Do viruses have souls? - Page 2

wil · 12-30-2005, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Since my definition of "soul" is awareness, I voted "no".

not to very long ago a cell wall was a wall

then we found that the cell walls were permeable

and then that they actually had 'gates' the ability to decide how permeable they are and to who and what...

and then we found them to have some sort of hairs...

and then that they gave off and recieved chemicals for communication with other cells...of their own kind and of others...

our cells are now thought to have some sort of brain, to make decisions on their own to a degree, to be 'aware' of their envioronment and adjust for it...

who knows what we will know in 50, 100, 200 years...

but if it is at all like the last couple hundred...and currently the curve is exponential...then we can't imagine.

odds are we'll probably find out viruses are very aware...and are not acting on their own but a large colony in concert with each other...while in different supposedly aware hosts....

so long and thanx for all the fish.

Postmaster · 12-30-2005, 01:59 AM

Consider my theory, first of all we need to understand what a soul is.. If a soul is something we cultivate and lets say that life is a tool for cultivating the soul then all creatures have a soul be since they haven't been blessed with the great burden of human life they do not have as great tool to cultivate there soul, so there for they may reincarnate or possibly live on in soul but insignificantly. Why is human life such a burden? Because we stress out over questions like, if Viruses have a soul... Seeking and suffering do not go unpaid for, the cultivate souls and civilisations.

Mason · 12-30-2005, 08:08 PM

Things that can only do harm, have no soul or so i like to believe... I voted 'No'.

_Z_ · 12-31-2005, 01:36 PM

odds are we'll probably find out viruses are very aware...and are not acting on their own but a large colony in concert with each other...while in different supposedly aware hosts....

Interesting wil! I have often wondered if diseases move between bodies as if like spirits! Perhaps this is why they were associated with demons.

Z

VikingF · 12-31-2005, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wil

odds are we'll probably find out viruses are very aware...and are not acting on their own but a large colony in concert with each other...while in different supposedly aware hosts....

I personally don't think viruses are aware, but it is up to science to find out whether this is true or not.

wil · 01-03-2006, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mason

Things that can only do harm, have no soul or so i like to believe... I voted 'No'.

who says a cleansing of the planed and environment isn't part and parcel of creation and the big plan...

Silverbackman · 01-13-2006, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VikingF

I personally don't think viruses are aware, but it is up to science to find out whether this is true or not.

Awareness comes from the brain when it comes to life on Earth. So you maybe right.

InquisitiveInHalifax · 01-13-2006, 09:29 PM

IMHO, I would say that viruses do NOT have souls. If they are only considered alive while they have a host then it would seem to me that they are feeding off of the host's soul.

For those of you that have seen The Matrix, one of the characters in the movie proposed that we (humans) are a virus of Earth. That we are not an organism at all because we have not found a balance with the ecosystem we just keep growing and growing.

Food for thought

-R

VikingF · 01-14-2006, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silverbackman

Awareness comes from the brain when it comes to life on Earth. So you maybe right.

Well, when it comes to awareness, we really don't know much. It is an existencial question where it comes from.

Atleast, awareness works through the brain, and when the brain dies, the awareness is gone. That much we know.

Silverbackman · 01-14-2006, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VikingF

Well, when it comes to awareness, we really don't know much. It is an existencial question where it comes from.

Atleast, awareness works through the brain, and when the brain dies, the awareness is gone. That much we know.

Yes but if we were to take the brain out of a person and if put it into an artificial body were will the consciousness and self-awareness be? Now this maybe impossible right now but in the future this will be very much possible. If we take the brain and place it in an artificial body the most likely no awareness will be left in the body it came from

.

I am sure that somewhere in our brain lies the perhaps the exact chemical composition of consciousness

. No matter what it maybe consciousness and awareness is an infinitely small microscopic energy that by instinct migrates at the speed of light when it dies. This instinct maybe a fundamental instinct of all life in the universe as it needs to live on so it lives on through another life. There is no reason why it needs to live it just does.

wil · 01-23-2006, 05:37 PM

Check out this virus that puts up with radiation is adaptagenic and repairs its own dna..the tongue in cheek question is has it convinced us to take it back home since it is incapable of doing it itself?

lunamoth · 01-23-2006, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wil

Check out this virus that puts up with radiation is adaptagenic and repairs its own dna..the tongue in cheek question is has it convinced us to take it back home since it is incapable of doing it itself?

Hi wil, That is a interesting blurb about D. radiodurans, but I can't stop myself from pointing out that it is a bacteria, not a virus (sorry--it's the biology teacher in me

). Also, while the ability of D. radiodurans to survive high exposures to radioactivity, as well as the other harsh conditions mentioned, is a very interesting trait and suggests an extraordinary ability to repair DNA, it should be noted that all cells have the ability to repair DNA. If they did not we would all quickly die from damaged DNA.

As for whether viruses have souls, well, I rather like the Baha'i view on this, which is consistent with the a Christian worldview. That is that everything in creation, including inanimate objects, reflects at least one of God's attributes (kind of fun thinking about which of God's attributes are reflected by various things like rocks and viruses), but only humans have the capacity to reflect all of God's attributes, having been made "in His image."

peace,
lunamoth