Do We Have A Soul Without A Brain?

[Solitary]

[Colanth]

I'll attempt to answer the original question just as soon as a soul is detected.  Until then, it's the same as "Do We Have A <bunch of meaningless letters> Without A Brain?"

[PickelledEggs]

I have heard of studies done on salamanders or something similar to them. They burned and killed off parts of the brain until literally nothing was left and it still was alive. (apparently) And there is a similar story I heard from different places a while ago about a chicken with it's head cut off and it survived for a month or so from the farmer feeding it through its neck.

Soul? I don't know. Probably not. But it would be interesting to see why that is that those experiments went the way they did? Like: is it out of body consciousness? If it is, how can we test it? or is it the cells in general that keep the whole organism alive and the brain isn't that important? And how does this relate to us?

[Solitary]

[Colanth]

I have heard of studies done on salamanders or something similar to them. They burned and killed off parts of the brain until literally nothing was left and it still was alive. (apparently)

The question isn't whether we can have life without a brain.  Bacteria are alive.  Single-celled creatures are alive.  Insects have no brains.  The question was whether we can have a soul without a brain, and since "soul" has never been defined (not in the sense that Christianity uses it), the question is meaningless.  A question that includes a word that has no defined meaning has no answer.  It's like asking what 3 divided by some number is.

[FrankDK]

No.  There's no such thing as a soul, so with or without a brain, we don't have one.

>  Also, many believers claim that since science still does not have a confirmed theory of consciousness, this makes it possible that it will never develop such a theory based on matter alone.

Many believers claim that the earth is flat.  So?

At one time, we had no theory to explain lightning.  Did that mean we never would?  It wasn't until the 20th Century that we understood where the sun's energy came from.  The fact that we didn't know before we knew didn't mean that we would never know.

Frank

[Colanth]

But we'll probably never discover how huge intelligence sinks - like fundies - continue to function.

[Johan]

A question that includes a word that has no defined meaning has no answer.  It's like asking what 3 divided by some number is.

But that question does have an answer. What is 3 divided by some number? Some other number or quite possibly also 3.

[Colanth]

And the answer to whether we can have a soul without a brain is "possibly and possibly not".  IOW, no answer.

[PickelledEggs]

I have heard of studies done on salamanders or something similar to them. They burned and killed off parts of the brain until literally nothing was left and it still was alive. (apparently)

The question isn't whether we can have life without a brain.  Bacteria are alive.  Single-celled creatures are alive.  Insects have no brains.  The question was whether we can have a soul without a brain, and since "soul" has never been defined (not in the sense that Christianity uses it), the question is meaningless.  A question that includes a word that has no defined meaning has no answer.  It's like asking what 3 divided by some number is.

The thing I was getting at is-

Is our consciousness our soul?

If it is possible that the brain isn't the only thing keeping us alive, is it also possible that our consciousness is not just in our brain, but throughout our body? (like the rest of our nervous system and the rest of our body tissue)

Maybe what some people call our soul is just our imprinted DNA in all of our cells and not some ghost like thing. I also heard of some instances of people with transplants having memories from the person they got the body part from. If those reports are true maybe our memories and what makes us ourselves (or soul) is just the DNA imprint in our cells and the brain is just part of it.

[WitchSabrina]

I have heard of studies done on salamanders or something similar to them. They burned and killed off parts of the brain until literally nothing was left and it still was alive. (apparently)

The question isn't whether we can have life without a brain.  Bacteria are alive.  Single-celled creatures are alive.  Insects have no brains.  The question was whether we can have a soul without a brain, and since "soul" has never been defined (not in the sense that Christianity uses it), the question is meaningless.  A question that includes a word that has no defined meaning has no answer.  It's like asking what 3 divided by some number is.

The thing I was getting at is-

Is our consciousness our soul?

If it is possible that the brain isn't the only thing keeping us alive, is it also possible that our consciousness is not just in our brain, but throughout our body? (like the rest of our nervous system and the rest of our body tissue)

Maybe what some people call our soul is just our imprinted DNA in all of our cells and not some ghost like thing. I also heard of some instances of people with transplants having memories from the person they got the body part from. If those reports are true maybe our memories and what makes us ourselves (or soul) is just the DNA imprint in our cells and the brain is just part of it.

When Benny shows up he'll go *there* with you.

I'd talk about *soul* but I'd go soundin all spiritual and shit.  And that gets me into hot water round here.
 :rollin:

[FrankDK]

> Is our consciousness our soul?

It seems like you are trying to define a soul into existence.  The common conception of "soul" is something non-material that survives the death of the body.  It doesn't exist.  If consciousness and soul are the same thing, we don't need the word, "soul."  Just say, "consciousness."

> If it is possible that the brain isn't the only thing keeping us alive, is it also possible that our consciousness is not just in our brain, but throughout our body? (like the rest of our nervous system and the rest of our body tissue)

There is no evidence for this.  All the functions of consciousness are carried out by the brain.

> Maybe what some people call our soul is just our imprinted DNA in all of our cells and not some ghost like thing. I also heard of some instances of people with transplants having memories from the person they got the body part from. If those reports are true maybe our memories and what makes us ourselves (or soul) is just the DNA imprint in our cells and the brain is just part of it.

Again, you seem to be fishing for something to call "soul."  There's not much to be gained by that exercise.

Frank

[Colanth]

Is our consciousness our soul?

We still don't have a coherent definition of "soul", so the question is meaningless.

If it is possible that the brain isn't the only thing keeping us alive

It's definite that it's not, since species that don't have brains (worms, insects, etc.) are still alive.  So are plants and bacteria.

is it also possible that our consciousness is not just in our brain

One has nothing to do with the other.  Is a tree "conscious"?  Does an excised tumor retain some of the consciousness after it's removed?

As Frank said, you're searching for a way to define a soul into existence - when a) there's no evidence that such a thing exists and b) there's no need for such a thing to explain anything.

[PickelledEggs]

I am simply trying to expand on the original question of "do we have a soul without a brain" with other similar questions. I'm not even saying a soul is even there. Personally I think its all B.S. but I like thinking about this stuff either way b.s. or not just like I like researching Norse Mythology. It doesn't make Norse Mythology true because I enjoy reading up on it.

What I was implying was we have to re-define what a soul is to actually answer this question.

And as for consciousness I'm not talking about hocus pocus ghosts in a person till it dies. I'm talking about being mentally capable of something other than instinctive things like like having morals, create gods, and have these questions like if we have a soul without a brain... other than just eat, sleep, poop, and f**k.

[Aupmanyav]

Hinduism has many options. Some say soul brain is Big Daddy's brain. Acts over long distances. Others say Big Daddy is in you. Some say you yourself are the Big Daddy but under a veil of ignorance created by your own brain. What scenario appeals to you?