NationStates Jolt Archive

that a person has a soul?

why or why not?





I was just wondering if some of the atheists or agnostics or anyone else believes that people have souls.....

I do, but you all probably kinda figured that out already.... so do you?

that a person has a soul?

I do, but you all probably kinda figured that out already....

If you believe that a person has a soul, then could you explain to me what the agent is that is able to operate such ownership?

It is what continues to live after your body dies. It is what you are.

If you believe that a person has a soul, then could you explain to me what the agent is that is able to operate such ownership?
I don't think I understand the question, it is really late here (for me anyway) can you rephrase for me?

No.

No.
Look, just because you traded your soul to me for a Mars bar is no reason to say that no one else can get one.

I don't think I understand the question, it is really late here (for me anyway) can you rephrase for me?

You seem to be suggesting that the soul is the essential part of the human being, and that the flesh is all just a temporary trapping.

If this is the case then stating that a person has a soul isto confuse the issue - surely it would be the case that a person is a soul.

To suggest ownership of a soul is to suggest that there is some other essential part of a person which is able to carry out the possession of a soul.

I don't think I understand the question, it is really late here (for me anyway) can you rephrase for me?

Just guessing, it looks like he's trying to say that saying someone has a soul is incorrect because technically its the soul that has the body. Something like that.

Anyways, I'm generally against the concept of a soul because it implies some sort of supernatural intervention in physical processes that would invalidate much of neuroscience. If there is a soul I don't think everyone has one.

Edit: nvm, he said what he meant.

no

im an atheist

nor do i believe in karma

or ghosts

Just guessing, it looks like he's trying to say that saying someone has a soul is incorrect because technically its the soul that has the body. Something like that.

Basically yes - however, as a materialist I also encounter the same problem with statements such as 'I have a body'. For me the body is identical to the self, and so there is no real case of ownership.

Forgive me if I'm somewhat less than coherent here, but one row of letters on my keyboard isn't working right now, and so I have to CTRL-V everytime I want to use the letter 'a'. It knocks me off my stride somewhat...

Just guessing, it looks like he's trying to say that saying someone has a soul is incorrect because technically its the soul that has the body. Something like that.

Anyways, I'm generally against the concept of a soul because it implies some sort of supernatural intervention in physical processes that would invalidate much of neuroscience. If there is a soul I don't think everyone has one.

Edit: nvm, he said what he meant.

What's the difference between those that have a soul and those that don't? Did all subjects in experiments of neuroscience happen to have no soul?

You seem to be suggesting that the soul is the essential part of the human being, and that the flesh is all just a temporary trapping.

If this is the case then stating that a person has a soul isto confuse the issue - surely it would be the case that a person is a soul.

To suggest ownership of a soul is to suggest that there is some other essential part of a person which is able to carry out the possession of a soul.
oh okay. I worded it wrong then. sorry. I know people who don't believe in the concept of a soul at all. I was trying to find out what some people on here thought about it.

What's the difference between those that have a soul and those that don't? Did all subjects in experiments of neuroscience happen to have no soul?

When I said that if there is a soul most people don't have them I wasn't referring to the neuroscience part, I was more thinking about what a soul is characterized as involving. Most people who believe in souls attribute to them real emotions, active intelligence, complex personality, moral value, consciousness of the surrounding world, in short, all the things that supposedly make us human. I think there are many people that lack those basic things.

no

im an atheist

nor do i believe in karma

or ghosts
interesting, you know I met an athiest once who said that they didn't believe in souls either but thought that their house was haunted. I thought it was hilarious, especially since the same atheist always accused me of contradicting myself.

I have told many people about it, but nobody gets why it was funny to me, I bet you would though ;)

When I said that if there is a soul most people don't have them I wasn't referring to the neuroscience part, I was more thinking about what a soul is characterized as involving. Most people who believe in souls attribute to them real emotions, active intelligence, complex personality, moral value, consciousness of the surrounding world, in short, all the things that supposedly make us human. I think there are many people that lack those basic things.
maybe they do have a soul and are just mentally ill.

I don't believe we can know wheter or not we do have a soul.

I don't believe we can know wheter or not we do have a soul.
you mean like scientifically it isn't something you can prove? or that you can't ever know because of the nature of a soul? or something else?

maybe they do have a soul and are just mentally ill.

Mentally ill usually indicates deviation from the norm, the people I described make up roughly 85% of the world's population.

And yes, I do have a rather dim view of humanity.

you mean like scientifically it isn't something you can prove? or that you can't ever know because of the nature of a soul? or something else?

Well how else would you show that a soul exists? Do you think saying I feel like we have a soul so it must be true?

interesting, you know I met an athiest once who said that they didn't believe in souls either but thought that their house was haunted. I thought it was hilarious, especially since the same atheist always accused me of contradicting myself.

I have told many people about it, but nobody gets why it was funny to me, I bet you would though ;)
it IS funny. it made me chuckle to think about it.

what the heck is a ghost in that guys mind? where would it come from?

Well how else would you show that a soul exists?

I have faith that it does. I know it is never going to be "proven" scientifically, it most likley can't be because of it's nature.


Do you think saying I feel like we have a soul so it must be true?
not really. I do think that we have souls, but truth is subjective sometimes, what may be true for me may not be true for someone else, I don't think that we will ever find the absolute truth until well.... it is too late.....

Well how else would you show that a soul exists? Do you think saying I feel like we have a soul so it must be true?

On the other hand, disproving many of the prevaling concepts of a soul would be rather easy. If we can show that all brain functions come from well understood physical processes (which has already been done to a great extent) then we can effectively disprove a supernatural intervention.

I have faith that it does. I know it is never going to be "proven" scientifically, it most likley can't be because of it's nature.
Faith is fine but at best your making an educated guess as to wheter or not it exists. Otherwise you can't really prove to me that one exists.



not really. I do think that we have souls, but truth is subjective sometimes, what may be true for me may not be true for someone else, I don't think that we will ever find the absolute truth until well.... it is too late.....
Hence why I said we can't know.

Faith is fine but at best your making an educated guess as to wheter or not it exists. Otherwise you can't really prove to me that one exists. I haven't set out to prove to anyone that it does exist. I don't claim to be able to prove it at all.

Hence why I said we can't know.
no we can't know, but that doesn't stop me from believing that there is.

On the other hand, disproving many of the prevaling concepts of a soul would be rather easy. If we can show that all brain functions come from well understood physical processes (which has already been done to a great extent) then we can effectively disprove a supernatural intervention.
it really depends on what the nature of a soul really is, I mean if it is supernatural in nature then you may not ever be able to prove it using the means available in the natural world.

I haven't set out to prove to anyone that it does exist. I don't claim to be able to prove it at all.
You asked what I meant by proving if the soul exists. I'm not saying you have to prove anything.


no we can't know, but that doesn't stop me from believing that there is.
And your point is. I stated the belief that we can't know if there is or is not a soul and you seem to be questioning it.

When we die we simply cease to exist. There is no afterlife, no heaven, no nothing. We just stop existing like that.

Now isn't that cold, hard, and unpleasant? How could anyone possibly believe something as demoralizing as that?

(and in case you didn't get my point, I don't believe there's more to life after death, and the only existence of a soul is in a definition: the chemical reactions may comprise the soul by definition, but there is no sould after death, in my opinion)

You asked what I meant by proving if the soul exists. I'm not saying you have to prove anything.
okay I misunderstood.



And your point is. I stated the belief that we can't know if there is or is not a soul and you seem to be questioning it.
I was questioning it when I said that I agree that we can't know?:confused:

I'm not sure it's a simple yes or no answer. I would say a soul exists after death much the same way a program exists after you turn off the computer. It's there, but it's not there. It exists in a state of sunyata.

No. When you die that's it. I don't beleive in ghosts or angels either.

In fact, I am not even sure about free will, never mind souls and such.

...in life after love?
Do do do do
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough
Do you believe in life after love?
I can feel something inside me say
I really don't think you're strong enough [/Cher]

I voted "No, I don't believe there is"
What would be the purpose of a soul? The body doesn't need it to live (if one disagrees with his, then one disagrees with the whole science of biology). And after a body dies what woud a soul do? Float around in the universe meaninglessly?...
As I am an agnostic, I have no reason to believe in the exitence of a soul in the human body.

I don't believe in souls in a religious sense or in anything immortal.

Most of the attributes commonly ascribed to a soul are little more than brain functions and biochemical processes in the body. "Soul" as a word is often used to describe the emotional and social side of a person's character and as such it is of course relevant. However, there is nothing immortal or eternal about it whatsoever.

I believe in the concept of a soul, but I suspect it's another one of those concepts that has been concretized, unnecessarily mistaken for something physically real. I think of the soul as a thing composed of our emotions, much the way the mind is a thing composed of our thoughts and feelings. Things that "touch our soul" are the same things that "stir our emotions".

I don't believe in a soul. There's no evidence for one. There is evidence, however, that our personality and consciousness arises from our physical brain. For example, damage to parts of the brain can affect personality. Drugs that alter the chemical balance in the brain end up altering consciousness. I believe that such evidence indicates we're just the product of our brains' activity.

If there actually is a soul, it probably doesn't have a lot to do with out personality, or our emotions. I mean, even with the people that claim to be reincarnations of people probably aren't all that alike to the people they claim to have been in a past life.

At which point, I would have no real idea as to what a soul would be. Maybe you could call the soul the thing that makes an organism capable of self-conciousness or higher thought processes or something... a trait that isn't unique to humans. Then again, I've never assumed that a soul would be something unique to humans if it did exists.

Then again, all that is completely random speculation about something that I'm not really sure I believe in either way.

that a person has a soul?

why should i?

why should i?
I didn't want to start a discussion on why you should or shouldn't believe, as I don't think it is anyone elses business, just wanted to know if you did or did not and why you did or did not

I believe in....(pauses to create dramatic tension)... Quantum. (Runs Away)

I believe in....(pauses to create dramatic tension)... Quantum. (Runs Away)
...Leap?

...Leap?
I believe in quantam leap too !!!!! Scott Bakula is so hot..... :eek: did I type that out loud?! I soo miss Enterprise :(

Even though I am conflicted I don't really believe in a soul. Why? I am agnostic.

I believe in quantam leap too !!!!! Scott Bakula is so hot..... :eek: did I type that out loud?! I soo miss Enterprise :(
LOL

LOL
it's not funny :mad: okay.... it is a little funny:p okay.... a LOT funny:D





I am so pathetic :(