Very good arguments. I read Descartes recently (I am sure you have read this Asherlee), and he argued that vivisection was alright because animals did not have souls. I had never really thought about the argument before then, but when I was reading it I thought it was so ludicrous. I had just never thought that they shouldn't. They think, are intelligent, they feel, they learn, they communicate. What constitutes a soul in a human that an animal does not have?
Carlie, I have and Descartes does make for interesting reading but most of his proposed arguments and theories are outdated and have been proven invalid. As, most would know his most famous "I think, therefore I am."
It really is what constitutes a soul. I believe a soul is just the essence of life given by a higher being. That essence would include sensations, perceptions, and all the things you described.
So, I agree, I also dislike Descartes.
Zombie, yes he was the Pope. My point is that the leader of the Catholic Church (which is extremely strict, especially when it comes to dogmatic doctrine) announced that animals have souls.
Well, we probably do not have the same notion of the afterlife. I am only arguing that all living creatures created under God have souls.
But if Heaven is supposed to be an ultimate end where it is pure happiness and all that is good, I would think it would be subjective. Maybe everyone's Heaven is different. For instance, mine would have all my old pets in it with everyone I love.
1. Prove to me we have free will 2. Prove to me how we would have free will and animals would not. We are animals just most of us are a little smarter.
1.i dont need to i have reason to beleive that you beleive in free will 2.you got me on number 2 but then again we are dominate and were created in gods image
Zombie, I don't believe in a soul the same way you do. I see it more as an essence of life more than this misty substance that will rise out of your body and ascend or descend.
I believe God created the earth and everything around it like the other planets and the Sun. Because they cant just come out of nowhere, something (GOD) had to begin the earth. As for people i believe we evolved from animals
Ok, I'm a Christian and I belive in Creation. Flat out.
God Created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1).
Here is a lot of missconceptions that are thrown around when people start talking about evoloution and big bang and all the ''things'' that started the earth. People take Gen 1:1 into such a litteral since that they stand beside, and not backing down at all, thinking that within the average 40 hr work weak that God created the heavens and the earth.
I'm not saying he didn't because I belive that he could if he wanted to.
Another misconception falls into all the facts that the creation story does not line up with science. And some even go as far to say that God CAN'T line up with science because he is above us...Well God can do whatever he wants, he is the almighty.
Now in my opinon God does not line up with science. Science lines up with God. My belife stands that God created the heavens and the earth in what was longer than what a week is for us.
In the new testiment one it is said that 1 day is like a thousand to God. So I feel that it is very posible that God created the heavens in the earth in millions of years and that our science matches up to the way god accually created the heavens and the earth.