I posed a question a week ago or so to this community. I asked if anyone here believed in anything 'supernatural' and/or 'paranormal' (like psychic energy, etc). Not one person, including the resident theists, said yes. So, if you know any atheists that believe in the existence of the 'soul', they probably aren't hanging around here.
I have had plenty of conversations about such things with both religious folks and non-religious folks and, in my experience, no one ever got angry about the topic. Not even those who believe the pseudo-scientific research that has been done to isolate psychic powers. Pointing out how unscientific those studies are didn't even make them angry. It changed their position at times, but never inspired anger. So... I'm not sure where you're coming from.
The 'soul' is one's sense of self-awareness, one's consciousness, mind, thoughts, emotions, etc. When one contemplates that awareness it can 'feel' as if it exists 'outside' of the body. It doesn't. It is generated by chemical and physiological processes in the brain. Once the brain dies... it ceases to generate this 'soul' and... that's that.
I have had plenty of conversations about such things with both religious folks and non-religious folks and, in my experience, no one ever got angry about the topic. Not even those who believe the pseudo-scientific research that has been done to isolate psychic powers. Pointing out how unscientific those studies are didn't even make them angry. It changed their position at times, but never inspired anger. So... I'm not sure where you're coming from.
Cyborger Wrote:If souls aren't things that go up to heaven or down to hell, what are they actually?
The 'soul' is one's sense of self-awareness, one's consciousness, mind, thoughts, emotions, etc. When one contemplates that awareness it can 'feel' as if it exists 'outside' of the body. It doesn't. It is generated by chemical and physiological processes in the brain. Once the brain dies... it ceases to generate this 'soul' and... that's that.
