Dialogue Beta or On Souls

      So I've thinking about the nature of our soul. Is it connected to our bodies or is it separate?
      Uh. Okay. What brought this on, dare I ask?
      I've been reading a series set in medieval times, and it raised an interesting philosophical point.
      I'm thinking you need to get a life.
      The question that they were looking at involved a man who lost his limbs in a battle but survived the injuries. The question was whether the man's limbs should have a Christian burial, too. In other words, did parts of that man's soul die when those limbs were cut off?
      Oh, yeah, you need a life. And a woman. When's the last time you had a date?
      So I was thinking about that--
      You would be.
      --and wondered at what point would a soul become detached. If you could keep just a person's brain alive somehow, would that person's soul still be attached or would it have moved on?
      You're assuming we have souls. We might be Republicans and sold ours already.
      Hardy har har. For the sake of this discussion, weasel, we're assuming the subject has a soul. And we all do. I won't argue about that.
      Well, with that assumption in place, then I'd have to say that the person's soul would still be attached and pretty angry about not having a body.
      So you're saying the soul resides in the brain?
      I don't know about resides there, but since it's where our thoughts originate from, yes, I'd have to say that was the soul.
      Okay. When a person is brain-dead but the body alive, is the soul still there? You will recall this was discussed when that poor woman in Florida was starved to death by her husband.
      Oh, I never knew how you regarded that case.
      During that time, many people argued that since she were brain-dead, then her soul had already went to the afterlife. Others said it had not, and so the death of her body was a release of soul. Of course, I never thought she was brain-dead.
      Of course. You never let any facts sway your from an opinion, do you?
      Watch it. All I have to do is take my meds again, and you're going away. So keep a civil tongue in your ... well ... our mouth.
      Sorry. I shall endeavor to make my conversation agreeable to you.
      You do have a gift for sarcasm.
      Wonder who I got that from?
      Personally I've always blamed my faults on the company I kept in high school. But to get back to the subject, the idea of a soul persists today, even though science has never detected one.
      And you take that for evidence that there is one.
      If there isn't one, isn't it curious that the idea of a soul or spirit has arisen in so many cultures? There isn't a society of any size throughout the years that hasn't had belief that something of us survives our deaths. Plato, for one, believed that the body and the soul were separate and said that the soul or psyche was immortal.
      That's Greek to me! Sorry, I couldn't resist.
      You should have. Rene Descartes, who helped to shape the scientific view of the world, believed that the reality was made up of two different substances: material substance and thinking substance. The interaction between the two produced reality.
      Sorry. I can't think of a pun for Rene. Where are you going with this? In other words, what's your point?
      I actually don't have one. I've just been thinking about this and trying to read some on it. It's a subject that has fascinated and confounded thinkers throughout the ages. It's unlikely we can solve it in a 10 minute discussion. But we'll come back to it because I think it's exciting.
      You've got to get a date. And soon.
      From your lips to God's ears, dude.