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The Soul, Consciousness and Death



huston@access2.digex.net (Herb Huston) wrote:

>In article <3pvfv4$qh4@giga.bga.com>, Jeff <gauntlet@bga.com> wrote:
>}Madhudvisa dasa        (madhudvisa@krishna.org) wrote:
>}
>}:   There are many atheists who believe in a separate body and "self".
>}
>}Sad, isn't it?  Human beings are apparently so prone to superstition that
>}they'll cling to the idea of a 'soul' even after they've reached an
>}understanding that the idea of God is preposterous.

  Yes.. That is a little more intelligent than the "life from chemicals" 
  scenario.

>Perhaps there's an evolutionary explanation.

>	Man can contemplate his own mortality and finds the thought
>	intolerable.

  What is it doing the contemplation? Is it just a bunch of chemicals? Do
  you think the bottles of chemicals in the laboratory are contemplating
  their existence? What's the difference?

>Any animal will struggle to protect itself
>	from a threat of death.

  But animals are conscious. We are also conscious. It is the consciousness
  that is struggling to survive not the chemicals. Your bottles of
  chemicals don't struggle for existence..

>Faced with a predator, it flees,
>	hides, fights, or employs some other defensive mechanism,
>	such as death-feigning or the emission of stinking fluids.

  We are also animals. We do all the same things. But we have good
  brains. That's the only difference. We can ponder, "Why am I here",
  "What's the purpose of life?"...

>	There are many self-protective mechanisms, but they all oc-
>	cur as a response to an immediate danger.

  Not all are a response to immediate danger. Your article here is a
  self-defense attempt. You want to defend your world-view. These
  self-protective responses can get quite subtle.

>When man contem-
>	plates his future death, it is as if, by thinking of it, he
>	renders it immediate.  His defence is to deny it.  He cannot
>	denty that his body will die and rot--the evidence is too
>	strong for that; so he solves the problem by the invention
>	of an immoral soul--a soul which is more 'him' than even his
>	physical body is 'him'.

  He doesn't invent it. He uses it to describe himself, the person. The
  difference between a thinking, feeling, willing entity and a pile of
  rotting flesh and bones. That is the soul.


>If this sould can survive in an af-
>	terlife, then he has successfully defended himself against
>	the threatened attack on his life.

  It is true, death is unnatural to the soul. That is why we are all
  afraid of death. The soul is eternal, full of knowledge and full of
  pleasure but this body is mortal, full of anxiety, and full of
  ignorance -- not very comfortable.

                       na jayate mriyate va kadacin
                     nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
                      ajo nityah sasvato 'yam purano
                        na hanyate hanyamane sarire


  "For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not
  come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into
  being.  He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not
  slain when the body is slain." (Bhagavad-gita 2.20)


  Chant Hare Krishna and be Happy!

  Thank you.

  Madhudvisa dasa       .


Thank you. Hare Krishna!

Madhudvisa dasa       
(madhudvisa@krishna.org)     /sudarsana 
                                
All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!




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