This is the philosophical stance of science.Unlike all other things related to parapsychology or para-physics
the idea of mind or soul is the only one which science is shy to look in the eye.
Admitting presence of soul is a hard thing for scientists and philosophers who want to see the universe God free.
This matter is more complicated than meets the eye.
My concept of soul:
My definition of soul is an incorporeal essence of living beings,it is not a physical thing but belongs to spiritual reality.Its properties are different from matter and energy ,so it does not obey the usual laws of physics.
Its only function thats common in all living beings is being able to feel.But in humans soul has another function that is exercise of free will.Being able to choose and direct the energy for action in a particular direction.
The level of consciousness depends on the development of brain and the development of soul is correlated with it.Many higher animals have consciousness of primitive level and so does they have soul as anybody having a pet cant deny this fact.
Soul is only present in living beings which have the ability to move (this concept has its roots in the fact that consciousness is necessary for voluntary movements) or at least have some kind of sensory system.
Soul needs a body to be born useful.
Every thing present in this world has a spiritual parallel that is attached to it like out body is attached to our mind or soul because if there is a God and He belongs to the spiritual realm then for him to keep in touch with its creation and control them, there should be a connection between and it necessitates the presence of soul.soul may differ from the spiritual counter part of nonliving beings.
Its only function thats common in all living beings is being able to feel.But in humans soul has another function that is exercise of free will.Being able to choose and direct the energy for action in a particular direction.
The level of consciousness depends on the development of brain and the development of soul is correlated with it.Many higher animals have consciousness of primitive level and so does they have soul as anybody having a pet cant deny this fact.
Soul is only present in living beings which have the ability to move (this concept has its roots in the fact that consciousness is necessary for voluntary movements) or at least have some kind of sensory system.
Soul needs a body to be born useful.
Every thing present in this world has a spiritual parallel that is attached to it like out body is attached to our mind or soul because if there is a God and He belongs to the spiritual realm then for him to keep in touch with its creation and control them, there should be a connection between and it necessitates the presence of soul.soul may differ from the spiritual counter part of nonliving beings.
This is my concept of soul and i don't claim it to be truly right.
soul ,free will and problem they pose to science:
According to general scientific opinion, it is all matter and energy what
exists in the universe and we the human body and our brain is part of that energy
and matter. The matter can change forms and that is what happens when the
physical body dies. This is understandable since the matter and energy interact
according to the laws of physics and our body must follow those laws-- if that is
what we only are!
By following the above theorem it is at once evident that the human beings
do not have any free will. Being matter and energy alone they are functioning only
according to the laws of physics and mathematics. In real life experiences however
we all observe that along with existing natural laws the free human will too is
operational.
For checking free will see this experiment:
free will means 1)what you can do is in your control
2) its not determined by somebody else
This logo can be see as green arrows pointing to the right and yellow arrows pointing to the left,exercise your free will and see them in what ever direction you want to see.To see the arrows towards right or towards left its completely up to you.
This is one point that makes us think that we have free will but they are certain other things that need to be explored,which are out of scope of this post.
This is one point that makes us think that we have free will but they are certain other things that need to be explored,which are out of scope of this post.
we cannot control the things that are thrown towards us by the nature but we definitely can choose what responses to show and this fact makes us responsible for our acts.
Continuity of soul:
As far as immortality of soul is considered its totally a matter of faith.People quote near death experiences as proof of it but till now i am critical of them and don't consider them satisfying.
Plus an experiment was conducted in 1915 in which the experimenter showed that weight of the dead dogs got reduced after their death but this experiment is of dubious nature and has been criticized a lot.
for scientific explanation of near death experiences see:
ReplyDeletehttp://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/near-death-experience4.htm
Professor Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in
ReplyDeletePhysics (1979) writes: “There are hundreds of different radio waves being
broadcast all around you from distant stations. At any given instant, your office or
car or living room is full of these radio waves. However if you turn on a radio, you
can listen to only one frequency at a time; these other frequencies are not in phase
with each other. Each station has a different frequency, a different energy. As a
result, your radio can only be turned to one broadcast at a time. Likewise, in our
universe we are tuned into the frequency that corresponds to physical reality. But 5
there are an infinite number of parallel realities coexisting with us in the same
room, although we cannot tune into them.”
The ultimate objective test of free will would see to be: Can one predict the behavior of the organism? If one can, then it clearly doesn't have free will but is predetermined. On the other hand, if one cannot predict the behavior, one could take that as an operational definition that the organism has free will ... The real reason why we cannot predict human behavior is that it is just too difficult. We already know the basic physical laws that govern the activity of the brain, and they are comparatively simple. But it is just too hard to solve the equations when there are more than a few particles involved ... So although we know the fundamental equations that govern the brain, we are quite unable to use them to predict human behavior. This situation arises in science whenever we deal with the macroscopic system, because the number of particles is always too large for there to be any chance of solving the fundamental equations. What we do instead is use effective theories. These are approximations in which the very large number of particles are replaced by a few quantities. An example is fluid mechanics ... I want to suggest that the concept of free will and moral responsibility for our actions are really an effective theory in the sense of fluid mechanics. It may be that everything we do is determined by some grand unified theory. If that theory has determined that we shall die by hanging, then we shall not drown. But you would have to be awfully sure that you were destined for the gallows to put to sea in a small boat during a storm. I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it look before they cross the road. ... One cannot base one's conduct on the idea that everything is determined, because one does not know what has been determined. Instead, one has to adopt the effective theory that one has free will and that one is responsible for one's actions. This theory is not very good at predicting human behavior, but we adopt it because there is no chance of solving the equations arising from the fundamental laws. There is also a Darwinian reason that we believe in free will: A society in which the individual feels responsible for his or her actions is more likely to work together and survive to spread its values.
ReplyDeleteDo people have free will? If we have free will, where in the evolutionary tree did it develop? Do blue-green algae or bacteria have free will, or is their behavior automatic and within the realm of scientific law? Is it only multicelled organisms that have free will, or only mammals? We might think that a chimpanzee is exercising free will when it chooses to chomp on a banana, or a cat when it rips up your sofa, but what about the roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans—a simple creature made of only 959 cells? It probably never thinks, “That was damn tasty bacteria I got to dine on back there,” yet it too has a definite preference in food and will either settle for an unattractive meal or go foraging for something better, depending on recent experience. Is that the exercise of free will?
ReplyDeleteThough we feel that we can choose what we do, our understanding of the molecular basis of biology shows that biological processes are governed by the laws of physics and chemistry and therefore are as determined as the orbits of the planets. Recent experiments in neuroscience support the view that it is our physical brain, following the known laws of science, that determines our actions, and not some agency that exists outside those laws. For example, a study of patients undergoing awake brain surgery found that by electrically stimulating the appropriate regions of the brain, one could create in the patient the desire to move the hand, arm, or foot, or to move the lips and talk. It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion.”