Hey,

As you've pointed out, the concept of a deity is independent of the idea of an afterlife/soul. I know philosophy has long debated the existence of souls as a means to argue the possibility that we might be immortal - so one of the suggested conditions for survival was a entity survives from time 1 to time 2 if the a soul exists in the intervening time. I've often wondered about the implication of this for animals… or even bacteria? Maybe a soul is dependent on having conscious awareness. Moreover, if we were ever able to create artificial intelligence such that it did gain conscious self-awareness, could machines also have souls?

Since I've been away for awhile I haven't really had a chance to go back and check a lot of previous postings… so just for starters - how would define a "soul"? Does it exist in space? Have you formulated your own implicit theory about them? I vaguely remember you saying something along the lines of "string theory suggesting the existence of the supernatural"… has it also provided indications of souls as well?

Being a bio major (just a lowly undergrad) all that physics stuff is really daunting… would u know of any good secondary sources on string theory i.e. for the lay person?

I am indeed a sceptic, but seeing as my knowledge is pretty lacking in the area, i'm open to input.
-thanks

• Not string theory, its dark matter - yanniru - March 30, 2001 - 12:53 UTC
  • interesting... - drunknown - March 30, 2001 - 13:07 UTC
    • Dark matter - yanniru - March 31, 2001 - 01:50 UTC
  • There are no god(s), soul(s) and such stuff. - alexander - March 30, 2001 - 17:54 UTC