More miscellany Parts One & Two (Evolution)

by dhw, Sunday, October 27, 2024, 11:11 (25 days ago) @ dhw

Privileged planet: unmelted asteroids needed

QUOTE: "But for now, this is another piece of the puzzle that answers an important question about the early solar system. And, maybe more importantly, it shows how many things have to go right for life to develop in the first place." (David’s bold)

DAVID: the bold above is right on point. Life is here following a million (?) or more contingencies. Only design can achieve this.

But this raises the same old question: why would your first-cause, omnipotent and omniscient God have to create billions of stars and solar systems and unmelted and melted asteroids, with “a million or more contingencies”, if his one and only purpose was to create us and our food? You make it sound as if he DIDN’T create them all, but had to fiddle around with something that already existed. Of course, your answer will be that only God knows. But you can’t see that such irrationality demands the same faith as an atheist’s belief that all the billions and millions would eventually chance to produce the right combination of “contingencies”.

NDE's and skeptics: Parnia's latest studies

QUOTES: "I think any rational being would not deny that there is a soul, in the sense that you wouldn’t deny that you are a conscious thinking being. That’s really what the soul is.
There’s nothing more to it. If other people have different definitions of soul, that’s not my definition, that’s not what I’m talking about. The soul is the self."

“...the evidence, certainly from research that is being done in cardiac arrest patients — people who have gone beyond the threshold of death — suggests that consciousness, psyche, or soul does not become annihilated when people have gone beyond the threshold of death, at least not in the early stages of death."

“there’s at least growing evidence to at least raise the question that it’s possible, contrary to many people’s beliefs, that actually consciousness, the psyche, or the soul may continue and may exist independent of brain function.”

These are two separate issues. Of course nobody will deny that they are a conscious thinking being, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with thu question of whether the source of the conscious self is material or not (materialism versus dualism), and whether it survives death or not. What you believe will then depend entirely on how you evaluate the evidence, not on your definition of “soul”! The second and third quotes suggest that the evidence points only to the possibility that it “may” survive and “may” be independent, but even that is qualified by “the early stages of death”, as opposed to the immortality which many people associate with the word “soul”. The earlier the stage, the more likely it is that there is some lingering activity in the physical self (probably the brain) which has not been detected.

NB I remain neutral. There are psychic experiences, including some NDEs, which defy material explanation (e.g. when otherwise inaccessible information is received and subsequently verified). I am only commenting on the arguments presented in this article.)

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For David: I've put these two articles under "More miscellany" but am a little concerned that you haven't replied to yesterday's "evolution" and "miscellany" posts. I hope all is well with you.