wheres your soul?

[1{H][NA]

a thought has really been bothering me lately. me and my friend were talkling about aetheists and agnostics recently and i began contemplating the existence of my soul. do we all have one, or have we simply reached a level of self awwareness (through eons of evolution) where we have to feel that we have something inside of us in? if it is not about self consciouness, than do animals have souls? i think the thing that bothered me most was what if i had no soul? than what comes after i die, would it simply mean the end? or would my soul go to an afterlife? i think my greatest fear of this thought is that there is no after life, and this life is the only one we have. i not really trying to make point with this thread, i just wanted to see what kind of discussion we could get on this, and this is something that has really been going through my mind lately.

[Spiff]

From a the perspective of what a scientist would probably say, there is no proof or evidence of a Soul existing in anyone. Infact, there was a huge thread started by Darth Wong which attempted to give various reasonably sound reasons why a Soul in the Christian sense couldnt exist.

But of course different cultures have different concepts of what a soul is and represents, and at the moment each is just as probable as the next without something more substantial to back the claim up with.

[Cluny the Scourge]

The existence of reality is sufficiently strange and unnecessary for you not to have to worry about this stuff. It will take care of itself. Ineffability is comforting.

"The universe was not made with you in mind." (Omar Khayyam).

[Ummon]

More correctly you should ask: "where are you in your soul?"

[Cluny the Scourge]

More correctly you should ask: "where are you in your soul?"

If you accept the soul as a fact in your initial premise, maybe, but since souldom is necessarily inscrutable I don't see that there's any point in asking any such questions at all. Just submit to the direction of the universe.

[Zenith Darksea]

Ah, Omar Khayyam... "Tis all a checkerboard of nights and days where destiny with men for pieces plays, hither and thither moves and mates and slays, and one by one back in the closet lays." He was a fine poet. Sorry, that was a bit off-topic. I assume that you're an agnostic? Well, my own interpretation of the soul is that it is 'you', if you see what I mean. Not your body, but your actual sense of self and your sense of conscience. After all, how can an ordinary clump of biological matter have a sense of self?

As for animals, I really couldn't say whether or not they had souls. I'd be inclined to say not, but who knows?

[Tom Paine]

ZD, how can an "ordinary" clump of biological matter be the seat of a mtaphysical entity like the soul? Its just as odd, except when you take into account the complexity, and utter strangeness, of the human brain in all its glory.

[Zenith Darksea]

Oh, I'm not saying that the soul has a physical presence. At any rate, I don't have a degree in science or theology, so I can't say.

[Ummon]

If you accept the soul as a fact in your initial premise, maybe, but since souldom is necessarily inscrutable I don't see that there's any point in asking any such questions at all. Just submit to the direction of the universe.

It is not required to accept anything. Your soul is a virtual space which can be explored. It exists in perception, and thus it requires no act of belief.

[Tom Paine]

Oh, I'm not saying that the soul has a physical presence. At any rate, I don't have a degree in science or theology, so I can't say.

Neither did I, I'm just saying its equally absurd to say a clump of amtter cn be the seat of a metaphysical entity!

[LegionnaireX]

I don't believe your soul is located in a physical place, but it just a metaphysical presence. Your soul is your own consciousness.

[Tom Paine]

I don't believe your soul is located in a physical place, but it just a metaphysical presence. Your soul is your own consciousness.

Which has been linked to brain activity and firing neurons...

[Richard the Lionheart]

I don't believe your soul is located in a physical place, but it just a metaphysical presence. Your soul is your own consciousness.

Or maybe it's a ghost that exists within one's own physical presence and thus it is the source of your ability to be alive!

Hmmm....is a ghost and a soul considered the same thing here?

[Tom Paine]

Or maybe it's a ghost that exists within one's own physical presence and thus it is the source of your ability to be alive!

Hmmm....is a ghost and a soul considered the same thing here?

Ghosts being disembodied spirits and the soul being the spirit I think we can safely classify ghosts as souls.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

I don't believe your soul is located in a physical place, but it just a metaphysical presence. Your soul is your own consciousness.

So, does your consciousness go to heaven?

[Richard the Lionheart]

So, does your consciousness go to heaven?

Well if your consciousness is tied to your soul/ghost...then I guess the answer is yes.

[Zenith Darksea]

If you 'go to heaven'. If you're a Christian however, you believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead when the Kingdom of God comes.

[Sétanta]

I don't believe your soul is any physical place. But instead it is just "you." And you control your body during life and after death your soul goes to heaven. Your body is just a physical representation of your soul

[Tom Paine]

So the brain, and its direct links to conciousness, is an elaborate fake?

[Zenith Darksea]

No, we just don't know how it links to our concept of 'self'. We honestly don't (and by 'we', I mean scientists as well as myself).