to call it.

368 The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one's being, where the person decides for or against God.239

Quite clearly, then, the "biblical sense" is wrong as it emphasizes an organ that has nothing to with "the depths of one's being" or "where the person decides"...

As was my point.

[dyresand]

Using religion to answer what I consider a medical question is a recipe for disaster.

It's called homeopathy and good vibes.

[Ronkonkoma]

Using religion to answer what I consider a medical question is a recipe for disaster.

Intellect is no doubt "seated" in the brain, which we don't have a clue how it works to produce a thought. On the other hand, psychiatrists recognize the brain as "the organ of purpose". Like the liver is producing bile. The brain is producing reasons to keep living, endure suffering, sacrifice for a cause, etc.

Intellect is different from the soul, which is the core of personhood, desire, values, and spirituality.

I would say, these things are registered and put into context by the brain, but they are not necessarily originating from the brain. An analogy would be a radio set that doesn't actually contain a small person inside, but is rather receiving and processing radio waves from outside.

[FifthElement]

My favorite part is that God poofs everything into existence (including Universe) out of nothing but for a Man he needs a "special" ingredient, dust, lol 

[Godscreated]

My favorite part is that God poofs everything into existence (including Universe) out of nothing but for a Man he needs a "special" ingredient, dust, lol 

 Okay sonny, let's see you make a living man from dust. Go only needed a samll part of one day, I'll give you 20 years. I'll bet you don't know how many times God actually created over the six days, do you?

GC

[Pyrrho]

[Mudhammam]

^Exactly, Pyrrho.

I had to do a double take when Randy suggested that, according to Catholic doctrine, God was simply speaking in idioms - when people actually believed the literal truth of its content, and - at least to some extent - couldn't have been expected to know otherwise.

Then again, they want to say the same thing about the sun "standing still" in the sky for 24 hours...

[Randy Carson]

^Exactly, Pyrrho.

I had to do a double take when Randy suggested that, according to Catholic doctrine, God was simply speaking in idioms - when people actually believed the literal truth of its content, and - at least to some extent - couldn't have been expected to know otherwise.

Could you expand on this, Nestor?

How is the idea that the term "heart", a metaphor or idiom for that innermost place within man, problematic?

What are we really saying when we say that an athlete has "heart" or that we know something to be true in our "heart of hearts".

[dyresand]

^Exactly, Pyrrho.

I had to do a double take when Randy suggested that, according to Catholic doctrine, God was simply speaking in idioms - when people actually believed the literal truth of its content, and - at least to some extent - couldn't have been expected to know otherwise.

Could you expand on this, Nestor?

How is the idea that the term "heart", a metaphor or idiom for that innermost place within man, problematic?

What are we really saying when we say that an athlete has "heart" or that we know something to be true in our "heart of hearts".

"heart" is just another way to say emotions. Like you feel god in your "heart" it's just your brain making you feel good giving you pleasant emotions. 
Like the one bible passage to think of killing is doing the same as killing in your "heart" just another word for emotions.