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the human
New Member
Canada
1 Post |
 Posted - 04/27/2003 : 23:57:51
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Someone told me that some scientists recently weighed people imediatly
after they had died and they found them to be five ounces lighter. This person then said this was obviuosly indirect proof of the soul.
I have never seen or herd of this experiment anywhare I thinks it's probably a myth but if anyone would care to enlighten me that would be great.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/28/2003 : 05:00:39 [Permalink]
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Hi human. Welcome to SFN.
I hadn't heard of it, either, but it's probably been done. The non-scientific community has no monooly on nit-wits. And, it proves nothing.
How long, I wonder, after death was the corpse weighed (assuming the story might be true)? They certainly get lighter through simple evaporation, as the body begins the process of dessication. Immeadatly after death, a corspe will often get quite a bit lighter as spincters relax and the body voids it's wastes. Handling fresh dead people can be a messy business. 
I think what we have here is little more than another, urban ledgend. And, as it's ancedotal evidence to start with, it's really no evidence at all.
Again, welcome. I hope you enjoy the place.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Avenel
Skeptic Friend
USA
60 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 08:14:40 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by the human
Someone told me that some scientists recently weighed people imediatly
after they had died and they found them to be five ounces lighter. This person then said this was obviuosly indirect proof of the soul.
I have never seen or herd of this experiment anywhare I thinks it's probably a myth but if anyone would care to enlighten me that would be great.
Hardly recently. According to this article on the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance website, this study may have been printed in 1907 in American Medicine magazine. Also, James Randi's commentary for April 26, 2002 includes an analysis by a Hungarian student of an article on the weight of the soul, printed in a popular women's magazine in that country. In another commentary, for January 18, 2002, Randi comments on an experiment that supposedly measured the weight of the souls of worms. |
"How many angels can swim on the head of a beer?" - Roger Ramjet |
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walt fristoe
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 10:08:06 [Permalink]
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Hi human!!! We like new members, especially ones who broach interesting questions, so welcome!
I think that if there were such a thing as a "soul", empirical science would have identified it by now. The fact that dead bodies lose trapped gases after expiration is no indication at all of any "supernatural soul". Unless the "soul" is defined as these gases. The only kind of "soul" I believe in is the musical kind!  |
"If God chose George Bus of all the people in the world, how good could God be?"
Bill Maher |
| Edited by - walt fristoe on 04/28/2003 10:08:51 |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 14:01:36 [Permalink]
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quote:
Unless the "soul" is defined as these gases. The only kind of "soul" I believe in is the musical kind!
Holy Smoke, Soul Man!
(sorry, couldn't resist   ) |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2003 : 14:24:02 [Permalink]
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I first heard of this supposed experiment back in the early 1970s. Sorry to say, Human (hello), it was about all you talked about with your inquiry; that is, it was just a statement and no facts/evidence/data to back it up.
My guess it's stuff dreams are made of, same as so called souls.
Now, if a -real- scientific experiment -did- detect a "loss" of weight at the instance of the subject's death, my guess it'd be attributed to change - energy loss?, in bio-chemistry or the like. Any thing pointing to a "soul leaving the body" would just completely blow the doors off of any news the world of science and discovery has had to offer since, geez, since early man had thunk a thought in his haed?
Besides, what is a soul anyway? (rhetorical) |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
| Edited by - Randy on 04/28/2003 14:30:45 |
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