I admit I haven't read this entire thread, but the idea that life comes from a soul is just silly. According to Catholics only humans have souls, I know you can't just copy/paste one religious dogma into another, but there's a lot of life out there that at least Catholics believe are soul-less. And what about babies that are born missing chunks of their brains? They are alive, yes in the sense they can breathe, their hearts beat, etc., but they don't have the parts necessary for communication, higher thought, etc. Are they soul-less?
I think the idea of a soul, and by extension the idea of a cohesive self, are handy tools that humans have developed in order to process our surroundings. Without the idea of a central self, how would we begin to process everything we see, hear, and feel from the world around us? I don't like the idea that when I die I'm going to wink out, there will be nothing left of my sense of "self." But not liking an idea is a poor excuse to create a delusion of an afterlife and particularly reincarnation.
I think the idea of a soul, and by extension the idea of a cohesive self, are handy tools that humans have developed in order to process our surroundings. Without the idea of a central self, how would we begin to process everything we see, hear, and feel from the world around us? I don't like the idea that when I die I'm going to wink out, there will be nothing left of my sense of "self." But not liking an idea is a poor excuse to create a delusion of an afterlife and particularly reincarnation.
