Pure Brutality

[Belacqua]

The soul is the form of the body (in the traditional Christian view) and every material object has a form. The objective evidence for the soul is that every material object has a form. 

I said this before but you ignored it. 

As I said before, the spiritual consists of the thoughts and perceptions of the perceiver. What kind of objective evidence can we have that the thoughts and perceptions of the perceiver have changed? 

I said these things before but you ignored them and haven't responded.

I ignored it because it had no relevance to my post, and ignored the context. I am trying to be polite, but you don't make it easy.

Of course I disagree with you when you say that my responses are irrelevant to your questions. I think that what I've said is directly relevant, but I can see that it might not be the kind of response you want or expect. 

So we could try it from another direction. 

Normally when we judge evidence, it's because we have a good idea of the kind of thing we are looking for. So, as an example, if we go looking for Bigfoot, we'll look for footprints in the mud, or Bigfoot droppings, or dwellings, or baby Bigfoots. We would take these as evidence because we start with a pretty clear idea of what Bigfoot would be like if he existed. 

No doubt you've seen this in all kinds of science experiments. A scientist will posit that X exists, and then calculates that if X exists we should see evidence Y. The discovery of Y counts as evidence that X is real. (Not proof, but evidence.) Y counts as evidence because of the researchers' conception of what X is like. 

So to look for evidence of a soul, you would have to begin with an idea of what a soul is like. For example, if soul has the qualities X, Y, and Z, then we will surely see effects A, B, and C in the material world. Something like that. 

So for a sincere investigation into whether there is a soul, we would have to begin with some idea of what that thing would be like, and what evidence we would therefore look for.

Are you willing to answer any questions on this? What is your conception of what a soul is like? If you feel there is no evidence for one so far, what kind of evidence would you expect that is lacking? 

I'm not sure, but it looks as though you may have a very different conception of soul from what the classical theologians had in mind.