I really don't know what a soul is, or even if I believe in one. Every time I get to trying to explain what I might think a soul is, I start fabricating this elaborate story about how the soul functions, how it is related to our body, what happens after death, etc. The problem is that in the end I don't really believe these things. I just look at what I wrote and say "That's a load of bs". MaybeI don't think a soul exists, and I'll take the cynical view of us not having any choice, any real freedom of thought of anything. Everything we do, say, and think could be predicted if someone could know how everything in the universe worked, and the exact state of the universe. Our thoughts are brought about by the electrical discharges in our brain, our personality is derived from patterns in the way our neural pathways happened to form. But even with this, it still seems like I have the choice, so it doesn't matter.

^ I've had quite a debate with Das about "Hard" Determinism, which is more or less, what you're describing.

 

He called my "theory" baseless. Then again, I think his views a baseless as well. :-$

I must confess I agree with romy and aquariusman. Having been brought up Unitarian Universalist, I believe I was taught equally about different religions, and allowed to make my own decisions. To me, it seems religion no longer applies to our society, and the people who still insist on believing simply do so because they were taught that way from a young age.

 

This may be a bit off topic, but seeing as the existence (or lack thereof) of Heaven, and therefore God, is extremely important in defining a soul, what evidence exactly is there for the existence of any God? I don't want to hear Bible stories or "how else could we have tacos". When one removes the opinions and teachings of childhood and considers the facts, what remains for a truly religious man?

 

 

As for ghosts, I'm not entirely sure. It seems illogical, but there is a lot that science leaves to the imagination.

 

Oh, and by the way, religious people can still deny the existence of free will. I think the argument is that our decisions are sculpted by our past experience and our mental wiring. If each decision has a reason, and each reason is formed based on a certain thought process and certain evidence, then were a person to know that evidence, he could predict the thought process, reason, and, eventually, decision. Religion is not a factor.

They do not exist, and if they do, they are a figment of your imagination. Just my opinion. :thumbup:

From my post earlier.

 

Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. Its like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if its hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, youve gained all the experiences it had.

I always saw the concept of a soul as a person's nature in a literal sense. It can be corrupted, changed, shaped--for better or for worse. It always seems like the simplest, most obvious answer to me. What else could it be? Surely not some glistening ball in your chest that pulses and throbs with the beat of humanity.

 

It's when I try to look at it from a spiritual sense that I have a real hard time doing so. It doesn't really make sense to me. I have faith in my own way that doesn't adhere to any particular religious structure, but the concept of an eternal soul living on in the Afterlife is just too damn far away to worry about right now. Too abstract to work my head around when I have so many stressful and more pressing issues now.

 

I just try to be a good person in my own way, live and learn from my mistakes, move on.

I've always believed that your soul is you consciousness.

If mind and body are separate things...

Only the dead know, or do they?

I'd have to say that a soul is just a different term to define who somebody is, how they think, how they feel, what they like, what they hate, and probably most of all, what they do. I don't think it remains after the death of the individual, although in a certain way it could persist in the minds of those who knew them before they passed away, and the actions they took during their life.

 

I like to think of it as footprints on sand. Through the path one takes in life, their actions leave a mark upon the world, which will allow people a glimpse of their world, their "soul".

 

Of course, that brings about the depressing thought that when somebody is forgotten, the mark they left has been filled in, or been eroded until no longer recognisable, they have just about stopped existing, but that might be taking it a little far.