Over millennia, the heart has played an important role in philosophy, medicine, literature, art, and theology. Most cultures consider the heart to be the location of the soul or mind, the "center" of the human body. Modern natural sciences, however, downgrade it to a mere organic blood pump and, simply, a site of surgical interventions. Dealing with this central organ of the body, cardiac surgery is a royal discipline among the medical professions and is highly respected by the public.