What is the "soul"?

[Krisyork2008]

I'm sure this has been done to death, but I haven't seen it round in awhile and we could use something different.

The so called soul is something that is thrown around by people of almost all religions and also the new age hipsters that are "spiritual."

So what exactly do people claim the soul is? There is zero evidence that who you really are isn't just tied in with your brain. All of your emotions, memories, personality traits, etc., are up above your shoulders.

Does anyone here believe in a soul? I know a lot of people who aren't religious at all but still believe in a soul, or spirit.

So what do you guys think?

[NitzWalsh]

I believe in soul.
[youtube:1pi71tvz]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_WzjiTzZBA[/youtube:1pi71tvz]

[Hydra009]

I have no need of that hypothesis.  All the stuff that people say the soul does is already done with good ol' cells.  And since physical injury can most certainly damage the mind, whatever "souls" are they apparently don't have much to do with cognition or personality or anything else of import.  *shrugs*

[Saul the not so great!]

There doesn't seem to be a clear picture of what it is. It's a vague whatchamacallit. I doubt there is any coherent concept behind the word.

[PickelledEggs]

How I define a soul is simple. It's a metaphor for your identity / personality / character.

[Hydra009]

How I define a soul is simple. It's a metaphor for your identity / personality / character.

Or the breath that animates a living being.  Or the similarly vaguely-defined "essence" of a person.  Or the "spirit" of a person.  (Again, quite vague)  Or any of a number of other things.

It's a pretty vague/incomprehensible term right up there with colorless green ideas, customer-focused, and spiritual.

[PickelledEggs]

Yea, I mean, my personal definition isnt a spiritual thing. Just another word for character or personality.

[Solitary]

8-)  Prior to the seventeenth century, it was universally believed that the movement of bodies were the result of spiritual action, with God as the prime mover. Descartes replaced spiritual causality with mechanical causality, in which inanimate bodies and animals were machines moved around by natural forces. The one exception was the human being. Descartes proposed that humans possess a distinct immaterial, immortal mind, or soul, that controls movement. This duality became a funda"mental" ingredient of Christianity, as well as fitting in well with just about every other religious belief in the world.

Now I ask you, if we had a separate mind, or soul, how could disease, drugs, head injuries, traumas, strokes, anesthesia, and danger affect it? Has anyone given reliable evidence that we have a mind, or soul, without a body? When I worked in the emergency room of a hospital they had something written on the top of a wall that didn't go all the way to the ceiling. There were many people that claimed they left their bodies and floated around near the ceiling looking down or watching their surgery being done. Not one person could ever see or read what was said. Bill

[PickelledEggs]

8-) Not to mention that the native americans believed the steam coming from your chest if you were stabbed in the cold was your soul leaving your body.

[Shiranu]

I don't know if this would fall into the realm of "soul", but I always wondered... what if our brain was "cut off", disassembled and re-put together at a later date... would we be the same consciousness (since its the same matter) or would we simply cease to exist and it be a new consciousness with all our memories?

[Plu]

I don't know if this would fall into the realm of "soul", but I always wondered... what if our brain was "cut off", disassembled and re-put together at a later date... would we be the same consciousness (since its the same matter) or would we simply cease to exist and it be a new consciousness with all our memories?

I would guess it'd feel something like awaking from a coma. Or even just from sleep.

Logically speaking, what awoke would act exactly like the thing you disassembled. And "it" would probably feel like waking up from sleeping for a long time.

Whether or not the "you" that was taken apart returns or a fresh copy of BrainOS(tm) runs in there; that's a difficult question to answer. But to an outside observer; it would appear to work just fine.

[Krisyork2008]

The idea of a soul is really that recent? I imagine that's for western society and religion.

What about eastern ideologies?

[SGOS]

There doesn't seem to be a clear picture of what it is. It's a vague whatchamacallit. I doubt there is any coherent concept behind the word.

It is the essence of wholeness that transcends a finite eternity at the center of being. :)

[WitchSabrina]

The idea of a soul is really that recent? I imagine that's for western society and religion.

What about eastern ideologies?

Dunno.  Doesn't the bible mention the soul?   And I'm fairly certain the Norse mythology mentions the *soul* although that's not the word they used.  Translated in the 20th century the translators associated what the Norse spoke of as 'soul'.

[Hydra009]

The idea of a soul is really that recent? I imagine that's for western society and religion.

What about eastern ideologies?

It goes back pretty far, at least to ancient Egyptians and Greeks, then Jews and Christians.  And a lot of other religions have similar concepts (animism, an incredibly widespread belief, relies on non-human animals and objects having a sort of spiritual essence) so it's a pretty old and prolific belief.  Probably predates civilization.