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The Problem of Monozygotic Twins.

Monozygotic twins started life as a single fertilized egg that splits during development. However, the "soul" was magically inserted into the zygote at the moment of conception (i.e. as soon as the sperm penetrated the egg). So, a few divisions after conception the split occurs and suddenly we have what? Do the zygotes split a "soul". Does one zygote keep the soul and the other is shit out of luck? Somebody help me out here, I'm confused!!

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Gunn. on March 22, 2010 at 5:21pm

Now here's another problem. There's a thing called a "chimera", a person with two complete genomes who began life as two zygotes that fused!! Does that person have two souls or one "super soul"? Again, somebody help me out her, I'm confused!!

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Permalink Reply by Garrick McElroy on March 22, 2010 at 10:14pm

Lol. /win

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Permalink Reply by Lorien on March 22, 2010 at 10:17pm

Where does the stork come into the picture?

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Gunn. on March 22, 2010 at 10:18pm

I suspect the stork is under contract with God to put the souls into the zygotes but I have no evidence to support this notion.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Nicole on March 22, 2010 at 10:25pm

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Permalink Reply by Ian on March 22, 2010 at 10:26pm

The classic mis-questions of theist based philosophy:

1. Where in the body does one locate the soul?
2. When does the soul enter the body?
3. Where does the soul go when the body dies?

Of course, you cannot come up with good answers when the questions are all crap.
The word 'body' is a noun = the carbon based lump of molecules that make up a human.
The word "soul" is an intransitive verb = a phenomena associated with certain bodies. Your body is capable of doing things (to sit, to jump, to read, to think etc.) some set of which are perceived as being a soul. The questions are rubbish in the same way they would be unanswerable if one were to ask them of a bicycle and travel:

1. Where in the bicycle does one locate the travel?
2. When does the travel enter the bicycle?
3. Where does the travel go when the bicycle breaks?

If the body dies, the actions that produce the perception of there being a soul will cease. The body will cease to soul when it dies, just as a bicycle ceases to travel when it is broken.

So - monozygotic twins are like uni-cycles formed when a young bicycle broke in half. (Stay with me on this, it isn't perfect but I'm still working on it!)
This would make the chimera a tandem formed from two bicycles welded together. All these are capable of travel, just as identical twin bodies are each capable of the actions we perceive as "soul."

I shall carry out experiments on my twin daughters to test my theory... if I can get permission from the human testing ethics committee, AKA their mom. The experiment involves bicycles and the twins riding a long way off for the weekend so dad can watch Midsomer Murders on DVD without them interrupting with a guess as to whodunnit.

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Gunn. on March 22, 2010 at 10:29pm

Ian, that has all the earmarks of a logical plan!

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Permalink Reply by Ian on March 23, 2010 at 10:40am

Someone gave me a good clarifying example of the point I was trying to make:

I can go for a run. The "run" does not exist before or after I do the running, A run is the group of signs and symptoms we associate with the action we call "to run."

And here is why we should care about this argument at A/N:

Theists use a promise of heaven or threat of hell for the human soul as a method of getting people to conform with their beliefs. Emphasizing the non-existence of a soul without a living body, is a good way to remove this method of coercion.

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Permalink Reply by Ian on March 23, 2010 at 6:42am

At last, we have the meaning of life!

Though what I was trying to say about the phenomena we call a thing (soul as a noun) is that it isn't a thing but a group of things that the body does (soul as a verb). So, you are right--soul is used as a noun today, and this is the reason that trying to find one is likely to be as fruitless as looking for the travel in a bicycle, the heat in a jalapeno, or the glint in an eye.