tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post3923678163336963989..comments2018-08-02T03:51:10.940-07:00Comments on Beware the Blog: What's Next?Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02696762301634113407noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-43637439327514631022008-11-10T06:44:00.000-08:002008-11-10T06:44:00.000-08:00When my sister was in Duke medical school a few ye...When my sister was in Duke medical school a few years ago, they taught her that sightings of a dead loved one never qualify as a delusions, medically speaking. Apparently, they are incredibly common, even among educated, intelligent people with no mental health problems. <BR/><BR/>It's also not true that the brain has been completely mapped out. For one thing, each person, prior to neurosurgery, must be tested, because the physical areas of the brain that correspond to certain functions vary in some cases for specific individuals. For another thing, no one has identified any particular portion of the brain as the seat of consciousness. My sister's now an anesthesiologist, and she hears accounts of people retaining some level of consciousness even when their brain appears, to all current tests, to be shut down. (This doesn't mean they feel pain - that worse case scenario is extremely rare. Less rare is someone who retains painless memories of events - conversations between doctors, images of equipment -during a surgery when their brain function is virtually nil.) None of this proves that the afterlife exists. But there is more to human consciousness than is explained by modern medical science.Ennahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14933702045488688151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-57223335926174015612008-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:002008-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00We’ve mapped and charted every last bit of the bra...We’ve mapped and charted every last bit of the brain, and we know what mental functions correspond to where. <BR/><BR/> But that's not really true... What we have are hypothesis that are constantly proved wrong by day-to-day life. I personally have a part of my brain that doesn't work and doesn't send the good hormones, and medecine have no explanation at all for this. Plus, this lack of hormone should have a direct consequence on my behaviour, and it never occured. And that's not a very uncommon phenomenon, to see people with brain damage do things they were not supposed to do. So, yeah, maybe, in the future, we will find the perfect map, but for now, thinking that it can be done is just a pure act of faith... <BR/>(excuse my English, I'm French)J.S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/02575327491256776247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-81302200822424183262008-11-08T17:46:00.000-08:002008-11-08T17:46:00.000-08:00I think your point about brain damage and what it ...I think your point about brain damage and what it could mean about the existence of a soul is quite interesting, but I think it hardly qualifies as "objective evidence" (as in, no experiment has proven a connection between brain function and the soul). Trying to use physical properties to disprove a metaphysical theory leaves quite a lot of wiggle room for someone inclined to argue the existence of the soul (a subject on which my feelings are unclear).Surface Tensionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16630218428485024957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-65324627938373420342008-11-06T21:07:00.000-08:002008-11-06T21:07:00.000-08:00Sigh. The age-old question without an answer. Do I...Sigh. The age-old question without an answer. Do I believe in a supreme being, that there is something after all of this? My logic says no. My heart says no. But regardless, do I want to believe? Certainly. I think whether one admits it or not, no person wants death to be the end.<BR/><BR/>I am reminded of three excerpts from Cormac McCarthy that I jotted down while reading (I do that often while reading something that hits me - is that odd?). The first from <I>The Crossing</I>:<BR/><BR/><B>Deep in each man is the knowledge that something knows of his existence. Something knows, and cannot be fled nor hid from.</B><BR/><BR/>The second from <I>All the Pretty Horses</I>:<BR/><BR/><B>In all cases I refused to believe in a God who could permit such injustice as I saw in a world of his own making.</B><BR/><BR/>The third from <I>Blood Meridian</I>:<BR/><BR/><B>For let it go how it will, he said, God speaks in the least of creatures.<BR/>The kid thought him to mean birds or things that crawl but the expriest, watching, his head slightly cocked, said: No man is give leave of that voice.<BR/>The kid spat into the fire and bent to his work.<BR/>I aint heard no voice, he said.<BR/>When it stops, said Tobin, you'll know you've heard it all your life.</B><BR/><BR/>Have you read any McCarthy? It is a theme that seems to run through all of his stories, the existence and role that God plays in the world.Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16948964394469083456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-29568714922878751582008-10-30T11:25:00.000-07:002008-10-30T11:25:00.000-07:00Hmmm ...Hmmm ...Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02696762301634113407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-61746668060821370822008-10-30T09:30:00.000-07:002008-10-30T09:30:00.000-07:00Smart enough to get online and read your blog, I b...Smart enough to get online and read your blog, I bet.Steve Perryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-49166029256173596362008-10-30T08:24:00.000-07:002008-10-30T08:24:00.000-07:00I think I did. I kinda copped out a little by sayi...I think I did. I kinda copped out a little by saying I didn't know -- that no one did, but that if he wanted to believe in God and Heaven, he could go ahead. I didn't go into all the reasons why it's superstition in my book, because at the end of the day, we're all agnostics. (Also told him he wasn't going to die for a long time, and so needn't worry about it now.) He thought about it for awhile, then said, "So God is basically Santa."<BR/><BR/>Smart kid.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02696762301634113407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-120162024512151112.post-47820094656467046312008-10-27T09:38:00.000-07:002008-10-27T09:38:00.000-07:00Given what you believe and what your youngest want...Given what you believe and what your youngest wanted to know, how did you manage to make him feel okay about the answer?Steve Perryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12079658447270792228noreply@blogger.com