Determining the Soul

[Cinjin]

I recently met an atheist who believed he had a soul. A rarity yes, but not unheard of. After all, most any atheist is adamant about the definition of atheism: An atheist does not believe in the existence of god(s). Nothing more.

Being a deist, we were able to find some common bond in his belief in the soul. His mockery of my belief in some kind of creator God seemed odd to me since he himself believed in something that is unseen and unproven. That being said, I regularly mock religion myself and did not find his remarks about a deistic God at all offensive. We had many common beliefs about all things existential and we eventually parted ways having shared many laughs and a warm handshake. (Probably why I always like hanging with atheists.)

21 GRAMS
The curiosity of the whole conversation was his interest in a flawed experiment about the alleged weight of the human soul. 21 grams.
At the turn of the 20th Century a doctor named Duncan MacDougall made claim (loosely) that a small group of tuberculosis patients immediately lost approximately 21 grams when they died. The experiment was poorly executed and in my opinion is about as valid as a fresh 3 dollar bill. (for those who aren't aware, the US Mint doesn't print one)
Read the article found at the link if you would like more info. Snopes has a large write-up on it as well.

At any rate, he referred to this experiment several times as if to use it as evidence. Although I think the human soul may very well exist, I felt it made him look rather foolish to keep referring to it as some sort of circumstantial evidence. I'm not aware of any further testing or of any verification of these experiments but I would love to get the opinions of you atheists on this whole topic.


Do you think you have a soul? Do you find it odd that an atheist would believe in the soul?
Do you know of any other documented studies about the soul? etc etc.


Discuss