Spring Break
Soul existence cannot be proved by science
Aaron Sakulich
Issue date: 1/14/05 Section: Sci-Tech
Every week I write an article for the Sci-Tech section about the occult. For some reason, no one ever cares, unless I write about UFOs, in which case I receive grammatically poor death threats and get called names on the Triangle message boards.
As much as I wanted to write about UFOs this week to see what new words people would invent to describe me (9 out of 10 illiterate peasants seem to prefer "The Iron Craptic" instead of The Iron Skeptic, which is a reference to that show on the Food Channel where that Japanese Liberace forces cooks to do his bidding), I just couldn't help it. I have to move into the mainstream occult, because it's come to my attention that a portion of the population believes the human soul weighs 21 grams.
Like crop circles or alien abductions by 'grays', the exact moment that the urban legend of the human soul weighing precisely 21 grams can be traced. Before Betty Hill reported being abducted by the little gray men you see so often on the X-Files and bumper stickers, no one had ever heard of them before, yet after she appeared on TV they were reported more and more frequently, the fact that she was a mentally unstable occultist unable to tell reality from fiction non-withstanding.
Before Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Massachusetts entered the scene in 1907, no one really thought that the human soul had weight. It was just there, an invisible, metaphysical thing that separates from the body at the moment of death and sort of cruises around afterwards. Dr. MacDougall had this brilliant idea: Take a dying patient, put him on a bed connected to an elaborate scale, and wait for him to die.
He did this a grand total of six times. Two of the tests were useless because the patient died before he had time to adjust the scales; two showed a dramatic loss of weight at the moment of death, but that increased with time; one showed a loss of weight at the moment of death, but that reversed itself a few minutes later; and the last showed a weight loss of 21 grams right at the moment of death and nothing else.
As much as I wanted to write about UFOs this week to see what new words people would invent to describe me (9 out of 10 illiterate peasants seem to prefer "The Iron Craptic" instead of The Iron Skeptic, which is a reference to that show on the Food Channel where that Japanese Liberace forces cooks to do his bidding), I just couldn't help it. I have to move into the mainstream occult, because it's come to my attention that a portion of the population believes the human soul weighs 21 grams.
Like crop circles or alien abductions by 'grays', the exact moment that the urban legend of the human soul weighing precisely 21 grams can be traced. Before Betty Hill reported being abducted by the little gray men you see so often on the X-Files and bumper stickers, no one had ever heard of them before, yet after she appeared on TV they were reported more and more frequently, the fact that she was a mentally unstable occultist unable to tell reality from fiction non-withstanding.
Before Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Massachusetts entered the scene in 1907, no one really thought that the human soul had weight. It was just there, an invisible, metaphysical thing that separates from the body at the moment of death and sort of cruises around afterwards. Dr. MacDougall had this brilliant idea: Take a dying patient, put him on a bed connected to an elaborate scale, and wait for him to die.
He did this a grand total of six times. Two of the tests were useless because the patient died before he had time to adjust the scales; two showed a dramatic loss of weight at the moment of death, but that increased with time; one showed a loss of weight at the moment of death, but that reversed itself a few minutes later; and the last showed a weight loss of 21 grams right at the moment of death and nothing else.
Viewing Comments 1 - 7 of 7
donuts
donuts
posted 1/14/05 @ 2:58 PM EST
Can it be disproven by science?
JimOberg
JimOberg
posted 1/14/05 @ 7:58 PM EST
Aaron:
The human soul has weight and science has proven this.
Is the blood in yours veins boiling yet?
No, but seriously, you've convinced me. (Continued…)
JimOberg
JimOberg
posted 1/14/05 @ 9:32 PM EST
Accursed Macs and their microscopic print; I made a typo Aaron.
I wrote "Is the blood in yours veins boiling yet?" when I meant:
"Is the blood in your veins boiling yet?"
Well . (Continued…)
nikita gill
posted 6/28/07 @ 4:04 AM EST
if there is a soul why do people say that a soul is not true its just a word people like to say . a soul yeah no one has proven it s soul no one proved its soul that makes us waht we are
and i do blck magic i no
thank you ]nikita gill
x
Moribund
posted 8/01/07 @ 9:29 PM EST
Why should the blood in your veins boil when you hear the mentioned comment? After all if you truly want to be objective you should in fact keep your cool and save the fury for the pub brawls :-) Science cannot "prove" anything. (Continued…)
Tim
posted 6/19/08 @ 6:26 PM EST
"The human soul is not made of meat" well DUH! no fucking shit. The soul is immaterial and immortal.
"Science without religion is blind, religion without science is lame"
-albert einstein
Chad
posted 5/17/09 @ 4:34 PM EST
There is no way to "prove" scientifically that there is such a thing as a soul, it's immaterial. How else would it be able to leave your body when you die? Therefore you're not going to loose anyweight because your soul leaves your body. (Continued…)
Post a Comment