Path: utzoo!hoptoad!ihnp4!ucbvax!agate!eos!ames!hc!ut-sally!turpin
From: turpin@ut-sally.UUCP (Russell Turpin)
Newsgroups: alt.individualism
Subject: Re: Individualism - Reality or Myth?
Summary: More myths ...
Message-ID: <11072@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: 4 Apr 88 14:41:32 GMT
References: <779@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> <1081@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <916@gmu90x.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 25

In article <916@gmu90x.UUCP>, dstalder@gmuvax2 (Darren Stalder) writes:
> ...  There have been measurements made and the
> body weighs some 300 grams less after other things such as water loss
> are taken into account.  I wish that I knew where I read this since I
> know that everyone will want the reference.  But I dont know, so you
> can accept it or not.

The idea that the body, during death, loses the mass of the
"soul", and that this loss has been measured and well documented
is another one of these recurring, modern myths. This is not
quite an urban myth, but fits nicely into the genre of "science
supporting religion" myths. Another good example is one that made
the rounds for years: that NASA, in calculating the trajectory
for the Apollo moon flight (or whatever), couldn't get things
right until Joshua's "missing day" was taken into account. At
least this latter myth is easily dispelled by anyone who knows
that Newtonian (or relativistic) mechanics is invariant under
displacement in time, and who realizes that NASA does not use
astronomical measurements made before Joshua's time.

I have seen both of these myths claimed as true in various books.
But the authors of such "references" declined to document their
source. These myths remain myths.

Russell