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The Soul

Erienne

Anime high :D
Pablo Neruda once said "Laughter is the language of the soul." I just put that in as one of those pointless introductions that really has little to do with it, but I felt like it anyway.

The Soul is defined as (by Merriam-Webster): "the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life". Many religions believe in a soul of a sort, especially the Abrahamic reliigions like Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

So, is the soul real? Some people say that ghosts are just the souls of dead people wandering aimlessly around. Some say that the soul is our consciousness. And some don't believe in it altogether. So what is your position? Do you believe in a soul?

I do, but that's for reasons I can't explain. Anyway, discuss.
 
I believe in a soul.

A soul is what separates you from the physical body you have; a soul is your true essence that makes you who you are.

I always wonder "what if I had a different family/person/life etc." I would not look the same physically as I do now if I had been born as someone else, because I would not have the genes I do now. However, my soul would be the same, no matter which "body" I took place of.

I believe "a higher power"/God drops/recycles(?) a soul into a baby at conception, at random, and makes your soul body, while your parents/cells make up your physical body.

I hope that made sense. :D
 
If souls didn't exist, how would Nintendo have made "Soul Silver"?
That's like saying dragons are real because they are in pokemon games, completely irrelevant.
 

PsychedelicJellyfish

formerly R. New
I believe that we have a consciousness that carries on after our bodies die (we're made conscious by pulses of electrical energy and the first law of thermodynamics states that that energy cannot cease to exist after we die, so I don't see that the consciousness 'carried' by that energy can cease to exist either).

So, yes, I suppose I do believe in what some people call the soul.
 

Starlight Aurate

Just a fallen star
I think a soul is what seperates people from animals, and, along with the brain, what gives us our feelings and enables us to have more complicated emotions then other creatures.

I beleive in the soul, and it is what goes to afterlife when we die for our soul cannot die even when our body does.
 

Erienne

Anime high :D
I think a soul is what seperates people from animals, and, along with the brain, what gives us our feelings and enables us to have more complicated emotions then other creatures.

I beleive in the soul, and it is what goes to afterlife when we die for our soul cannot die even when our body does.

I don't see how animals don't have souls. Sometimes, I see that humans are much more soulless than animals.
 

The Director

Ancient Trainer
Hmm. Souls.

When I use the phrase "souls" in an argument or sentence i refer to their character rather than anything special that is not part of the brain.

Personally I don't believe in a soul. Its a label originating from a religion that answered the question. "How do you go to heaven when all your remains are still here?" People's characters are created from a mixture of biology and experiences. Biology in how their brain is unique and then how they interpret differently an experience.

That is what I believe, but i'm not stupid enough to say that that is the right answer just what i think is most likely with the experiences and evidence i have that led to logically conclude that as my answer.
 

pokemaster001

....................
I would think a soul is what makes us, well us.
yep, and when you die it either goes into someone else or goes where it is most comfortable (like gamestop *shot*)
 

Erienne

Anime high :D
yep, and when you die it either goes into someone else or goes where it is most comfortable (like gamestop *shot*)

Hmm, you mean reincarnation? I believe in reincarnation, since otherwise how could people remember past lives? Also, I would rather come back again with no memory than stay in Heaven for eternity.
 

Shadow Gamer

The Shadow Trainer

Erienne

Anime high :D
^ Some people do, it's been reported. And through regression hypnosis, some people have remembered past lives.
 

Erienne

Anime high :D
Because people have spoken languages that they couldn't have possibly learned ever in their lives or remembered obscure, unreported details about the person they were once.
 

Dr. Ste

Pokemon Breeder
The Director said:
Its a label originating from a religion that answered the question. "How do you go to heaven when all your remains are still here?"
I doubt that. The idea of "soul" existed even before the idea of "heaven". In primitive African religions, the souls of the ancestors were being worshipped.

Hmm, let me think. For now, since I can't find a proper definition or description, I tend to believe that the soul is a person's mentality, a living person's non-material aspect. I think everyone will accept that we all get the impression that it exists. When we're thinking idly or forming logical arguments, there is no obvious material part.

Neurologists have tools that can see which parts of our brains are activated. They can tell if I'm trying to recollect something from my memory or if I'm trying to communicate with someone. But the content is hidden, and when I do the same mental activity but with different thoughts, the neurologist sees pretty much the same.

If we were to adopt the belief that our brains "fake" the impression of the soul, we have to provide a specific evolutionary background in which the brain came to do that. Seeing as someone who believes that he has a soul does not survive better than someone who thinks he doesn't have one (I cound argue the opposite), as that is irrelevant to survival, the belief lacks support...
 

Drybones446

That Photography Guy
The Soul is what seperates our visible body to our 'true selves'.

I have heard reports about people 'seeing themselves sleeping'. I believe thats connected to the soul?
Meh.
 

Starlight Aurate

Just a fallen star
I don't see how animals don't have souls. Sometimes, I see that humans are much more soulless than animals.

That's because some humans are cruel and heartless, it's just who they are. Having a soul doesn't automatically make you good, it just makes you a human. Since we're human no matter how bad we are we can always become better people and right our wrongs.
 
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