The Soul

[spanish_emperor]

The soul. It is the presumed connection between mortal beings and supernatural forces. Humans have, since the earliest of times believed in a spiritual force inside all living things. The moment a living being dies this spiritual force dispersed into the sky, the universe, the underground or in some cases failed to move on and remained on earth. The soul is said to carry our personality, emotions and in some cases, memories of past lives. It is the belief in the existence of a soul that makes religion overwhelmingly popular in an era of scientific progression. Science does not provide any conclusive response to this subject and this might be the reason many still maintain strong religious beliefs. Forget about the miracles of Jesus or the validity concerning an omnipotent force, it is the soul which makes these beliefs reliable. Without a soul there would be no connection between God, thus, there would be no afterlife and the whole reason to maintain faith would be shattered. It is clear, if you want to break all forms of religion you must proof there is no such thing as a soul. If you want to prove there actually is a God you must prove that there is a soul. Either way science will be the only source of answers.

So does a soul exist? Is it even possible?
Discuss.

[Helm]

Technically possible but as far as we can tell there are no minds without bodies floating around anywhere. In Islam the afterlife is physical so I suppose they can get away without having to believe in souls.

[spanish_emperor]

Wait, in Islam it is physical? How does that work? Does Allah have a body reserved for you in heaven or something?

[Helm]

Wait, in Islam it is physical? How does that work? Does Allah have a body reserved for you in heaven or something?

I guess Allah just reconstructs your body physically the way it was before you died atom by atom and revives you. There's no reason why he could do that I suppose seeing as he is meant to be omnipotent. Some Christains believe this as well. And Buddhist don't believe in a soul as the soul is a continuation of the "self" and the "self" isn't really real.

[Himster]

Given the fact that consciousness continues, despite the physical replacement of our atoms continually through our lifetimes, I'd say the evidence for a soul is quite compelling even taking into consideration the appeal or comfortability of such a belief.

Whether there's an immortal soul, I've never encountered a reason that wasn't riddled with sophistry, but still I believe in it, compelled by a force greater than myself to do so as I see it.

The arguments against the soul concern brain damage: the material affecting the non-material meaning the non-material is actually material. I don't really buy this because the way I see it the brain is more like the medium through which our consciousness (soul) works: damage your phone and it's possible your communication may be impaired or may cease all together.

[Helm]

It's not so much the atoms themselves but the bio-electrical reaction they create when they're arranged a specific way, you could use different atoms and providing the physical form is identical it should still be the same you. But there is a question of what would happen if God tried to create two identical copies of the same person, clearly your clone isn't you. Perhaps information of that nature can't be exactly duplicated. When it boils down to it everything that exists in the universe is information including our minds. There's certainly no unexplainable supernatural component required in any of this and so far no such thing has been discovered.