RE: Determining the Soul
April 4, 2013 at 8:07 am
(This post was last modified: April 4, 2013 at 8:07 am by Whateverist.)
I'm going to resurrect this thread to say that some ways people attach meaning to the "soul" are more defensible than others. Of course I don't "believe in" the biblical soul. Nor am I convinced we need such a concept to make sense of ourselves. But Nora's description of the soul as "the you that makes you you" strikes me as thought provoking. That seems like the right direction to go in making good sense of the word.
What is it that makes you you? Is there really any you that is more you than some other you? I think so. Of course I don't think who I am is ordained by gods or even set in concrete. Yet there are a number of subjective facts about what I think tastes good, what strikes me as funny and what I find meaningfully important which I discover rather than decide.
Spirituality is more about getting free from the particularity of the self and identifying with what is transcendent. Soul is about the actuality of how things stand with you, with what is inescapable. Soul has to do with the self you are admonished to know. Soul has useful connotations. It just doesn't have anything to do with eternity or judgment.
What is it that makes you you? Is there really any you that is more you than some other you? I think so. Of course I don't think who I am is ordained by gods or even set in concrete. Yet there are a number of subjective facts about what I think tastes good, what strikes me as funny and what I find meaningfully important which I discover rather than decide.
Spirituality is more about getting free from the particularity of the self and identifying with what is transcendent. Soul is about the actuality of how things stand with you, with what is inescapable. Soul has to do with the self you are admonished to know. Soul has useful connotations. It just doesn't have anything to do with eternity or judgment.
