If there is a soul what does it do in an afterlife

Are you asking for evidence that anguish over the loss of a love is not a huge motivator to retrieve that love and assert your dominance over those who would steal it from you? Hmmm... Never been there I see...

Sounds like evolutionary psychology. IOW, you agree with theories that validate your experiences of a phenomenon?

It does not validate mine.

edit: I am talking of loss in a general sense, either loss per se or death.
 
If I give a mix of these hormones/nerotransmitters to a person, do they cause the induction of love or merely generate the symptoms of it?
As if there's a distinction? What kind of a question is that? If you feel love, your in love. There's nothing deeper than that. In fact, after the first rush of "true love", real love is a conscious choice to commit to another person.
 
Sounds like evolutionary psychology. IOW, you agree with theories that validate your experiences of a phenomenon?

It does not validate mine.

edit: I am talking of loss in a general sense, either loss per se or death.
What?

Edit: Ok.
 
Woah there. I thought we were talking about losing a girlfriend or a wife to another man. Like that.

Loss due to death is a totally different thing with different results.

What about loss of a parent? Where is the evolutionary significance of grief? Or a friend? Or a pet? Or strangers in a war or accident?

Anyway, isn't evolutionary psychology a theoretical field?
 
What about loss of a parent? Where is the evolutionary significance of grief? Or a friend? Or a pet? Or strangers in a war?
Sam, if we were callous about the value of our loved ones to us, how well do you think we would protect them? On an instictive, gut level? The feelings we experience serve to massively reinforce our protective natures. There's no mystery here. It's all biochemical.
 
What about loss of a parent? Where is the evolutionary significance of grief? Or a friend? Or a pet? Or strangers in a war or accident?

Anyway, isn't evolutionary psychology a theoretical field?
This is evolutionary biophysiology, not psychology.
 
Sam, if we were callous about the value of our loved ones to us, how well do you think we would protect them? On an instictive, gut level? The feelings we experience serve to massively reinforce our protective natures. There's no mystery here. It's all biochemical.

So where does violence come in? After all, a majority of violence is committed by people known to us. Most murder, abuse, etc is by intimate partners and friends or acquaintances.
 
So where does violence come in? After all, a majority of violence is committed by people known to us. Most murder, abuse, etc is by intimate partners and friends or acquaintances.
I disagree. I think you're taking liberties here. Most murders and violence is by people known to the victim, yes, but certainly not classified as intimate partners and friends. The vast majority of good friends and loving couples don't kill each other.
 
Still theoretical.

PS. I've never heard of that field. Are you making this up as you go along?
Nope. Any human aspect can be studied in the light of evolutionary theory. In fact, there's virtually no field of human or societal studies that can be clearly understood without it.
 
I disagree. I think you're taking liberties here. Most murders and violence is by people known to the victim, yes, but certainly not classified as intimate partners and friends. The vast majority of good friends and loving couples don't kill each other.

Look at the statistics for any violent crime. The assailant is usually someone close to or known to the victim.
 
As if there's a distinction? What kind of a question is that? If you feel love, your in love. There's nothing deeper than that. In fact, after the first rush of "true love", real love is a conscious choice to commit to another person.

Jaundice/fever is not a disease or a cause of a disease but a symptom of it.

Similarly the symptoms of love need not be the same as the cause of love.
 
VitalOne,

Because - The definition of "matter" in modern philosophical materialism extends to all scientifically observable entities such as energy, forces, and the curvature of space. In this sense, one might speak of the "material world". From wikipedia.

This is the usual expectation of the meaning of material and the corollory i.e. "immaterial" is none of those things, i.e. undetectable by science.

These are the usual definitions of these terms as used in philosophy and it becomes very confusing when you proceed to invent your own.

Do you also understand that matter is composed of particles bound by forces. I.e, when we talk of material things it automatically includes the necessary forces.

Actually, modern definitions of matter say that light isn't matter, electromagnetism isn't matter, gravity isn't matter, etc....Therefore they are "immaterial" (or not matter). For instance quarks and leptons are known as the smallest bits of "matter". You would never call gravity or electromagnetism matter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter

According to the definitions by Princeton, words meaning "not made of matter" would be "immaterial", "nonmaterial", "incorporeal". Its irrevelant if something is undetectable my science or not, in the past many things were undetectable, so what?

However if you equate "nature" with "material" (which would be foolish) then, gravity, electromagnetism, time, etc...are part of nature.

VitalOne,

It is not a matter of narrow-mindedness but one of perspective, credibility, and evidence.

You are arguing for duality, an entity that can exist seperate to the brain, and that is not supportable, necessary, or credible especially when considering the power and complexity that the brain provides. It doesn't make any sense to me to consider these peripheral fantasies before we have made much more headway in understanding the undoubtable complexity that faces us with the material brain.
Actually, I already listed many theories suggesting consciousness exists independant of matter. The neural-correlate explanation fails on a Quantum level and fails at explaining the "hard problem of consciousness". What you're saying is that "even though there's a great possibility that consciousness exists independant of matter, I some how magically know that it isn't independant of matter". Not only this, but you don't even consider that consciousness can be independant of matter, this is blind faith, how ironic.

Did you just simply invent that last sentence for effect? How do you come to the conclusion that 'most' Neurologists think that conciousness has nothing to do with the brain? Neuroscience is a physical science just like any other, therefor the soul is not a concept I would imagine is endorsed by any majority of reputable neuroscientists.

Why do I feel confident in saying that even though I don't have to bother seeking references? Because concepts of a soul are 'devoid of meaning', baseless and have no relevance to any science. I would be shocked if journals on the immaterial soul were peer reviewed and embraced by consensus in neurology.
No, at arrive that conclusion to what is found in modern text books. I stated that most neurologists will tell you that there probably is more to consciousness than just neural activity. Go read one and see how many missing pieces there are in explaining consciousness based only on neural activity. Look up what the "hard problem of consciousness" is.

The fact is, atheists, using blind atheistic faith, do not even consider that consciousness can possibly be independantly of matter (and therefore continue on after the death of the body). You can't even handle that it can be true.

Also, you face a great dilemma. You state in this post that you believe whatever the evidence moves towards. But evidence is ever-changing, an ancient man has no reason to believe in electromagnetism, in other words, evidence is proof of something, but evidence doesn't cause something to be true. Its true with or without evidence. Oh yeah, prepare to be shocked.
 
Wow. The same stuff that everything in the universe is made out of. So... how to distinguish it from the vast amount of other things?

I think you are grasping at an ancient concept that has been overturned with vast amounts of recent discoveries. If you damage the brain, it seems that you alter what people used to call a soul. It seems as if the soul changes with time and age, and is susceptible to disease and genetics.

Are you sure you aren't just clinging to a dream of immortality? Your soul didn't exist 120 years ago, and it did a fine job of not existing for 15 billion years, at least. What in the world is wrong with your "soul" not existing again?

As we have seen throughout the history of science and faith... wishing does not make it so. Faith does not create reality.
Wow. You sound like an ignorant person. You're living in the past, using classical, newtonian physics.

Go read up on what "Quantum immorality" is. Atheists probably aren't fans of Quantum physics, because it makes many religious concepts very likely. Just as the Quantum immortality states you are immortal, so too does Vedantic philosophy state that atman or brahman is immortal, and inexhaustible, existing before material existence. Its no wonder that founders of Quantum Physics like Robert Oppenheimer became Vedantists.

Oh yeah, Stephen Hawkings believes in the Many-worlds-interpretation which would make "Quantum Immortality" true. Everything I say not only can be true, but is probable or likely.
 
Go read up on what "Quantum immorality" is.

Can't say that I am well read on "Quantum immorality" but I did notice the irksome way that the Universe refuses to conform to expectation every now and then, the way that it seems to need to be approved, not proved, the way it just doesn't want to care at all about us until we do, when we return some faith to it.
 
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