(August 27, 2015 at 7:01 am)Lucanus Wrote: This is a series of questions I always ask when people start talking about souls. I'd like to collect the local soul-believers' answers on this topic, but if you don't believe in souls, feel free to add more questions.
Quote:What is a soul?
What is it made of?
Does it interact with the material world?
If it does, how can we measure its activity based on its interactions with the material world?
If it doesn't, what does it explain that can't be better explained by a materialist solution?
Agnostic and Anti-Theist, replying, here:
I have occasionally pointed out to Theists that because none of the religious dogmas of the world can be proven,
that doesn't mean that there necessarily isn't a god, out there....which, of course, they're always delighted to hear me acknowledge....
...but I then point out that while I am willing to allow for the possibility that god exists,
I refuse to assume anything about the nature of that god,
and assert that we should not rule out any possibility...
one of which,
is the possibility that God may indeed exist,
and he may indeed be Eternal, without beginning and without end,
however,
that, by no means whatsoever, automatically equates into humans ALSO having eternal souls.
It may be that god lives forever,
and we don't.
For some reason, it usually transpires that this possibility never even crossed their minds.
Anyway...
to hazard a guess at the rest of your questions:
1. what is a soul?
and 2. what is it made of?
A: If a soul exists at all, and can be defined,
I imagine it as being another word for "the breath of life" described in the Bible.
For example, I find it very scientifically intriguing
that while mankind has succeeded in cloning entire animals, like sheep,
it is noteworthy that these clones don't tend to live very long.
it's like they have "imitation life" rather than the authentic "breath of life".
Like making a dead frog's leg twitch with a zap of electricity,
but starting with new tissue....not tissues already deceased.
Maybe the cloned sheep's fresh new tissues have energy,
and do what new tissues with energy, do,
but the cloned sheep itself has no real "life".
Don't get me wrong...this doesn't make me believe in "souls" per se,
but in trying to describe exactly what a "soul" might be,
it is probably "life-stuff" ...which mankind has yet to strictly define,
but which I do not doubt we will succeed in defining, some day.
questions 3. Does it interact with the material world?
and 4. If it does, how can we measure its activity based on its interactions with the material world?
A: My preferred theory is that if there IS such a thing as God, or human souls, at all,
that they are not simply the "magical" things that religion describes them as being,
but are, if they exist at all, probably quite real, indeed, having matter like everything else,
but matter of a type we do not yet understand. Like Dark Matter, for example.
But if they're there, they have Science to them. it's just a science we don't know, yet.
so, that in mind, does a soul interact with the material world?
maybe, but again, in such a subtle way that it's exceptionally difficult to detect.
Like what happens inside black holes.
Maybe souls, for the most part, are comprised from a type of matter that flows right through other things, with no discernible interaction at all, until we discover the right variable to change;
much like neutrinos slice right through our Earth by the countless trillions upon trillions, every second,
without even slowing down
....yet someone finally figured out that they can get "caught" in tetrachloroethylene....dry-cleaning fluid.
Maybe neutrinos are soul-particles, who knows. lol
they say we are, after all, made of star-dust.
