I’ve often pondered the concept of a “soul” as religions describe it. What is it? Is everyone’s unique? Do animals have one? After watching my mom go through dementia I’ve decided it’s all bullshit. She’s no longer the same person. If she had a unique life force given her by god that’s moving on to the next life is it the original one or the new one? Her thoughts, attitudes, feelings, emotion are.nothing like what my mom had. So is her soul gone? Has god changed her soul to that of a paranoid bitter angry person that doesn’t recognize her own kids and just wants to die? Gee how loving of god. The logical conclusion is that what religions like to call a soul is actually just a set of behaviors not related to any god or good and evil but a product of our brain firing off electrical impulses and reacting to stimuli and chemicals. There’s no magical cloud gonna leave your body when you die and go to face judgement. Maybe there’s some sort of energy we all posess that goes back to the universe when we die. That’s about the best I can do. That’s the end of the sermon for today. Be sure and leave 10% of your gross before taxes on the way out to go to Cracker Barrel.
sorry dude, but I don't do church or Cracker Barrel. I mean, I have done Cracker Barrel a few times, but it really isn't an obsession with me like it seems to be with so many others. It's just mediocre food at best. YMMV, of course. You want a good breakfast? Go no farther than Waffle House. Scrambled eggs and cheese. I tried many times to copy that wonderful stuff at home without success, until I made a point of watching them make it. The secret is to scramble the eggs and melt the cheese separately, and then toss them together just before serving.
Better yet, find some little hole-in-the-wall mom and pop place. But hurry, they are disappearing fast. That being the case, do you know of any down your way? I like a good hearty country breakfast when I go remote to try to save someone's wayward umm...spiritual lifeforce. Grits with red-eye gravy (if available), buttered rye toast, three eggs sunny side or over easy and bacon or sausage (flip a coin) if they don't have some good country ham.
I think I saw where you're originally from the western part of the state. True? If so, have you ever had liver hash (or mush)? That's a good breakfast side if you can find it down this way.
But I digress. Back to the subject. I believe it was breakfast. I saw Alton Brown do a breakfast trick you might appreciate. He does over easy eggs without an egg turner. You just make sure the eggs are slipping and sliding freely and when it's time to flip them, you just do that little flip thing that chefs do with the pan and those eggs will flip right on over and the yolks don't even break. Well, at least two will flip. I haven't gotten the hang of three yet.
Do animals have a soul? I sure as hell hope so. The sweetest, most beautiful little doggie there's ever been is waiting for me at the rainbow bridge. Don't even try to tell me she isn't. Don't try to tell me anything you think you know, because we don't know shit. It's much better to believe in all possibilities than to discount anything, because if there is such a thing as absolute knowledge, only God has it. Only God
could have it. All you have to do is realize that we are living according to what our senses report to us, and our brains are only painting a picture for us with what our senses report...and that picture isn't based on absolute reality.
You don't have to be a holy roller. But having a wide open mind helps, and having a wide open mind means giving holy rollers their due. Let us all believe what we need to believe and maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised.
I'm sorry about your mom. My mom decided to let go rather than deal with an unpleasant, forced continuation of her struggles. I begged her to try, because they said they could fix her. But I admired her courage and resolve, and her love of Jesus. They morphined her mercifully out of earthly existence and into a heavenly meeting with him, I like to think. If anyone ever deserved that, she did.
I hope I can be that brave. RIP, mom, maybe I'll see you again. And calm down, heelman. You never know.