What the hell is a 'soul' anyway?

[Lucanus]

This is a series of questions I always ask when people start talking about souls. I'd like to collect the local soul-believers' answers on this topic, but if you don't believe in souls, feel free to add more questions.

1.  No clue how to define it.  I believe that Soul and Body are separate and that we don't "have" a soul, but "are" a soul and have a body. 

2.  No clue

3.  Well I suppose in some sense yes, in that I believe people are souls that have physical bodies that interact with the material world

4.  Don't know.  

5.  Again, don't know.


Hope that was clear enough for you Luc.  

is your name jon snow?

Meh, I dunno

[The Grand Nudger]

It's my metabolic apparatus and operation, the people who came up with the concept didn't know that, and had no better word for it, but in describing and defining it described it handily enough for their purposes. Take a look at the definition of metabolism, and juxtapose that against what abaris has commented upon regarding anima.......at least that's what I think they were trying to get at. Maybe they were just nuts, though.

[vorlon13]

It doesn't really matter what actual properties a soul has, or whether or not it even exists, Christians/Bible believers are constrained by Holy Scripture to view the soul as conveyed via the atmosphere, that ensoulment occurs with the first breath following successful birth, and as a result of that ensoulment then and only then does a fetus become a living human being.

Any departure from God's ordinance in this matter is HERESY.

Please join with me in commending Christians that honor God's divine plan in this regard, and condemning those that think they know better, and admonishing them to rededicate their lives to unquestioning obedience to the Lord God Almighty!


PRAISE JESUS !!!

[Spooky]

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The idea of souls have been universal in all societies throughout human history. It started when the first person was buried and someone said a few words about the dearly departed. It's the vehicle through which people will enter the happy hunting grounds, heaven, hell, Valhalla, or paradise. It's the hope for something better for "good" people and the curse of something worse for "bad" people.

Even if a person isn't religious he will usually believe in the idea of a soul by saying something like "go to hell".

[Jenny A]

This is a series of questions I always ask when people start talking about souls. I'd like to collect the local soul-believers' answers on this topic, but if you don't believe in souls, feel free to add more questions.

1.  No clue how to define it.  I believe that Soul and Body are separate and that we don't "have" a soul, but "are" a soul and have a body. 

2.  No clue

3.  Well I suppose in some sense yes, in that I believe people are souls that have physical bodies that interact with the material world

4.  Don't know.  

5.  Again, don't know.


Hope that was clear enough for you Luc.  

This has the advantage of honesty.  When someone says soul to me, I have three rather different ideas.  The first is some spiritual essence that the speaker thinks might continue in essence even if the person where to be reincarnated as a cockroach.  That is just woo.  There's no evidence of it.

The next is a metaphor akin to feeling things in one's heart.  It's the deepest emotionally real part of you.  For poets and lovers, that's a useful term.  "I love you/bean soup/impressionism/Mozart/jazz/Jesus to the bottom of my little soul."

The last is just another name for our consciousness.  This is the part of you that attempts to define soul.  I prefer to call that part me.

Which of these, or a combination thereof is the soul?

[Neo-Scholastic]

This is a series of questions I always ask when people start talking about souls. I'd like to collect the local soul-believers' answers on this topic, but if you don't believe in souls, feel free to add more questions.

What is a soul?

What is it made of?

Does it interact with the material world?

If it does, how can we measure its activity based on its interactions with the material world?

If it doesn't, what does it explain that can't be better explained by a materialist solution?

The soul is made of information that exerts downward causation on matter and energy. Information isn't matter, but matter embodies information. Information isn't energy, but energy can transfer information. The idea of a 'materialist' solution is just so 19th century.

[Foxaèr]

The soul is made of information that exerts downward causation on matter and energy. Information isn't matter, but matter embodies information. Information isn't energy, but energy can transfer information. The idea of a 'materialist' solution is just so 19th century.

Word salad hooey.

[Neo-Scholastic]

The soul is made of information that exerts downward causation on matter and energy. Information isn't matter, but matter embodies information. Information isn't energy, but energy can transfer information. The idea of a 'materialist' solution is just so 19th century.

Word salad hooey.

I guess that means you do not believe in information, because you certainly are not very informed.

[Foxaèr]

I guess that means you do not believe in information, because you certainly are not very informed.

That is quite an assumption for someone who just posted word salad hooey.