Does everyone have a soul?

[RodISHI]

Does everyone have a soul?



If so how would you describe what a soul is?

 

[Avatar4321]

yes.

The Soul is the body and the Spirit combined.

 

[KittenKoder]

It depends entirely on the religious belief, some think that animals do not have souls and that only humans are exclusive to that, other think that not all humans do. I believe every living thing does (probably a collective soul for plants though).

As to what it is ... by definition Avatar covered it, by belief I believe that what makes us human is that there are two parts, the spirit and intellect. The intellect moves onto another person being born to keep our species growing smarter even if all our records are lost, and the spirit moves on, if it was good enough.

 

[RodISHI]

Thank you both for giving your perspectives on the questions. Maybe there will be some more thoughts from others on these questions when I get back online this evening.

 

[Sky Dancer]

No. The concept of a soul is unique to certain religious beliefs.

Sentient beings have awareness--life force energy--consciousness. What moves from body to body lifetime after lifetime is not what some think of as a soul--a kind of invisible personality and bodily version of yourself-your ego in this life.

 

[RodISHI]

No. The concept of a soul is unique to certain religious beliefs.

Sentient beings have awareness--life force energy--consciousness. What moves from body to body lifetime after lifetime is not what some think of as a soul--a kind of invisible personality and bodily version of yourself-your ego in this life.

Had to look that one up.

wiki - Sentient beingsSentient beings is a technical term in Buddhist discourse. Broadly speaking, it denotes beings constituted by consciousness or, in some contexts, by life itself.[1] Specifically, it denotes the presence of the five aggregates, or skandhas.[2] While distinctions in usage and potential subdivisions or classes of sentient beings vary from one school, teacher, or thinker to another—and there is debate within some Buddhist schools as to what exactly constitutes sentience and how it is to be recognized[citation needed]—it principally refers to beings in contrast with buddhahood. That is, sentient beings are characteristically not enlightened, and are thus confined to the death, rebirth, and suffering characteristic of Saṃsāra.[3] However, Mahayana Buddhism simultaneously teaches (in the Tathagatagarbha doctrine particularly) that sentient beings also contain Buddha-nature—the intrinsic potential to transcend the conditions of samsara and attain enlightenment, thereby becoming a Buddha.[4]

The soul is not something one can see with human eyes either. Reincarnation is not a new thought either.

 

[Coloradomtnman]

No. No one has a soul. The soul is an idea that human beings misrepresent the illusion of a separation beteen body and mind, and that the self will come to a permanent end.

When a person dies, the brain dies. The brain is where all sense of self and personality is contained. When a person is brain-dead, the personality does not function. When a person suffers from brain damage, their sense of self is warped or abnormal. So when the brain dies, the person is gone, whether the body lives on or not. Logically if there were such thing as a soul, a brain-dead person's soul would have departed the body, but yet, the body is still alive. And if a developmentally disabled or somone with a brain injury whose personality is completely transformed, then wouldn't the soul also be developmentally disabled or the personality changed?

Makes sense to me. When a person dies, they're body decomposes and becomes ashes or dirt. Plants grow out of that. Animals eat the plants. In a way its reincarnation.

So I believe in reincarnation but not in the everlasting soul.

 

[KittenKoder]

Colorado ... wouldn't be myself if I didn't play devil's advocate here, however science itself has admitted to having no definitive answer to this. The biochemical properties of the brain include a lot of electrochemical responses as well. Science as determined that energy is never created or destroyed, it merely changes form and moves through physical particles. This being true, when a person dies the energy goes somewhere, and our brains hold a lot of it (not sure what the exact amount is but it's very measurable) and when we die the energy just seems to "vanish". Some have theorized that this is the scientific "spirit" which explains the existence of ghosts and such. There are many metaphysical studies which support this idea (after you filter through all the outrageous ones) and have demonstrated the high possibility that there is life after. So it is valid for even a die hard atheist to agree that there is a soul or spirit, atheists are just against the idea that there is a magical creator, not that life is binary.

 

[DavidS]

Speaking as someone who's had a passing interest in astronomy... our universe does not like to waste. It would be... wasteful for a human being to not have an everlasting soul that jumps body to body retaining experiences from the past to provide the new host body with useful information on how to function and adapt to life.

This is completely irregardless of whether or not anything in the Bible is true or not. The brain is probably the host of the soul and limits the capacity of the soul. The brain probably has to be dead for some time to release the soul. The soul then travels to its next host with information and what not on life that it provides to its next host. This helps the evolutionary process continue much faster than it would if every single human being had to learn everything over again.

 

[Old Rocks]

Do I have a soul? ....... I have a seperate personality, a seperate set of experiances from everyone else. But a soul? That implies something that survives my physical death. I know of only one way that I can test that hypothesis, and I believe that I will put that off as long as possible.

 

[Amanda]

Does everyone have a soul?



If so how would you describe what a soul is?

I think so. Even animals.

I don't know if I have the understanding or smarts to try to describe it. It's an intangible sense of self, IMO. But what is it? I don't know.

 

[Truthmatters]

To have Soul takes timing and beat.


Get on the soul train my friends

 

[Coloradomtnman]

Colorado ... wouldn't be myself if I didn't play devil's advocate here, however science itself has admitted to having no definitive answer to this. The biochemical properties of the brain include a lot of electrochemical responses as well. Science as determined that energy is never created or destroyed, it merely changes form and moves through physical particles. This being true, when a person dies the energy goes somewhere, and our brains hold a lot of it (not sure what the exact amount is but it's very measurable) and when we die the energy just seems to "vanish". Some have theorized that this is the scientific "spirit" which explains the existence of ghosts and such. There are many metaphysical studies which support this idea (after you filter through all the outrageous ones) and have demonstrated the high possibility that there is life after. So it is valid for even a die hard atheist to agree that there is a soul or spirit, atheists are just against the idea that there is a magical creator, not that life is binary.

I'd like to see some of that material without having to sift through it all myself. Do you have any links or titles that you could direct me to?

 

[KittenKoder]

Colorado ... wouldn't be myself if I didn't play devil's advocate here, however science itself has admitted to having no definitive answer to this. The biochemical properties of the brain include a lot of electrochemical responses as well. Science as determined that energy is never created or destroyed, it merely changes form and moves through physical particles. This being true, when a person dies the energy goes somewhere, and our brains hold a lot of it (not sure what the exact amount is but it's very measurable) and when we die the energy just seems to "vanish". Some have theorized that this is the scientific "spirit" which explains the existence of ghosts and such. There are many metaphysical studies which support this idea (after you filter through all the outrageous ones) and have demonstrated the high possibility that there is life after. So it is valid for even a die hard atheist to agree that there is a soul or spirit, atheists are just against the idea that there is a magical creator, not that life is binary.

I'd like to see some of that material without having to sift through it all myself. Do you have any links or titles that you could direct me to?

Too many links to list, but look into metaphysics, some of it is logical and very scientific, but not all. You have to "consider the source" in each study. I have only read hard copy books on the subject when I was younger, so I don't have any more than what a search you enter would pull up (probably less viable stuff since I search all over the map). Much of the metaphysical data I had read correlates to astrophysical data (which is how I stumbled upon it). Fascinating theories and data. Just avoid things like "ghost hunter" stories ... those are a bit

 

[xsited1]

Does everyone have a soul?



If so how would you describe what a soul is?

If I've learned anything from South Park, it's that Japanese people do not have souls.

 

[dilloduck]

I have the ability to tell if people have souls or not. If you would like to know if you have one, please hit me with some positive rep.

 

[KittenKoder]

I have the ability to tell if people have souls or not. If you would like to know if you have one, please hit me with some positive rep.

 

[RodISHI]

Does everyone have a soul?



If so how would you describe what a soul is?

If I've learned anything from South Park, it's that Japanese people do not have souls.

I don't watch South Park so it does not fit in my scope of the understanding of the human soul.

 

[dilloduck]

Does everyone have a soul?



If so how would you describe what a soul is?

If I've learned anything from South Park, it's that Japanese people do not have souls.

I don't watch South Park so it does not fit in my scope of the understanding of the human soul.

rep me----I'll explain it to ya .

 

[RodISHI]

If I've learned anything from South Park, it's that Japanese people do not have souls.

I don't watch South Park so it does not fit in my scope of the understanding of the human soul.

rep me----I'll explain it to ya .

I can't, it says you have to spread some around first....