The brain IS the mind, which is the person and the person is the soul. Brain death is the end of the soul, spirit or whatever you call it. Is a brain damaged person still the same spirit? They generally are NOT the same person. How can a "spirit" or "soul" be differentiated from the person?
2007-09-20 16:56:47 · 17 answers · asked by Enigma®Ragnarökin' 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The body can continue to function with the entire loss of the cerebrum, since it is a bio-mechanical machine. A modern vehicle does not need the computer (cerebrum) for the systems to operate, just the battery (cerebellum), but the vehicle cannot run without it. All that a person is, was or will ever be is in the cerebrum. Basic life functions are simple mechanics that have nothing to do with the person, only keeping the bio-mechanical vehicle of the person (computer) working. Does this confuse things any better?
2007-09-20 17:16:43 · update #1
If some "spirit" is freed when the brain dies, what of a person who is brain damaged? Does their "spirit" leave them as well, since they are no longer the same soul (person)? Or is the spirit trapped within the remains of what was once the person, but is now less than a shadow of its former self?
2007-09-20 17:22:34 · update #2
You're right... though you phrased it a bit strangely.
What people mistake for the soul, or spirit, is simply consciousness. We, as human beings, have an idea of the self, which is to say, i am myself, which to me is something very real. However, when the brain dies, there is nothing to form this notion of the self, and thus the self is dead along with it.
People with extensive brain damage cease to be the same self they were prior to their injury. This is clear evidence that the self is an illusion, simply the consciousness of the state of being at one particular time. Anoter way to look at it is to examine your attitudes, and behaviors when you were a young child and compare them to your attitudes and behaviors now. Were you the same person then, as you are now? To be honest with yourself you would have to say no.
It's clear to any thinking person that the notion of a soul, or spirit that leaves your body at the time of death is merely wishful thinking.
2007-09-20 17:07:53 · answer #1 · answered by ChooseRealityPLEASE 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I think so.
Some spiritualist think that the soul is gone early for the brain damaged, Terri Schivo, or Alzheimers, my mom. I don't know about that. The last time I saw my mom she did not know who I wast but she told me she loved me after I told her.
When I gain too much weight I know that to lose weight I have to cut my calories to 1000 a day. My brain tells me that I am hungry. My soul, or my willpower overrides my brain. I can fool my body as well. If I just stop eating my metabolism slows down and that defeats my purpose. I 'fool" my body by eating frequently, but eating raw carrots or grapefruit, something like that. My body recognizes there is food and does not slow the metabolism and I lose weight.
Deja Vu is another indication of my soul to me.
I can understand atheism because it is logical. It is the concept of no soul that is impossible for me to grasp. I can feel it and I wonder why you can't.
2007-09-21 03:09:57 · answer #2 · answered by Gorgeoustxwoman2013 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Im kinda confused with your question.
From what i've learned, a person is also a triune being having the physical body, the soul and the spirit. My understanding is that the brain is part of your physcal body, but when you say mind, that's a part of your soul (mind, will and emotion). I dont know if others will agree. Your soul is who you really are -- how you think, feel, act and react. Your spirit is the one that communes with God. When we die it goes together with the soul. I guess the person's soul does not die when one is declared brain dead, only his physical body.
2007-09-20 17:13:50 · answer #3 · answered by ! 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
They are 2 separate things, the mind and the soul. When the mind is truly dead, there is no reason for the soul to remain. Even if someone is brain dead, the spirit is gone, as the body isn't truly alive.
2007-09-20 17:16:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
no one can answer that my friend...
all i can tell you is that our bodies are nothing more than bags of meat and water with one excepton:
electricty/energy.
I wont get into all the details of this, but look it up - its true.
So here is my point:
Energy cannot be destoryed.
When we die a total death, that electircity leaves the body.
No one knows where it goes, but it cannot be destoryed.
I would imagine that this is our soul or spirit - if you belive in that sort of thing.
So if the body is functioning after the brain has died, the energy is still there making things work.
So I suppose that means the spirit or soul is still there too.
2007-09-20 17:04:05 · answer #5 · answered by oneakmusic 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
okay about the brain gone - person gone concept. but why do you believe the spirit dies? the spirit is set free when the brain dies...
sort of like when the hard drive crashes, the computer is just a hunk of plastic. but all the data that's been downloaded to the internet lives on...and on...and on....and on....free to stream to other places...
2007-09-20 17:11:52 · answer #6 · answered by chieko 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Your spirit is the essence of what you are. Hence if people remember you, and still have feelings for what you were, then your spirit lives on in them, even though your body is gone.
2007-09-20 17:13:50 · answer #7 · answered by jethroelfman 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The body can't be alive if the person suffers true brain death. You can be vegetative, you can be damaged beyond ever waking up, but the brain can't be entirely dead if the body is still living.
2007-09-20 17:02:36 · answer #8 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
As long as there is life in the body (oxygen exchange between cells) the spirit is there. "Soul" literally translates into "breath" (pneuma from which we get our word pneumonia)
2007-09-20 17:03:26 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The spirit leaves at the last breath
2007-09-20 17:02:37 · answer #10 · answered by tebone0315 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋