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If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
#1
If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
...would it change the way you live?

(In Atheism because the existence of a enduring soul doesn't automatically prove a god or gods exist.)

The Christians I've known were very consistent in being afraid of death, because, I suspect, they didn't know if they were in the correct camp regarding whatever god was "on the other side of death". This has since made me wonder how they would act if they knew they'd "make it safely out of this world". More reckless? More smug? More placid?

Additionally and not necessarily part of the above, what if we create our "next life"? Would we create a Heaven or Hell? Or both?
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#2
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
It would change the way I think. Whether it would change the way I live, I don't know. The existence of a soul doesn't necessarily answer the questions I think you are implying, such as that of an afterlife.
[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
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#3
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
(November 25, 2018 at 10:32 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: It would change the way I think.  Whether it would change the way I live, I don't know.   The existence of a soul doesn't necessarily answer the questions I think you are implying, such as that of an afterlife.

The "enduring" part was intended to imply that.
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#4
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
Most of the Christians I know are not inherently afraid of death. But in your thought experiment, let’s assume the eternity of a soul , without a God(s) or heaven/hell/purgatory//shangrila etc..

If an eternal soul could/would not affect the physical world then I wouldn’t change much. I would still try and make the most out of the briefest time here physically.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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#5
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
(November 25, 2018 at 10:38 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote:
(November 25, 2018 at 10:32 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: It would change the way I think.  Whether it would change the way I live, I don't know.   The existence of a soul doesn't necessarily answer the questions I think you are implying, such as that of an afterlife.

The "enduring" part was intended to imply that.

That still doesn't tell us anything about the afterlife. It could be sheol for all we know.
[Image: extraordinarywoo-sig.jpg]
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#6
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
I mentioned that people might create their own afterlife.
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#7
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
Is the other side of death always guaranteed better? If so, what would stop people from whacking themselves/their children in times of strife?

We'd just create next life. Heaven or hell would be what the next people create of it.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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#8
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
(November 25, 2018 at 10:47 am)wyzas Wrote: Is the other side of death always guaranteed better? If so, what would stop people from whacking themselves/their children in times of strife?
That is, indeed, one question. If we go to "Heaven" regardless of how we live in this world I think the human race wouldn't last long.
Quote:We'd just create next life. Heaven or hell would be what the next people create of it.
"next life"?
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#9
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
(November 25, 2018 at 10:26 am)Gawdzilla Sama Wrote: ...would it change the way you live?

(In Atheism because the existence of a enduring soul doesn't automatically prove a god or gods exist.)

The Christians I've known were very consistent in being afraid of death, because, I suspect, they didn't know if they were in the correct camp regarding whatever god was "on the other side of death". This has since made me wonder how they would act if they knew they'd "make it safely out of this world". More reckless? More smug? More placid?

Additionally and not necessarily part of the above, what if we create our "next life"? Would we create a Heaven or Hell? Or both?

I am afraid of death. Just not afraid of not existing, there is a difference. I am not afraid of my pre life either. I am afraid of prolonged pain and a slow death. I am afraid of missing my friends and loved ones, and them missing me. But I am not afraid of being finite. 

If life didn't evolve to avoid danger, we wouldn't look both ways when crossing a busy street.
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#10
RE: If the existence of an enduring soul was proven...
This thread was inspired by the memory of a line from Stranger in a Strange Land where Don Juan "begged to be returned to the solitary Hell he had created for himself." That line bubbled up to the surface earlier today and I was wondering how things would go if that possibility was a real thing.
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