If we have souls, why do we need physical brains?

[Storm]

Because your brain will be connected directly with the other parts of your body in order to give it signs to move. In another word, the brain can't work on its own, but the soul will make your brain and all your body to work. The soul will make all your body alive and for each part of the body, there is certain tasks as you know.

Just my 2 cents.

:yes: You beat me to it.

 

[Storm]

But some believe they can. I guess I need to hear from people who believe this.

If our mind is indeed a seperate thing from our physical body, something that can exist without it, why couldn't we just be an empty shell for holding our soul?

Erm, now I'm confused too... This made sense in my brain (or is it my soul?) earlier.

I don't think the body is just an empty shell for a "soul" (I hate that word, it's so vague). I think our entire (individual) being is a complex interface between the divine consciousness and (equally divine) matter. There's a spectrum of physical consciousness - a.k.a. life - that ranges from the most basic biochemistry to one's 'spirit' - our personality traits, ideals, morality.

Body/ mind/ soul isn't a clump of separate bits that can function without each other, they're different functions of the same thing. They affect each other, and when the spectrum is disrupted by death, the individual personality dies as surely as the body.

However, just as the immortal atoms of our flesh will continue, the divine seed of consciousness goes on.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Our mind is a function of our brain and is not separable from it.
Our soul is a function of God. And is not concerned with thought or mind.
Can our soul Think and Know...?
You get the same answer if you ask if God can think and Know.
On death that link to our body and brain is broken.
But our soul remains one with God. and like God will Know.

 

[wizanda]

So we can do 'stupid' things....as we can't make our own mess of things, if we didn't choose to walk into our own trouble.

 

[Quagmire]

" we have souls, why do we need physical brains?"

I think this is like asking, "If we have electricity, why do we need light bulbs"?

Nah, I don't really think that. I just felt like posting something.

 

[worshiper]

i heard a narration about how muhammad's friends asked the prophet regarding the soul. not sure where the source was from but is goes something like this, when the "sahaba" (friends) asked the prophet regarding soul, Allah said to muhammad that the matter of soul is His (Allah's) matter. meaning that human shouldnt try to figure out matters regarding soul coz its just scientifically too advance for us human to comprehend.

however for the sake of the argument .... i look at soul like as if you are playing in a MMORPG. the mouse is the brain of your character which is connected to that character's movement while the soul of that character is you yourself. you move the mouse your character moves. you have the ability to think but your character including the mouse dont. leave the mouse, the mouse doesnt have the ability to move the character by itself.

ask any neurosurgeons they will tell you that there are still no evidence that the brain has the ability to think and reason. the only proven things about brains are, they have the ability to store information and to operate your movement.

p/s: dont go asuming that my religion is MMORPGism LOL

 

[Blindinglight]

The brain stores information, makes our bodies move, stores information, and helps achieve what lessons we are to learn in this life. Can't learn what it's like to be mentally retarded if you don't have a brain to underdevelop, or be gay without the mindset and genetics to make you so.
Also, no one would live very long after birth if the brain wasn't there to pump the heart of fill the lungs.

 

[Willamena]

" we have souls, why do we need physical brains?"

I think this is like asking, "If we have electricity, why do we need light bulbs"?

Nah, I don't really think that. I just felt like posting something.

Hehe. Close... It's more like asking "If our room is lit, why do we need light bulbs?"

 

[fantome profane]

Hehe. Close... It's more like asking "If our room is lit, why do we need light bulbs?"

Are you suggesting that our physical brains are the cause of the “soul”? Just like a light bulb is the cause of the light in the room. If this is what you are suggesting I agree.

 

[Kungfuzed]

I read about this question somewhere recently and I thought it was very interesting.
If intelligence and consciousness can exist outside of a physcal body and brain, why do we even need a brain?
Is it just for the physical functioning of the body? Could the soul not do that on its own?

Thoughts?

In order to answer this we need to understand why we need anything physical. Why can't we just be spirits? Think about how obsessed some people are with God. They won't give Him a moments peace. Well, if we were spirits then where would God be able to hide? God created the physical universe six thousand years ago in order to separate Himself from us. In order for the illusion to be complete He had to completely convince us that there was no such thing as the supernatural and that the only things that exist are physical. If there was any hint of the spirit world we would get curious and discover Him. He created all life with the same organic compounds all based on DNA to make it appear as if we had evolved. He made animals that look similar to humans. He made rocks that look like bones and buried them in the earth to make us think there were many creatures that existed before us. He pre-set the radiation of carbon isotopes to make them appear to be millions of years old. Although the universe spins around the earth, God made the other planets appear to be circling the sun. He even made stars and galaxies appear to be billions of light years away, just for the sake of convincing us that we are completely immersed in an inescapable, infinitely large, physical universe. One last detail was to hide our own immortal soul. What better place to hide it than in the immense complexity of the brain? With billions and billions of neurons God could make our actions, feelings and thoughts appear to be physical events occurring in our head. There would be no more gaps to discover God in, and He could finally have a vacation.

 

[Comprehend]

isn't the OP essentially asking whether we are dualists or materialists?

I'm both and no that is not impossible, but I am not going to explain how that can be both possible and consistant. thanks.

 

[rojse]

I have a lot of the problems in your previous statement, in regards to the science of the world and the universe, so I'll just write them all down here.

Firstly, according to the bible, God made all of the animals first, and then he made humans. So, your statement "he made animals that look similar to humans" should be reversed, at the very least, and modified to "he made humans look similar to some animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees."

If the universe spins around the earth, how come we have proven that the earth revolves around the sun, through astronomical observations? And not only that, but every other planet revolves around the sun, and their moons revolve around their respective planets, too (that's why they are called moons). How can we work out the orbits of the planets and such to be so wrong, then? The position of the earth itself is not central to this galaxy, let alone the universe - the centre of this galaxy is reserved for a black hole billions of times larger than the sun, and our galaxy is not in the centre of the universe.

I do not have the knowledge in physics or geochemistry to argue about how rocks can appears to be bones, and how everything was pre carbon-dated but if these statements are true, that charge makes God the prince of liars and deceivers, for he has lied about the age of the earth and evolution and life on earth.

And, seeing as you know all of this about God and his plans, can you tell me what made Him decide that the earth should be approximately four point five billion years old, instead of ten million years, ten billion years, or seven thousand and twenty three point four years?

 

[Kungfuzed]

I have a lot of the problems in your previous statement, in regards to the science of the world and the universe, so I'll just write them all down here.

Firstly, according to the bible, God made all of the animals first, and then he made humans. So, your statement "he made animals that look similar to humans" should be reversed, at the very least, and modified to "he made humans look similar to some animals, such as gorillas and chimpanzees."

Oh NO! God would never make His most noble, intelligent, and important creation patterned after some filthy animal. The Bible says we are made in God's image, not in a monkey's. Its obvious that God knew beforehand what we would look like and decided to make a caricature of what a human would look like without the immortal soul intact. It may physically appear that we evolved from apes, but we all know that the immortal soul doesn't evolve, so that would be impossible.

If the universe spins around the earth, how come we have proven that the earth revolves around the sun, through astronomical observations? And not only that, but every other planet revolves around the sun, and their moons revolve around their respective planets, too (that's why they are called moons). How can we work out the orbits of the planets and such to be so wrong, then? The position of the earth itself is not central to this galaxy, let alone the universe - the centre of this galaxy is reserved for a black hole billions of times larger than the sun, and our galaxy is not in the centre of the universe.

Because God made it all look that way. He couldn't let us find out the true age of the earth or all the other illusions, like evolution, platetechtonics, ice ages, geology, paleontology, carbon dating, would all be discovered as fake. Yet, at the same time, He couldn't allow for His most prized creation to be some ancillary spec on the edge of an immense galaxy. That would be just as bad as creating us in the image of chimps. It's obvious from reading between the lines in Genesis that the Heavens as we see it are more like a giant movie screen, projecting what the scientists want to see.

I do not have the knowledge in physics or geochemistry to argue about how rocks can appears to be bones, and how everything was pre carbon-dated but if these statements are true, that charge makes God the prince of liars and deceivers, for he has lied about the age of the earth and evolution and life on earth.

It's quite simple. I've seen plenty of rocks on the ground that look like worn down bones. A flat oval one is a patella (kneecap). Small cube or triangular ones are teeth. A flat curved rock would be a piece of skull. You really only need a few pieces before you can take measurements and speculate on what species it could be, and if you don't know, then you can just make up a whole new species. Paleontologists have even perfected the art of cutting rocks into whatever shape of bone they want. (They are secretly linked with the Masons and even use the same tools) That's why it takes so long to dig up a bone. They have to cut it just right for whatever species they claim to have found. Then they wrap it in plaster to make it look more like a nice white bone and put it in a museum.

And, seeing as you know all of this about God and his plans, can you tell me what made Him decide that the earth should be approximately four point five billion years old, instead of ten million years, ten billion years, or seven thousand and twenty three point four years?

That's just it. God really doesn't want us to know the truth so He created scientists to keep us in the dark. Scientists keep the illusion going for God. God just wants to be left alone, to have some piece and quiet for a few thousand years before He comes back to burn the earth and punish us all for giving Him such a bad headache while we were all chasing Him and chanting His name in the spirit world. The most fervent of God's groupies have somehow managed to see through all this and have written the Bible to expose God and resume the endless praises and worship. They believe that God, more than anything, wants the constant adulation, prayers, praises, singing, and sacrifice of His creation. This might all sound a bit silly and definitely off topic, but looking at the universe that we live in, is it not obvious that if there is a God, He just wants to be left alone? Why else would He be hiding? God should be sitting in a huge palace at the top of Mt Everest where all can see Him. God should be actively and openly involved in every aspect of what He created. Instead God is completely absent and everything that happens is left up to the laws of nature.

If there is an immortal soul, the classic dualistic spirit that floats up to heaven and continues to live for eternity after we die, there is no sign of it anywhere in our brain. The illusion that our universe is completely physical, including every cell in our body, is complete.

 

[rojse]

Thank you for replying to my points. I'll try and reply as best I can.

Oh NO! God would never make His most noble, intelligent, and important creation patterned after some filthy animal. The Bible says we are made in God's image, not in a monkey's. Its obvious that God knew beforehand what we would look like and decided to make a caricature of what a human would look like without the immortal soul intact. It may physically appear that we evolved from apes, but we all know that the immortal soul doesn't evolve, so that would be impossible.

When you say that we are made in God's image, the image of a man can vary quite dramatically. There are people that are only half a metre tall, to nearly three metres tall. There are dark coloured and light coloured people. People can have red, yellow, orange, black, brown, or white hair. They can be balding or completely bald. There are people that are born with extra fingers, or toes, or even the stub of a tail. There are people that have hair all over their face, or cannot go into the sun because they get burnt. To sum up my point, when you say that God made us in His image, whose image do you mean, exactly?

As for the immortal soul, who says that we have one? If so, how can this statement be proven? Can we weigh a human soul? Does everyone have one? How can we check?

Because God made it all look that way. He couldn't let us find out the true age of the earth or all the other illusions, like evolution, platetechtonics, ice ages, geology, paleontology, carbon dating, would all be discovered as fake. Yet, at the same time, He couldn't allow for His most prized creation to be some ancillary spec on the edge of an immense galaxy. That would be just as bad as creating us in the image of chimps. It's obvious from reading between the lines in Genesis that the Heavens as we see it are more like a giant movie screen, projecting what the scientists want to see.

I do not have any idea how to disprove the "God made everything appear old idea," so I will not try and debate with you about all of that stuff.

Evolution is a process that is at work, even today. It's not just a process that occured millions of years ago. The most easily understood example that I am aware of is the cold virus. You get this virus each year, but your body develops immunities to that version of the cold virus. The virus evolves, becomes different enough so that it can bypass the antibodies your body developed, and finds another way in.

For your idea of a giant television screen, how far out is this screen? We have sent many satellites out past the planet of Saturn, and we have not reached this magical screen yet.

I've seen plenty of rocks on the ground that look like worn down bones. A flat oval one is a patella (kneecap). Small cube or triangular ones are teeth. A flat curved rock would be a piece of skull. You really only need a few pieces before you can take measurements and speculate on what species it could be, and if you don't know, then you can just make up a whole new species. Paleontologists have even perfected the art of cutting rocks into whatever shape of bone they want. (They are secretly linked with the Masons and even use the same tools) That's why it takes so long to dig up a bone. They have to cut it just right for whatever species they claim to have found. Then they wrap it in plaster to make it look more like a nice white bone and put it in a museum.

With my lack of knowledge about geology and biology, even I know that there is a completely different internal composition for bones and rocks. They are made of different elements, they have different densities, bones are hollow, and all bones float on water. I don't know of any floating rocks.

Aside from that, in your previous post, you stated that God put the fossils in the ground to confuse everyone and make them think that the earth was four and a half billion years old. Now you are saying that the scientists just make their own bones. I am unsure of which you believe. Please clarify.

That's just it. God really doesn't want us to know the truth so He created scientists to keep us in the dark. Scientists keep the illusion going for God. God just wants to be left alone, to have some piece and quiet for a few thousand years before He comes back to burn the earth and punish us all for giving Him such a bad headache while we were all chasing Him and chanting His name in the spirit world. The most fervent of God's groupies have somehow managed to see through all this and have written the Bible to expose God and resume the endless praises and worship. They believe that God, more than anything, wants the constant adulation, prayers, praises, singing, and sacrifice of His creation. This might all sound a bit silly and definitely off topic, but looking at the universe that we live in, is it not obvious that if there is a God, He just wants to be left alone? Why else would He be hiding? God should be sitting in a huge palace at the top of Mt Everest where all can see Him. God should be actively and openly involved in every aspect of what He created. Instead God is completely absent and everything that happens is left up to the laws of nature.

But saying that God made the world appear to be four and a half billion years old, when it is actually six thousand, is an unprovable statement. You might as well just say that the universe was created last Thursday, all of our memories have been inserted, and be done with it, because that statement is equally unprovable.

As to your idea that scientists are all colluding in a huge scam to make us disbelieve God, why would they wish to do so? Are they all possessed? Do they all serve Satan? If you could prove all of your statements, how come the only place you have put them is on a thread in a forum? Isn't such a spectacular claim worthy of an online website, at least, if not it's own book?

As for your beloved Book of Genesis, doesn't it say that God only had one day of rest after creating the Universe, which was Sunday? And, I am pretty certain that the entire Bible is a history of God communicating and teaching Man about his will and commandments, and how to worship him, unless I have completely missed the point of the Bible.

 

[Paraprakrti]

I read about this question somewhere recently and I thought it was very interesting.
If intelligence and consciousness can exist outside of a physcal body and brain, why do we even need a brain?
Is it just for the physical functioning of the body? Could the soul not do that on its own?

Thoughts?

Perhaps the brain links the consciousness to the physical sensations of the body. Of course, nobody needs a body in the first place.

 

[Kungfuzed]

Doesn't this all sound better than simply saying "God works in mysterious ways" and leaving it at that?

If there really is a God then absolutely anything could be true. Any unfalsifiable explanation at all will do.

 

[rojse]

So, God could be the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

 

[Willamena]

Are you suggesting that our physical brains are the cause of the “soul”? Just like a light bulb is the cause of the light in the room. If this is what you are suggesting I agree.

The cause, and the effect.

 

[Kungfuzed]

So, God could be the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

No, I already ate him last week. The Invisible Pink Unicorn is still running around though, at least until hunting season.

 

[A. Ben-Shema]

I read about this question somewhere recently and I thought it was very interesting.
If intelligence and consciousness can exist outside of a physcal body and brain, why do we even need a brain?
Is it just for the physical functioning of the body? Could the soul not do that on its own?

Thoughts?

Very good question.

To live in the physical world, we need a brain to compute the info absorbed by our physical senses.

However, this same brain, and its intellectual capacities, are actually a hindrance to our Spiritual advancement. The brain has, in effect, taken control of us - formed our physical persona (= 'mask'), our ego, our carnal mind, and all that goes with it (pride, greed, desire, lust, etc.). Until we can overcome this carnal mind / ego, and return to our original state of pure Spiritual consciousness, we will be blind to Truth.

This is the purpose of our life.

Peace & Love