The divisible soul

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
Maybe you have a "splitting" headache...

Rim shot, please.

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
I responded to this idea. Although the personality may split, there is still one individual soul.

So does only half your brain need to have 'saving faith' to be saved?

When does the soul begin? At conception? At birth? Later?

Identical twins consist of a single human organism which has succesfully split into two independant life forms. Do they share a soul?

[edit]
What happens with clones? Will all clones of a saved person be saved?

Originally posted by twhitehead
So does only half your brain need to have 'saving faith' to be saved?

When does the soul begin? At conception? At birth? Later?

Identical twins consist of a single human organism which has succesfully split into two independant life forms. Do they share a soul?

[edit]
What happens with clones? Will all clones of a saved person be saved?

Aquinas didn't believe the soul joined the body at conception. As you point out, the case of twins also provides an obvious rejoinder to the hypothesis immediate ensoulment.

http://www2.franciscan.edu/plee/aquinas_on_human_ensoulment.htm

So, if not at conception, when does ensoulment occur?

I don't think the case of clones is problematic. A new soul S2, similar in all gross respects to an old soul S1, creates no more paradoxes of identity than a new body B2, similar in all gross respects to an old one B1.

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
Rim shot, please.

But don't use humour to run away from the very real problems phenomena and thought experiments pose for a Cartesian view of the soul.

Is the soul conscious, but the way?

Originally posted by twhitehead
So does only half your brain need to have 'saving faith' to be saved?

When does the soul begin? At conception? At birth? Later?

Identical twins consist of a single human organism which has succesfully split into two independant life forms. Do they share a soul?

[edit]
What happens with clones? Will all clones of a saved person be saved?

So does only half your brain need to have 'saving faith' to be saved?
I have half a mind to brain ya! 'Saving faith' is applied to the soul of the person who makes a conscious decision to accept the gift of grace extended by God. Regardless of a person's mental accuity before-during-or-after that decision, the mind that thinks is the one that is saved.

When does the soul begin? At conception? At birth? Later?
Birth.

Do they share a soul?
No, because of above answer.

What happens with clones?
They listen to Jim Rome, possible even call in and even more remotely, get on the air.

Will all clones of a saved person be saved?
Does not compute.

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
But don't use humour to run away from the very real problems phenomena and thought experiments pose for a Cartesian view of the soul.

Is the soul conscious, but the way?

Is the soul conscious, but the way?
Of what?

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
[bI have half a mind to brain ya! 'Saving faith' is applied to the soul of the person who makes a conscious decision to accept the gift of grace extended by God. Regardless of a person's mental accuity before-during-or-after that decision, the mind that thinks is the one that is saved.[/b]

You dont really explain what you mean. If a persons mind is divided into two thinking beings and one of those 'a conscious decision to accept the gift of grace extended by God' then does the other half have to do anything to enter heaven as they share a soul? If the soul is concious does is now have two conciousness' like the body.

If a soul is gained at birth, what happens with premature birth or if the baby is nourished with an artificial womb?

Originally posted by twhitehead
You dont really explain what you mean. If a persons mind is divided into two thinking beings and one of those 'a conscious decision to accept the gift of grace extended by God' then does the other half have to do anything to enter heaven as they share a soul? If the soul is concious does is now have two conciousness' like the body.

If a soul is gained ...[text shortened]... birth, what happens with premature birth or if the baby is nourished with an artificial womb?

then does the other half have to do anything to enter heaven as they share a soul?
While there is such a thing as soul searching, there is no such thing as soul sharing. Double-mindedness is simply a malady of one's thinking, not necessarily an apt description of a soul's census.

If a soul is gained at birth, what happens with premature birth or if the baby is nourished with an artificial womb?
I am slowly (painstakingly so, actually) explaining this in the thread "Imputations." Essentially, however, only a cognizant soul is able to make a decision. Without the ability or opportunity to make a decision, entrance to Heaven is automatic.

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
[b]Is the soul conscious, but the way?
Of what?[/b]

Of anything.

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
Of anything.

I'd say yes. What say you?

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
I'd say yes. What say you?

So, if I'm asleep, does the soul persist?

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
So, if I'm asleep, does the soul persist?

Sure. Why would sleep and dreams change things?

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
Sure. Why would sleep and dreams change things?

So, is my soul conscious when I am unconscious?

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
So, is my soul conscious when I am unconscious?

Not to be redundant, but conscious of what, exactly?

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
Not to be redundant, but conscious of what, exactly?

Of something. Anything. More than nothing. The content doesn't concern me.

So, suppose I fall into a coma. Is my soul conscious or not, of something, at this time? Or does it remain unconscious while I am unconscious?