Issue: The Mind-Body Problem and Terri Schiavo

Specific: "Descartes thought that mind and matter are fundamentally different sorts of thing. The mind is a thinking thing, while material objects are extended in space. They have dimension. The physical realm is mechanistic, governed by physical laws, while the mind is subject to different principles, laws of thought, and is moreover - literally- a free spirit, a ghost in the machine." - by Jason Holt from his essay in a collection of essays in "The Matrix and Philosophy"

Comment: Can this notion be philosophically resolved with those of a religious philosophy who want to deny Ms. Schiavo her right to die? I sometimes speculate that this "ghost in the machine" or "free spirit" is not unlike software in a computer. As long as the programmer knows how to write the code or the "spirit" - the soul - it does not die when the machine is shut off.

Much is being made of a philosophy called a "purpose driven faith". This comes from the recent Atlanta courthouse shootings.

If God is the great programmer and the heart and soul of Terri Schiavo is software in a defective machine, is it not up to God to move that software where he wants it? Why is it up to Congress, the Bush family and the religious right to keep this "free spirit" trapped in a defective machine?

Personally, I find a line was crossed when the Federal Congress wrote Terri's private bill. The "rule of law" is part of the "laws of thought". In order for a society to operate it needs a fundamental mechanism to resolve conflict. The American political system's fundamental mechanism to resolve conflict is the judicial system. All party's are to adhere to the primacy of this concept.

The "ends justify the means" is a priniciple that leads to a lack moral discipline. Yet this is the ideology or theology the Bush Administration is using. And they are quite clearly doing so to pander for vote of the religious right. They do not want the "rule of law" vote.