Title Author Date

Souls sipka3@attbi.com Nov 10, 2002

Hello,
I was just wandering that if you guys could so easily disprove the stories about God, Creation, etc.. then try to disprove the presence of ghosts, souls which I believe 99% of like about 98% of scientists believe in Evolution. If there is such a thing of Evolution-as in no God, then why does there seem to be ghosts and souls. I never heard Evolution adressing the phenemona of souls because in your standards, we go nowhere when we die. Right? What happens when there are souls-where does your theory go? Nowhere.

Title Author Date

Souls Norowitz, Avi Nov 12, 2002

Ljubomir,

Although I am not a scientist and my knowledge of biology, physics, and philosophy is very limited, I will try to respond to your post. These are my own ideas and I would be happy to accept critcism.

I think it is important to define what is meant by "soul". The way I understand it, in this context there are two possible definitions of soul, and a lot of blurring in the middle.

(1) A soul can simply be the conscious mind of a living thing; the psyche or the self. I believe few people would deny that this type of soul exists, although some may prefer not to call it a soul.

(2) Alternatively, a soul can be a part of a living thing that survives after death and is no longer dependent on the body to survive.

I think we can agree that soul 1 seems to exist. Scientists at this point do not understand the full details of the inner machinery (assumed to be in the brain) that allows this soul to function. This would include the inability to fully explain the phenomenon of the self; that is, why *I* exist rather than just my living body.

The inability for science to fully explain this soul at this point does not necessarily mean that the theory of evolution is false or inadequate. There have always been gaps in science and as the gaps are filled, new gaps continue to open up. It does not logically follow that a god lies behind these gaps, although the I think the possibility should not be excluded. The gaps are simply left open to be closed by science, and may or may not
eventually be closed.

Regarding soul 2, to me it is not apparent that there is a soul that survives death, nor do I believe there is accepted scientific evidence for it. I believe the same would apply to the existence of ghosts. Given this, I don't see this as currently being a challenge to the theory of evolution. Now, if this type of soul does exist, I think at most it would simply
remain as another gap until science eventually explains it, if it does.

I hope this response was somewhat helpful and does not contain too many inaccuracies.