How Stupid Are They?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Do animals have souls?

I am unconvinced that many humans have anything that might be ascribed to as a soul. I am not entirely sure that a soul is little more than a convenient abstraction that organized religions use to control their congregations.

Yet, when medical personnel, including and perhaps especially, say to critically injured patients, in the ER, for example, who are struggling not to die, "Hold on. Don't go. Don't leave" (or similar remarks) , what is it they are saying?

The patient is going? Leaving? The bags are nearly packed? To where? From where? Those words do not sound like trusted nurses and doctors are speaking to meat and saying. "Don't turn off. Don't' stop functioning."

Nor do such expressions sound like ideas they are manufacturing to fit the moment, ,especially if they, likely, have no idea at that moment what the patient's religious - if any - beliefs might be.

It is that kind of real-life phenomenon that helps me believe there is a soul in us, that the soul - perhaps a person's "essence" - is being addressed, and that there is life after death.

To whom are the medical personnel speaking? Is it to a what ,, a thing, a collection of molecules, merely, or are they addressing more, with words and thoughts not out of a medical handbook's script, but from something almost automatic, or intrinsic, in themselves.

Don't go. Don't leave. Hold on.

Such words give me hope. Not facts. But hope, yes, and perhaps the core of belief.
Murph

They are talking to the patient (and to themselves....) to keep them engaged and connected to the medical personnel. Keeping them all focused - it's as much a psychological technique for the benefit of both parties. Notice they don't say, Don't die. Avoid the word "die" and references to death...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

P.S. Whales and dolphins have brains larger than ours, and brains possessed of more - or at least as many - convolutions as ours. Don't those two factors play a part in the determination of how intelligent a being is? If so:
1. Whose planet is this anyway?

We merely rent it and are at best, caretakers. If brain size is a determination of how intelligent a being is (and I'm pretty sure that's been disproven), then humanity is serious trouble.

2. Is the level/extent of intelligence a determiner of a soul being present? (Were the dinosaurs smart?)

If brain size and intelligence are determinants of souls, then very few humans would qualify to possess one

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I am unconvinced that many humans have anything that might be ascribed to as a soul. I am not entirely sure that a soul is little more than a convenient abstraction that organized religions use to control their congregations.

Yet, when medical personnel, including and perhaps especially, say to critically injured patients, in the ER, for example, who are struggling not to die, "Hold on. Don't go. Don't leave" (or similar remarks) , what is it they are saying?

.....
Such words give me hope. Not facts. But hope, yes, and perhaps the core of belief.
Murph

They are talking to the patient (and to themselves....) to keep them engaged and connected to the medical personnel. Keeping them all focused - it's as much a psychological technique for the benefit of both parties. Notice they don't say, Don't die. Avoid the word "die" and references to death...

I have learned something, thanks to you, Rufus. So, I am very glad I asked. You have added significantly to my personal knowledge and outlook with this reply.

It doesn't obliterate my belief in our having souls, but it certainly does add to perspectives to consider.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yet, when medical personnel, including and perhaps especially, say to critically injured patients, in the ER, for example, who are struggling not to die, "Hold on. Don't go. Don't leave" (or similar remarks) , what is it they are saying?

.....
Such words give me hope. Not facts. But hope, yes, and perhaps the core of belief.
Murph

They are talking to the patient (and to themselves....) to keep them engaged and connected to the medical personnel. Keeping them all focused - it's as much a psychological technique for the benefit of both parties. Notice they don't say, Don't die. Avoid the word "die" and references to death...

I have learned something, thanks to you, Rufus. So, I am very glad I asked. You have added significantly to my personal knowledge and outlook with this reply.

It doesn't obliterate my belief in our having souls, but it certainly does add to perspectives to consider.

The 2 things are only loosely connected if at all - dedicated medical personnel are looking that person in the eye and through words and will trying to keep them alive at times in total denial of reality and also to to keep the patient from being terrified.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Yet, there must be something to be said for the patient's will to "hold on" and to survive, no?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yet, there must be something to be said for the patient's will to "hold on" and to survive, no?

Well, if anything to keep them still and from thrashing about is total panic so they do not inflict further trauma on themselves or anyone else.

[Roy]

Yet, there must be something to be said for the patient's will to "hold on" and to survive, no?

We don't have a survival instinct?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yet, there must be something to be said for the patient's will to "hold on" and to survive, no?

We don't have a survival instinct?

We surely have a penchant for self-destruction!

[webenda]

Why does California burn?

One really shouldn't make light of disasters, but earthquakes and fires in California are so predictable, they are almost a tradition.

Around Los Angeles, researchers have found that about two-thirds of new building in Southern California over the past decade was on land susceptible to wildfires, said Mike Davis, a historian at the University of California at Irvine and author of a social history of Los Angeles.

"Another way to look at it is you simply drive out the San Gorgonio Pass, where the winds blow over 50 mph over a hundred days a year and you have new houses standing next to 50-year-old chaparral.

Chaparral is a variety of plant whose seeds cannot germinate unless the parent plants burn in a fire. So, guess what? Chaparral only live in areas that burn with a constant or definite pattern, i.e., with the same time between individual fires.
http://www.biosbcc.net/b100plant/htm/fire.htm

"You might as well be building next to leaking gasoline cans."
https://www.treehugger.com/corporate-re ... ummer.html

[robert.]

Air moving east across California hits high mountains. This forces that air to compress. Then move westerly and down. Compression causes heat. Heat causes fire. Or some jackass with a careless match. Take your pick

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Air moving east across California hits high mountains. This forces that air to compress. Then move westerly and down. Compression causes heat. Heat causes fire. Or some jackass with a careless match. Take your pick

Lightning strikes cause a lot of fires.

[Roy]

I appreciate you being concerned for us Californians, but there really are bigger problems. Have you seen what they're doing to homes hit by super storm Sandy? They're propping them up about ten feet over their foundations. And people keep living in flood plains, where they flat have no business being.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I appreciate you being concerned for us Californians, but there really are bigger problems. Have you seen what they're doing to homes hit by super storm Sandy? They're propping them up about ten feet over their foundations. And people keep living in flood plains, where they flat have no business being.

Yes - the folks that live in flood plains and along the coast subject to hurricanes, etc. just go back and do it all over not learning anything and expecting things to change - insanity. If they could not get insurance, or had to pay something really painful, maybe things would change. Local jurisdictions just want the tax dollars....

But the same story applies to folks living on the slopes prone to mud slides and erosion and all the rest of the hazards that keep happening over and over, and people just go back again and again.

[Roy]

...the same story applies to folks living on the slopes prone to mud slides and erosion and all the rest of the hazards that keep happening over and over, and people just go back again and again.

Those folks have plenty of money to do that. They're not a burden on the rest of us. People originally bought flood plain property because they couldn't afford anything else. We're a rich country, but frittering our money away continuously rebuilding in flood plains is stupid beyond belief.

[up148]

[quoteYes - the folks that live in flood plains and along the coast subject to hurricanes, etc. just go back and do it all over not learning anything and expecting things to change - insanity. If they could not get insurance, or had to pay something really painful, maybe things would change. Local jurisdictions just want the tax dollars.... ][/quote]

Look how many homes in the Houston area that were reported to have no insurance for this last loss (I heard up to 50%). Most areas I saw on the news were middle class or upscale so what's up with no insurance. They just expect the government (tax payers) to take care of them in case of a loss. I think that is flat wrong. Most likely the same in Puerto Rico.

BH