Richert and Paul L. Harris the question became body v. mind v. soul. A group of 161 undergraduate adults were studied in this experiment, they were questioned about their religious beliefs and background, whether or not they believe they have a soul, and their thoughts about what a soul is. During the experiment they were asked four ontological questions, 1. whether they thought the mind and soul existed, 2. when the mind/soul began, 3. Whether the mind/soul remained constant or changes and develops over time, and 4. What happens to the mind/soul at death. After they were asked a functional question; “participants were asked to imagine that they lost their mind or their soul but continued on in some way. They were then asked to identify which of the following they would have lost: “my ability to solve problems”, “my ability to think”, “my ability to distinguish right from wrong”, “my life force”, “my ability to continue on after I die”, “my ability to remember”, “my ability to connect to a higher power”, “my spiritual essence”, “my ability to feel emotion” and “my ability to reason”” (Richert, Harris, 2008). Finally the participants were asked to consider three ethical issues, 1. Stem cell research and whether or not scientists should be able to use embryos for research, 2. The discussion of life support and if a person in a vegetative state has a mind or a soul and should they be disconnected from life support, and 3. Human cloning,
Richert and Paul L. Harris the question became body v. mind v. soul. A group of 161 undergraduate adults were studied in this experiment, they were questioned about their religious beliefs and background, whether or not they believe they have a soul, and their thoughts about what a soul is. During the experiment they were asked four ontological questions, 1. whether they thought the mind and soul existed, 2. when the mind/soul began, 3. Whether the mind/soul remained constant or changes and develops over time, and 4. What happens to the mind/soul at death. After they were asked a functional question; “participants were asked to imagine that they lost their mind or their soul but continued on in some way. They were then asked to identify which of the following they would have lost: “my ability to solve problems”, “my ability to think”, “my ability to distinguish right from wrong”, “my life force”, “my ability to continue on after I die”, “my ability to remember”, “my ability to connect to a higher power”, “my spiritual essence”, “my ability to feel emotion” and “my ability to reason”” (Richert, Harris, 2008). Finally the participants were asked to consider three ethical issues, 1. Stem cell research and whether or not scientists should be able to use embryos for research, 2. The discussion of life support and if a person in a vegetative state has a mind or a soul and should they be disconnected from life support, and 3. Human cloning,