What is the "soul"?

[Solitary]

When I was much younger a theologian explained to me that the soul was not like what most people believe---it was not their identity, but their essence.  :shock:  In other words it was like energy or matter and can never be created or destroyed, only reconfigured. This is what science has to say also if you consider the soul, or your body, as being energy (matter).    Bill

[sasuke]

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

Deepak Chopra?

[Solitary]

Isn't a finite eternity a contradiction? But what can we expect from someone that thinks he understands quantum mechanics and uses quantum theory the wrong way. He also said. "Matter is an illusion," and "Only consciousness is real."

He claims that quantum mechanics has provided proof for a world beyond matter, and that it provides spiritualist with a way to imagine a holistic cosmic consciousness that includes the human mind. He has concluded we can change reality---past, present, and future---just by thinking about it. I guess he doesn't know that everything in our existence is energy which is also matter.

Even photons are matter, as well as everything smaller. Our thoughts are provided by matter. This kind of thinking is top down thinking, when in fact our world is a bottom up world. It's not God first everything else from that, but energy first and everything after that. If God is pure energy than he isn't a Supreme Being. Richard Feynman is rolling in his grave. Bill

[Krisyork2008]

I'm pretty sure SGOS was being condescending and ironic in his post. I'm pretty sure he was showing just how vague people can be.

Maybe I'm wrong?

[Solitary]

His quote was that of Deepak Chopra, so yes, he was, and you are correct. This spiritualist is who  I was referring to also. Bill

[SGOS]

His quote was that of Deepak Chopra, so yes, he was, and you are correct. This spiritualist is who  I was referring to also. Bill

Actually, I labored over that wording, trying to get it to sound Deepak Chopra-ish, although I didn't get it from him, and he hadn't even come to mind at the time.  And yes, I meant it to be a satire of the pointless word salad heard from the pulpits and TV every Sunday morning.  I don't know why religionists spew this kind of gibberish, but apparently the intent is to lend some kind of credibility to the nonsense.

[Krisyork2008]

Ahh all makes sense now.

What's the deal with this Deepcock Chopstick guy?

[Colanth]

What's the deal with this Deepcock Chopstick guy?

Just another woo-meister.  //http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra

[The Non Prophet]

As the band 311 would say, the soul you have is 'electricity'

[SGOS]

What's the deal with this Deepcock Chopstick guy?

Just another woo-meister.  //http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra

LOL  From your link under "Reception From Academics":

In academic journals [edit]

George O'Har, a professor of English at Boston College, saw Chopra as an exemplification of the fact that human beings need "magic" in their lives, and places "the sophistries of Chopra" alongside the emotivism of Oprah Winfrey, the special effects and logic of Star Trek, and the magic of Harry Potter.[44]

[Colanth]

Or, in short, the make-believe of fiction?

[Special B]

"I have a soul" is just another way of saying "I am gullible and ignorant".

I have a brain.

What's the deal with this Deepcock Chopstick guy?

He's a famous and successful con man.

[Validus]

In India the "soul" or Atman is defined as that part of a person which is immortal, indestructible and survives the death of the body.

The Buddha refuted this 2,500 years ago as a delusion. His basis for this view was the principle he espoused known as Impermanence, which simply states that in the phenomenal universe, change is the only constant.  This is view I myself subscribe too in light of scientific evidence that such a thing as the "soul" clearly does not exist. We are simply a Mind and a Body and when one fails so does the other. Death is the Final Ultimate End. This is often a source of distress for people but I don't really understand that. We were all in oblivion before we were born and we didn't mind, so why should we mind after we're dead?

[Colanth]

Just thinking about the question is more than some people can handle, so they huddle in the "I'll be in heaven after I die" belief  The prime reason for religion is death.

[Krisyork2008]

I continued to believe in a soul even after I became an atheist. I did the whole, "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual!" bullshit for a little bit before realizing that without evidence it makes no sense to believe in something.

It really irritates the shit out of me when people believe in a soul because the term gets thrown around so often.

Heart and soul ---- the two biggest dead metaphors.