RE: Disproving The Soul
August 16, 2014 at 6:46 am
(This post was last modified: August 16, 2014 at 6:50 am by Whateverist.)
Let me try rephrasing those questions substituting "your identity" for "the soul".
-where is your identity located?
-what is your identity made of?
-what purpose does your identity serve?
-how can we detect the presence of your identity?
And if you could answer these questions with evidence that fits the parameters of our reality, I'm quite sure that materialists will adopt the idea of your identity.
I have no problem making sense of a 'soul' in this way. What I do have trouble with is the idea that 'my' soul/identity is in God. You might just as well say that who you are essentially, your soul/identity, is in another dimension. Or use a nonsense word: your soul is in igplumz. I find the word 'god' equally unhelpful.
At best I think you can say "my soul/identity is a mystery". We begin to find out about it when I'm born and lose contact with it when I die or slip into dementia. To say the dead are "with god" is fancy talk for "they're sure not here". Apparently there are and have been billions and billions of souls. Why does it matter that god's memory retains each one? Is there another file for the shape of every snowflake .. and why should I care in either case? I should add that in saying this I do not feel the least bit of nihilism.
-where is your identity located?
-what is your identity made of?
-what purpose does your identity serve?
-how can we detect the presence of your identity?
And if you could answer these questions with evidence that fits the parameters of our reality, I'm quite sure that materialists will adopt the idea of your identity.
I have no problem making sense of a 'soul' in this way. What I do have trouble with is the idea that 'my' soul/identity is in God. You might just as well say that who you are essentially, your soul/identity, is in another dimension. Or use a nonsense word: your soul is in igplumz. I find the word 'god' equally unhelpful.
At best I think you can say "my soul/identity is a mystery". We begin to find out about it when I'm born and lose contact with it when I die or slip into dementia. To say the dead are "with god" is fancy talk for "they're sure not here". Apparently there are and have been billions and billions of souls. Why does it matter that god's memory retains each one? Is there another file for the shape of every snowflake .. and why should I care in either case? I should add that in saying this I do not feel the least bit of nihilism.
