Expert: Marco - 3/10/2009

Question
Dear Marco,

Central to Catholic teaching is that man is God's 'special creation' because of our possession of a rational soul, thus we are able to conduct ourselves as moral beings by making moral decisions.

My question is, what if someone is unable, through no fault of their own, to make such rational decisions; for instance someone who is brain-damaged or who has some other severe mental disability, illness or impairment - what becomes of them when they depart this life?

Thanks and best regards

Charles McGarry

Answer
Dear Charles,

there is no doubt that in the present life our soul interacts with our brain, so some physical damages in our brain can affect alos our psychical life.
After our death, our soul has no interactions with our brain; so our psychical life wold certainly be different.
We cannot know how it will be, but I am sure that also those who had some mental disabilities in their earthly life, woyuld have a normal life in their afterlife.

Maybe you can be interested in my articles about mind and brain, in the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.

I hope this may help,

please ask again if you should need some clarifications,

Your brother in Christ,

Marco