Is there a soul?

Just say "no" to religion.

~String

 

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It's actually made of rubber.

It's different than the physical self because its part of the shoe your physical self wears.

 

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Do you have to be religious to believe in a soul?

 

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Yes, IMO. The concept of a soul is inherently ethereal. It requires the belief in that which cannot be proven factually; which is the very heart of religion. One does not have to believe in God [or Gods] to believe in a soul, but the two are generally part-and-parcel.

~String

 

Yes there is a soul, it is the same for all of us, it is the essence of the ability to be conscious of the surroundings. I have the same soul you have, and so does everyone on the planet. I am you and you are me...the only thing that is different are our memories and our bodies, that is what separates us, but we are essentially the same soul in different locations and timeframes.

 

I beg to differ. I say that the soul can be very real. If you fail to accomplish your dreams you will fail your soul. It will be punishing to you and those around you. You must accomplish your dreams in order to reward your soul. Life comes at you fast and is unique to your conditioning and genetics. Everyone has been raised in a certain community or society to believe certain things about the way they should look physically or not. I personal am not all that good looking even though some differ. I have live in this world for 25 years and it feels like 50. This is because I'm jobless at the moment and my personal worth depends on what my mom and dad and sis and bro are doing compared to 'me'. I walk around like I have failed them and my soul punishes me and it feels like I should be whipped but I'm not. My name is Nicholas and I am not a productive member of society.

 

Of course one need not be religious to believe in religious things.

 

Don't tell me what you're talking about here my friend.

 

Hahahaha! Thanks for enlightening me... I always thought the soul was made up of a certain type of fish, or perhaps a major city in South Korea...

 

hey not-productive-member-of-society, how much money do you get exactly from your parents-brothers-sisters?

Want to join me and we go to college together and strive for same goal?

 

I would be delighted sir.

 

Back to the OP:

 

So on the issue of souls -

Here is a thread I posted a while back that is a cleanup of an even earlier thread from Boris. It addresses some fundamental considerations of whether the soul concept has any validity or not.

http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=48365

Enjoy

 

Tha-.. that was beautiful! :bawl:

I've seen all the different arguments in different places but to see it all unified in one place is really great. Thanks for putting it together.

 

consciousness

the physical self requires consciousness to be distinct from a dead body

as different as a dead and a living person

 

If there is a soul in humans then i believe i have located it. I can tell you exactly where it is.

Dont believe me?

Then ask me where it is and i will tell you.

 

Lg,

The best example to show how this makes no sense is to consider a computer.

The dead person is the equivalent to the computer turned off.
The live person is the equivalent to the computer turned on.
Consciousness is the equivalent to the running program.

Now ask the question – what is the program made of? It is a direct correlation to consciousness.

Here LG would have to say that a program is made of program. A bit like asking what is bread made of? Well, bread of course. All such responses are of course nonsense, including LGs reference to consciousness being made of consciousness.

Is there a running program when the computer is turned off? No.
Is there a consciousness when the body is dead? No.

A running program is a specific sequence of electrical stimuli that enables the computer to fulfill its function.

Consciousness is a specific sequence of bio-electrical stimuli that enables a brain to fulfill its function.

 

consciousness is something that experiences and observes. is there something equivalent to that in a computer?

there is individuality at least. individuality would be information, all the ones and zeroes that make up the programs (ideas, beliefs, thoughts, personalities). they "disappear" if you break the computer.

if something could be likened to consciousness in a computer, it would be the electricity, because that is what makes the computer alive/run. it performs all the work. and it doesn't disappear when you break the computer, it just returns to the source: "heaven" (because there's a lot of electricity). and from heaven, the electricity keeps running to the computers.

consciousness is not individual. there is only one electricity (life force). consciousness is "god". that's why people who realize their true nature, they find that they are everything, and nothing.

materialists (atheists) don't accept that a computer could be "alive", but electricity is the life force, and it exists in everything. consciousness is limited by the body, that's why a rock/computer can't express itself as fully as a human being.

 

Cris:

Show us where the Cartesian theatre of the first-person perspective and qualia appear from a physicalist paradigm.

 

I can't say. A soul in an Abrahamic sense, I don't know.


However, we are self-aware and therefore, I'd say yes by that alone. We have minds, conciousness, and we are people. Our person, our character, is our soul. It is who we are. That is our soul.