Question for Atheists regarding the soul.?

Question

I am a Christian, but I have friends and loved ones across the spectrum from fundamentalist Christian to agnostic to complete atheist. I respect their right to decide their faith and I expect you to respect mine.
One thing I have always wondered is what do atheists believe as regards to the soul. They have measured the body at the exact time of death and found that there is a small drop in weight at that moment. People have then come back with "near death experiences".
How does this fit with atheism?
And please, answer me thoughtfully and with science (I married an engineer and my grandfather was a well-known scientist in his field). I really do want to understand.

Actually, I wasn't reaching. It was an experiment back in the early 90's to prove a soul has mass and thus weight.
Everyone's weight dropped about 25 grams. Not much, but it was consistent.
According to the laws of physics, everything that exists must have mass or weight or energy. It was their way of trying to disprove the existence of a soul-- and they got answers they weren't expecting.

I watched the experiment for a sociology class in about 1990 at the University of California.
The researchers claimed that EVERYONE'S weight dropped 25 grams or so -- with the bowels emptying, breath exhaled and such held as a constant, so that those variables could not influence the outcome.
The docs had no reason for it and called it a "soul" almost as a last resort because they did not know WHAT else to call it.

Hey D-- I absolutely know there were religions and gods before mine. And I always find it interesting how they actually do weave together over history.
And I do know that Christian Churches are on a decline. I do not attend either because I cannot stand the judgementalism and false promises of caring I get from people there. That doesn't change my faith in God, only in people of church.

Thank you all for the extra info and links for this.
I try to live my life with compassion and respect for others (as my faith dictates, it never told me to whack you over the head with my Holy Scriptures!). Plus, I am an extra curious person, with a degree in the Social Sciences, married to an engineer and I was very close to my grandfather from CalTech who designed optics for the Space Missions, the military, Pathe Labs and Xerox.
I like to look at things from a different point of view and maybe we all learn things.
I know I did tonight and I thank you guys for being there and sharing your knowledge and opinion too.

Wow, Mutterhals-- you definitely don't agree to disagree, do you?

Answer 1

21 grams is the amount of weight loss you refer to. I guess I would ask how you've determined that this weight represents a "soul." There's no corroborated scientific evidence for such an assertion.

Answer 2

I would like it if you would list a source for that claim, please. I would like to examine it for myself.

I'm not an atheist, but I can think of reasons for a very small drop in weight at the time of death. As the first person said, the bowels emptying, and also all the air (which has weight) leaves the lungs. Depends on how much weight we are talking about here.

I would agree that a soul, if it does exist, would have no weight, and so this wouldn't really apply anyway.

Another thought... a person, while alive, is always moving all over their bodies. The movement may be negligible, but it will affect the measurement of weight ever so slightly. For example - if you take a bathroom scale and you put your hand on it, take a reading, then push on it and take another, you will see that the difference will be great. If you jump on a scale, it will read that you weigh more for a moment. The body's constant but unnoticeable movements are the same reason that a Ouija board pointer *seems* to move on its own... even when no one thinks they are pushing it.

When a person dies, they completely relax and stop moving. They are no longer "pushing" ever so slightly on the scale. This could be another explanation. But again, without your source and looking at the study for myself, it's hard to have an informed opinion.

Answer 3

check that Idea of the soul having been measured. I would suggest that you find a true report of this, because it never happened. There were some claims to this effect in the 1800's, but they were bogus and any people who had tried it had to admit that they had failed.
By the way how much do you think a soul would weigh? Would a holy persons soul weigh more? would a less soulful person have less weight to their soul, or would the weight of a soul be proportional to body weight, with fat people having heavier souls.

edit; interesting that it should be about 25 gm a bit less than an ounce, about equal to a shot of spirits/ lol, so cute

Answer 4

Souls are the immaterial, intangible and moral centers of the higher animal.

If the soul was able to interact physically with the body, or to view the world, it must have some physical structure and recording mechanism.

The soul cannot be damaged ... there are no reports of people becomes severely disabled after a spirit walk, not even in myths of witches or psychics, therefore the soul cannot be damaged. Its structure is unchangeable, definite, physical, strong and yet light, free to move, completely permeable and mass-free.

An object cannot be mass-free and physical, it cannot react with energy without having energy and mass is just condensed energy. In order to react with the brain it must have mass, but in order to be invisible it must be mass free. In order to be undamagable it needs to be mass free, but in order to see it requires photoreceptors and energy measuring devices which need to interact with the physical world.

Evolution is the next problem for the soul theory. The fact that animals and such evolve through complex statistics and simple biochemical change ... there is no part of evolution from one species to us that requires the addition of a soul along the way.

Answer 5

First of all, thank you for forming your question in a non-judgemental fashion!

Unfortunately you're pre-supposing that the weight drop cannot be explained by anything other than a 'soul'. I do not believe that to be the case.

Near death experiences can be attributed to a lingering electrical charge in the brain (which does not immediately discharge.)

As to the whole question about religion...how do you explain (not that you have to, but...) the drop off in attendance of religious services over the last two decades? Do you recognize the existence of more than just "your" god? Are you aware that there were religions before yours, and that the participants were just as sure and certain of their god as you are of yours?

Unfortunately, I'm coming across here as being antagonistic, argumentative and angry...I'm not angry...I do tend towards the (pardon the pun) devil's advocate position, however...and I wanted to rebut your position questions with a few of my own. :) Not that I'm looking for answers...just food for thought. Or not.

Cheers!

Answer 6

It's good to see a sincere question like this one, which seeks understanding rather than trying to offend non-believers! Kudos to you for that.

A good starting point is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
As you will see, a - theism just means the lack of belief in a god (a- is used as a prefix to mean 'without' and 'theism' just means belief in a deity), so there are no hard and fast rules about what each individual believes. Generally speaking, the notion of a soul is associated with given religions like Islam and Christianity (and others), so many atheists do not believe in them.

The urban myth of the weight loss at death is unsupported by medical evidence:

http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1105956.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_Grams

Hope this helps!

Answer 7

I'm a Christian, so I can't really answer your question. But I can say with almost complete certainty that a soul does not have weight. It is a totally different entity than the body and there is no way we can verify the presence/absence of a soul with gadgetry.

Answer 8

"They have measured the body at the exact time of death and found that there is a small drop in weight at that moment". Man, you guys are really reaching. That weight is lost probably because their bowels just voided. ;)

Answer 9

Understanding comes from within. You sound like a sensible and educated woman. Perhaps what you are asking, is not what our thoughts are, but what your doubts are. Why is it that christians and indeed muslims, feel the need to find flaws by asking inane questions about other peoples faith.

Answer 10

I'm a religious jew, but I do not think the loss in wieght (if its true) is due to the soul.
The soul isn't physical, thus has no mass and thus has no weight.

Answer 11

Christians mistake the mind for a soul.