So what did Descartes actually meant when saying that? Did he mean the thinking is the only thing that differentiates man from other creatures? I don't agree with this. Because I believe that someday it will be possible to make computers think and make decisions. Yes, though it is vague to say because computers can only think as they are programmed to think. Isn't it so with humans? Humans possess very unimaginably complex and complicated programming which makes them think in unique ways under different situations and circumstances. Much more complex programming operating on larger grounds than in the case of computers.
Secondly, when we observe animals other than humans, we do find out a certain amount of thinking ability in animals as well, especially in primates.
So what actually discriminates us from every other species is not the thinking but the thinking that I exist. Awareness. 'Awareness of our own existence itself is the proof of our existence. I think I am, therefore I am.
So long as scientists have come so far to prove that even the process of thinking is just the reaction of different chemicals inside the brain. I wonder what do they have to say about the awareness inside a human that he does exist. Is it also just chemical reactions? Awareness of the self is something I would associate as the 'soul' of a human - as intuitive thinking and memorising are merely functions of the brain. It is the part of the brain, or the existence within us which considers itself 'I' or 'myself' which is supposed to be the human soul. The one that is aware and decides for itself while the brain helps in deciding only.
So, to me, the soul is the 'awareness of the self'. If someday science publishes that this awareness is also just chemicals reacting in the brain, then the spiritual world would come to an end.
Since anything working due to chemicals is material rather than spiritual. In other words, it would mean there is no soul. I don't know why people imagine the soul to be like the body. In their imagination, the soul has hands and legs too. While I can only picture the soul as a spot of sensation in the brain, or either travelling between the brain and heart.
A question always troubles me, if someday our brain is transplanted to someone else would that follow the transplantation of the soul as well?
If the soul is a continuous chemical reaction carried out by the brain, would the soul survive when the brain's chemical factory stops working?
Or... Does the soul survive when the body perishes?
What links us to heaven...?
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