Persistant vegatative state and the soul

[yodachoda]

Persistent vegetative state (PVS) is when damage to the brain has occurred and the patient is no longer conscious and thinking and aware. They are technically alive, and the brain is not officially brain-dead, but their personality is completely gone. They can't talk or walk or read. They can respond to basic stimuli though. Here is a quick clip of someone in PVS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rtKKfImndo

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but theists believe the mind or soul is separate from the physical world. This is how it's possible there is life after death and how God is a thinking being with no physical form. So where is the soul of people with PVS? Is it destroyed due to the brain damage? If so, don't ALL people have their souls destroyed at death due to brain death?

Is the soul/mind completely intact and waiting for the physical body to die? Does the soul leave the instant PVS begins?

IMO, people in persistent vegetative states are evidence of atheism. It seems to me that physical brains and chemical interactions within the brain are responsible for the mind. Invisible things like emotion, thinking, personality, ect may not have a physical form but they are only possible and due to physical matter. Damage a certain part of the brain and personality is gone. Damage another and emotions are gone. Damage another and consciousness is gone.

[xSilverPhinx]

IMO, people in persistent vegetative states are evidence of atheism. It seems to me that physical brains and chemical interactions within the brain are responsible for the mind. Invisible things like emotion, thinking, personality, ect may not have a physical form but they are only possible and due to physical matter. Damage a certain part of the brain and personality is gone. Damage another and emotions are gone. Damage another and consciousness is gone.

Definitely one of the best arguments mind/brain non duality has going for it. One good way of seeing how something works is to see what happens when things go wrong.

If there was a non physical "soul", then it wouldn't be affected by such major changes in the brain, right? If Terri Schiavo wasn't conscious, or at least didn't have an higher consciousness left after those areas of her brain were too damaged, then does she still have a soul? Do animals with a similar level of conscious have souls?

What the hell is this "soul" people speak of? ???

As for the underlined bit, it has more to do with the dualism versus monism debate, not really atheism versus theism. There are a few atheists who are dualists, Chalmers among them. I'm probably just nit-picking, but i think it's an important distinction.

[Sweetdeath]

This is a very sad and scary state that I hope none of my friends or loved ones ever go through.
What the hell is a soul anyway?
It really makes no sense. I really do like this thread OP. It shows more proof about  realistic thinking.

[The Magic Pudding]

What the hell is a soul anyway? 

I've eaten quite a few, they are nice with lemon.

[xSilverPhinx]

What the hell is a soul anyway? 

I've eaten quite a few, they are nice with lemon.

LOL

"Soul", not sole!

But maybe you're onto something. Souls are what god tramples on on a daily basis. Just as good an answer as any

[Sweetdeath]

Yum yum, puddin xD Looks good.

[Gawen]

MP may have meant this

[Ecurb Noselrub]

An alternative Christian perspective is that there is no such thing as a soul apart from a living, healthy  brain, and the Christian's hope is in resurrection of the body (like Jesus) as opposed to the eternal existence of a disembodied soul.  I happen to think that PVS, and even sleep or other forms of unconsciousness, are pretty good arguments against the existence of a soul, but they have nothing to do with the concept of resurrection.

[OldGit]

Doesn't that make it hard to accept heaven and hell?  Or do you wait and go there bodily once you've been resurrected?

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Doesn't that make it hard to accept heaven and hell?  Or do you wait and go there bodily once you've been resurrected?

"Heaven" is on a perfect earth. We don't stop being humans.  "Hell" is simply death - no eternal torment.  There is judgment after resurrection, but I perceive of an adverse judgment as being something like prison here.  It's not forever.

[Heisenberg]

MP may have meant this

Or possibly this

[Sweetdeath]

Wow, Korea~  I totally wanna go there. XD yes , the only Seoul I believe in is in Korea.

[The Magic Pudding]

I don't mind soul as something a human has more or less of but isn't eternal or magical obviously.
I'll have to work on a recipe.

A dollop of empathy.
A jar of approved music appreciation.
A tablespoon of generosity.
A large refined or raw appreciation for beauty.

I'm not sure what else, but I don't think I'll recognise bad souls, just a lack of soul.

[Norfolk And Chance]

An alternative Christian perspective is that there is no such thing as a soul apart from a living, healthy  brain, and the Christian's hope is in resurrection of the body (like Jesus) as opposed to the eternal existence of a disembodied soul.  I happen to think that PVS, and even sleep or other forms of unconsciousness, are pretty good arguments against the existence of a soul, but they have nothing to do with the concept of resurrection.

Ah right, resurrection of the body - you believe in that...

Dead people stay dead.

Now what?

[Gawen]

Or possibly this

Ohhhhhh...good one!!