Francis Crick , Nobel Prize winner for discovering the molecular structure of DNA, made waves in 1994 with the publication of his book "The Astonishing Hypothesis " , in which she argued that the soul is an illusion perpetuated only by our faith in it. The scientist gave a hard news reader from the first line : "' You ,' your joys and sorrows , your memories and your ambitions , sense of personal identity and free will - all these are nothing more than the behavior of a huge number of nerve cells and their associated molecules . "
In the two decades elapsed since the publication of this book , science has made many advances in the fields of neuroscience that allow the evaluation of evidence proving the existence of disputes or soul philosopher Stephen Cave concept which states that it is "the most important idea in the history of mankind.
Cave writes in the book " Immortality " soul hypothesis that has always relied on evidence . "If people who believed in the resurrection was based solely on faith in God's ability to commit an act of miraculous faith in the soul always relied on reason . Ancient Greek philosophers accept the idea of the soul because I think that is the best explanation for a number of empirical phenomena , "said the philosopher .
What are the items that were based philosophies that have adopted the idea of the soul? Cave identifies three . First , the difference between living things and who are not live . For the wise men of many cultures, including those of ancient Greece , it is clear that living things had an additional component which gave them vitality absent in rocks or water . This " animating principle " was assimilated soul. The second element was the conscience - that some living beings are not only capable of movement and development, but also to think, to imagine and believe in different things. Since there is a huge difference between the material things are measurable and visible, and the realm of ideas that exist only in our minds, wise minds felt different from other things that exist and that requires special explanation - the soul . The third element is something esoteric : that some children in India have memories of " past lives " is considered by many a proof that the soul moves from one incarnation to another , while others believe that " ghosts " and other appearances unexplained is evidence of the spirit and its survival after death of the body .
These three arguments are as compelling today as they were now 2,000 , 200 or even 20 years . Regarding the first sentence - that of " animating principle " - science has shown not need it to explain the existence of life . Scientific discoveries about how life works , from organisms to the organs , cells and DNA identified by Francis Crick admits of no spiritual substance . So the first argument for the existence of ancient soul can be ranked .
The third argument , based on the ghosts and other unexplained appearance , it is also worth to be put aside . Those who have tried to investigate these events have always been disappointed. Rarely these events continue to be valid after a thorough analysis , and in cases where it is not fraud or pure invention , other explanations for events are usually at least as plausible as the existence of a spiritual world version . Society for psychical Research Organization , founded in London in 1882 to study paranormal phenomena , failed to find in over 100 research no compelling evidence to prove the existence of any supernatural happenings
However, it is worth mentioning a source of alleged " supernatural evidence " for the soul : the so- called " body experiences ." A typical case of a body experiences is , for example, when a patient 's heart stops for a moment , and this charge as it leaves the body and how the above or have the feeling that through a tunnel of light . These remarkable experiences disturbs his people , leading them to strengthen their religious beliefs .
However, scientific experiments have shown that experiences can be induced by certain drugs and brain stimulating electrodes . The researchers also sought to test whether people really see his body outside by placing signs in operating rooms that could be perceived only from a point above the patient , but so far there were no evidence for hypothesis that people leave their bodily limits .
To conclude that the existence of souls is truly the best explanation for extracorporeal experiences , we would need first to have a plausible definition of what is really soul and how he manages to survive the body. Given the evidence unclear without a strong theory of the soul we prefer a naturalistic explanation . Thus , we come to the second argument: soul mind.
Although many people believe that contemporary soul there , when asked what is this , many offer vague descriptions . If the soul is, however , the vehicle can give people immortality , then it must contain a fundamental essence - the true "I" - as if it survives the death of the body to know that we continue to exist . In the West, the " real me" is assimilated to mind - that is, the conscious part that thinks, feels , remembers and dreams . When hovering over our dead body or when we get to heaven , we expect to perceive these experiences consciously and benefit from our memories and beliefs intact.
In other words , the essence of the arguments that advocates a " immortal soul " is based on the idea that the mind is independent of body and dependent on a spiritual essence that can survive bodily death . Conversely, if the mind is entirely dependent on the body , then we can conclude that the mind goes when we die , and in this case there is nothing left of us worthy of the name " soul" . So the key question regarding the existence of the soul is where the mind ( or consciousness ) can continue to exist without the body or as a friend said skeptical of Socrates , or it ceases to exist after the disappearance of the body as the music of harps stop destroying the harp .
What evidence say ? Soul doctrine dates from a period before the discoveries of science , the philosophers believed that the brain is only a cooling mechanism of the blood. The human body was seen as an unreliable structure , a building made of clay hastily gods, so it seemed hard to believe that this matter could be responsible for memory treasures for creative thinking and deep mystery of religious feelings . Therefore, the sages of that time believed that it is more reasonable that the glory of the human mind is the assigning of the soul, the divine spark , not that strange organ of our skulls .
However, even some ancient thinkers were skeptical about the fact that the mind would survive the body. As science and medicine have progressed , have increased the evidence for a close link between mind and brain. Voltaire said that you can not stop laughing when you hear someone saying that a person's mental faculties can survive brain assertion is not very popular in France in 1730 years . In a text published after his death, Voltaire wrote that " as God has linked the ability to have ideas part of the brain , he can keep this faculty only preserving this part of the brain , to preserve this faculty without the brain is laughter as impossible as preserving a man or a bird or bird after the man's death . "
Voltaire (Foto: Shutterstock.com)
Even if there are not enough details about Gage 's case to draw a firm conclusion , we are forced to use only this event . In years passed since the freak accident medicine progressed , increasing the survival rate of people with brain injuries , and science has become more efficient in studying these cases. Data accumulated over time show how different regions of the brain injury leads to removal or radical change of some key aspects of the mind. Today , the literature documenting how different brain damage can destroy a person's emotional ability , memory , creativity , language , ability to process different senses or , as happened to Gage , respect for social norms and decision-making . All these examples are qualities that were previously attributed to the soul. Therefore, those who believe in the soul were part of a challenge if they think that the soul can preserve these skills after the destruction of the brain , after death, they must explain why they can preserve the soul is destroyed only when portion of the brain.
To clarify this contradiction we can take the example of sight . Thus, if the optic nerves in the brain are injured seriously , we can not see . This shows that sight is dependent on optic nerve function. However, when people imagine that their soul leaves the body , they imagine that they will be able to see further , for example, imagines that his body watching their own funeral . In other words , they believe that their soul is immaterial faculty of sight . But if the soul can see when the brain and body have stopped working , you just can not see where the optic nerves have stopped working ? In other words, if people have a blind soul who can see you are blind ?
Putem vedea Raiul dacă nu avem nervi optici? (Foto: Shutterstock.com)
For a long time , those who wanted to study the brain were limited to rare cases like that of Phineas Gage . In recent decades, however , advances in technology led to the development of new devices that have revolutionized neuroscience : devices that can produce images of the human brain during operation. Neuroimaging techniques , as they are called , allow researchers to study the correlations between thinking (apparently immeasurable ) and measurable aspects of physical matter that makes up the brain . In laboratories around the world can see live how different parts of the brain become active when deployed usual mental activities such as mother's face to remember or to imagine it playing football.
The results of these experiments show that every mental process is accompanied by a cerebral process . More worrying for the soul hypothesis is that these studies show that the brain processes begins even before the conscious mind to perceive . In other words, a scientist who monitors your brain activity may find that you have taken a decision (left or right , tea or coffee , etc. . ) Prior to acknowledge . If " true self " as a conscious soul , it would not make sense . Conversely, if the mind is the product of a physical brain , then this is perfectly normal.
In fact , we all are aware of the close connection between brain and mind: alcohol , for example , we get drunk , so we affecting risk attitudes , social norms and changing to us other aspects of personality . However, the alcohol is a natural substance , if our minds heart depends on a non- material, which may be so changed by a certain molecule of carbon , hydrogen and oxygen ? We also know that a cup of coffee (not to mention drugs like heroin or cocaine ) changes our mental states . Moreover, even the water in the body can affect personality . Neuroscience and biology offer more explanation for these intimate connection between mind , body and brain.
Antonio Damasio , one of the most renowned specialists in neuroscience in the world, offering the example illustrates this connection hunger. " A few hours after a meal, blood sugar drops and neurons in the hypothalamus detects this change , the activation pattern in this case is relevant brain to alter body condition so as to change the situation . You feel hungry and work to stop hunger , "writes researcher . Some of the actions we will take to stop hunger may be unconscious like that reach out as a pretzel . Others may be aware of , such as that decide to choose something from the menu of a restaurant or cook a recipe. These mental processes are , however, only one element of a wider loops biochemical activity that began with a glucose decrease .
Besides, what happens when our blood sugar drops and clearly illustrates the link between mental and physical : first, we start to feel anxious and become irritable and concentration ability decreases. As you know very well diabetes if blood sugar drops and more, become belligerents , the emotionally unstable and confused . If hunger is greatly extended in a moment become apathetic and depressed . All these are significant changes in personality - the part of the " self " that is supposed to keep the soul - caused by chemical changes that occur in the brain and body. Thus, under the careful analysis of modern science, ancient distinction between mental and physical disappears, and our thoughts and emotions shown rooted in biology.
The progress of modern science allows us to appreciate the true splendor of the human brain. Every man has his skull about 100 billion neurons , and each of them has on average 7,000 synaptic connections to other neurons. So it is not surprising that we can not imagine how the brain produces the mind , because such complexity is beyond human imagination . Specialists in neuroscience AFIM that is not an exaggeration when we say that the human brain is the most complex thing in the universe discovered so far . If this extremely complicated system that includes trillions of connections, do not produce the mind, then we can ask what role does . So , the idea that human personality could survive death of the body seems impossible to believe. This does not mean that researchers have managed to decipher the mysteries of mind and brain ; far . Neuroscience is still in its infancy , and the mind and the brain holds many mysteries still undeciphered . It is even possible that people do not ever discover how the brain creates the mind, but all the evidence accumulated so far shows that the mind is entirely dependent on the brain. The situation is summarized excellent psychologist Jesse Bering : "The mind is what the brain occurs , the brain ceases to function when we die therefore subjective feeling that the mind survives death is a psychological illusion operating in the brains of living."
As we learn more about us , the less surprising that we do not have souls. We humans have evolved over billions of years from simple creatures that had no mental life - and before this time the elements which were not even creatures . Each of us arises from physical contact of a sperm and an egg cell and the cell is growing . Mental life is constantly appears closely linked to body condition . Moreover, the best modern theories about consciousness argue that the mind is just a physical representation of an organization makes about itself and its environment to help them survive in a complex world full of physical hazards . The evidence accumulated so far scientists tell us , however, that this complex brain that produces everything - emotions , art, thought, religion - it is more stunning than the simple soul posited by Plato and theologians .
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