Monday, May 4, 1998
Your celestial weight
ANGELS: Taking it on faith applies
to love, angels and the rest of life
Do you believe in angels?
Well, do you? OK, some of you are thinking, "So what are you
getting at?"
The fact of the matter is, angels are supposed to be special
messengers from up high. Books, movies and magazines with articles
about angels are selling well. Studies have shown that a majority
of Americans believe in angels. And I’m sure that many of you have
seen the movie "City of Angels."
Angels are sent from God and come to earth to help those in
need. But before I go any further, I’m sure there are plenty of you
who don’t believe in angels.
Fine. You’re right.
Yes, you are, because I can’t scientifically prove that angels
exist and I can’t give you a study that states empirically that
angels exist. I just can’t, so you win.
But people are still trying to prove the existence of something
celestial. In this case, it’s not whether angels exist, but
something that’s closer to home: the human soul. I’m not talking
about what Socrates or Plato said about the nature of the soul;
instead, I want to redirect your attention to a study done earlier
this century.
Now, before I tell you about the study (don’t skip ahead), how
would you prove the existence of angels or the human soul? There
are hundreds of people who say they can sense that you have an aura
or they have a picture of what your soul looks like, but let’s move
past that, because we’re trying to prove this for the sake of
science. And remember, this experiment would be empirically
detailed enough so anyone can repeat the study and get the same
results.
How would you do it?
Perhaps you could assume that if the human soul exists, then it
must have mass, and you must be able to weigh it. So, maybe there
is a way to provide evidence supporting the idea that a soul
exists.
That’s what Dr. Duncan MacDougall thought, right around 1907
when he conducted a study under the premise that the human soul
does, in fact, have weight.
MacDougall put people on a very sensitive scale just before they
died, then weighed them afterwards. After conducting this study on
six people, four of the bodies showed weight loss of approximately
3/8 to 5/8 of an ounce. He also tried the study with 15 dogs, but
there was no weight change.
First of all, I’m wondering how MacDougall talked those
patients’ families into going along with this. Usually when people
die, they’re with their family in a hospital or nursing facility or
even at home. I’m not really sure how he did this, but the doctor
convinced six families to let him weigh the dying person in his lab
– I guess in the name of science.
I’m sure some of you are saying, "But only four of them had a
change in weight, what about the other two?"
Good question. I’m not sure that MacDougall is ready to tell the
families of the two unlucky patients that their loved one has no
soul. Is there really any greater insult?
Most people (assuming they believe in souls and angels) aren’t
going to tell someone that they have no soul, even if they hate
them – but apparently MacDougall discovered that these patients
really don’t have a soul. Kind of sad, don’t you think?
And I’m sure that many of you animal lovers out there aren’t
very happy about the other finding in the study.
Many people love dogs – they just love them. But MacDougall
found that dogs don’t have a soul. I’m sure he would make many
people very angry. And could you imagine what would happen if
MacDougall said that dogs don’t have a soul, but cats do? Now
that’s controversy.
Can you imagine if MacDougall received funding from the National
Science Foundation so he could study the celestial nature of dogs
and cats? I’m sure if he hasn’t heard of the American Society for
the Preservation and Conservation of Animals, he would have if he
tried this study in 1998. Killing all those dogs and cats (excuse
me, putting those dogs and cats to sleep) just to figure out if
they have a soul – not exactly humane, is it?
Well, I’m sure you may be thinking MacDougall’s study isn’t
exactly scientific proof. And I’m inclined to agree with you. First
of all, this study included only six humans. Now there are almost
six billion people on earth, right? So what we have here is a ratio
of one to one billion. Not exactly a representative sample size
now, is it?
And second, I’m not sure he’s proven that the weight lost in the
four people is, in fact, their soul leaving their bodies; the
weight loss could be due to something else.
So I don’t think MacDougall’s study supports the idea that
humans have a soul, and the study doesn’t prove that humans lack a
soul, either. I guess we’ll never really know.
You’re just going to have faith and that’s the tough part.
Maybe you’re saying, "Don’t drag faith into this," but I will
because faith is required for living. Faith is belief in something
that you don’t have proof of, but you still believe that it’s worth
your confidence. Much of what people believe in is based on
faith.
Even the fact that the earth moves around the sun is still based
on some faith – unless, of course, you have either seen the earth
go around the sun from the outer reaches of the galaxy, or you have
the ability to scientifically reason why the sun is always passing
overhead.
Faith also comes into play in more important things, because
whether or not the sun passes around the earth isn’t going to
change whether you get up in the morning, eat and go about your
daily routine. But lack of faith will change your daily
routine.
Take Meg Ryan’s character in "City of Angels." If you haven’t
seen the movie, she is a surgeon under a great deal of stress and
she loses faith. She gets sick, she can’t sleep, she hurts. To be
perfectly honest, most people get depressed now and then and it
hurts a lot. And unfortunately I don’t have a joke for this
one.
I just don’t.
But in the movie, she isn’t alone; she has an angel (played by
Nicholas Cage) who comes down to save her and he falls in love with
her.
First of all, I’m not sure whether or not it’s fair to say that
beautiful people get the angels, but in Hollywood, beautiful women
seem to get them. And, I’m going to skip the fact that this isn’t
fair. Instead I’m going to say what my mother always says to me:
"Spencer, when you’re ready and she’s ready, your eyes will meet
and you’ll fall in love. Don’t worry about it."
So I’m going to go with my mother’s wisdom on this one and
return to discussing angels. Love is just like angels and the
existence of a human soul. You really can’t provide overwhelming
evidence that love exists, either. If you can write a study that
scientifically proves the existence of love, providing conditions
where you can produce love time after time, then send it to my
editor. I bet you can’t do it.
Maybe you just have to have faith, and maybe knowing isn’t half
the battle; perhaps it’s a struggle for faith. Who knows?
Jason Hill