What's a soul?

Ask anyone what a soul is and, typically, the question will render them inarticulate. If as soul is so hard to explain, why is it generally accepted that it exists at all? Religious or not, what is this mysterious soul, and how does it serve a human?

 

People feel that a soul is an entity of ones self that surpasses our physical life / existence. ( my interpretation anyways )


To be spiritual, for me, is living by my deepest feelings or values. And the journey to understanding myself as a person.

 

What purpose does this "entity" serve then? What would someone be like if they had no soul?

 

I don't believe in souls...


Humans are the way they are with or without souls.


The entity would serve as something that would keep our consciousness or our experiences for the life beyond this one.

Edit; The reason it's so widely accepted is because retardation is also Widely prevalent.

No seriously though, you believe what you are taught. As a child growing up, my parents told me that i had a soul and I would go somewhere after I died. I grew up, thought about things, and decided to not take the easy way out and just have faith in something that I thought was highly unprobable. Instead of lying to myself with faith, I used logic.

I would rather know then believe - Carl Sagan

 

Oh, I see. Logic is prevalent in my life, and I still believe in souls. I don't feel the need to try to understand it, though. Maybe a soul is just a word used to collectively describe our life experiences and what we've gained from them. That sounds logical, doesn't it? A soul doesn't have to be any entity, at least not a material one. Some people believe that your soul will be palpable after death, that it's the lifeforce behind your shell of a body. Perhaps your physical body is just a new car with iPod capabilities, able to communicate with others and think only because of the iPod within it.. what other views might the users of Sythe have?

Edit/Semi off-topic:
By the way, I completely agree with your edit in regards to faith. Don't bother taking false faith in something just because that's what you were raised to know; use logic to find what is true to you, and believe only in that.. but that's not to say that faith doesn't take part in it. I'm Christian, but I believe in what I do because I find it to be the truth, through personal experiences, etc. My faith is a big part of it, though. It's true that if God exists, he doesn't reveal himself. I cannot see Him, yet I have faith He's there, just as I might not be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel when I'm submerged in darkness, but I hear the voices instructing me to safety and thus have faith.

 

I personally believe a soul is just energy created by the body, nothing special, just like an aura, nothing in the sence of heaven and hell, just an energy created by every living thing.

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A soul is just another "myth?" in my opinion. It's just something that children have been taught from there ancestors, hence why it;s widely accepted. I may not know a lot, as I am just a young teenager, but that's what I see.

 

What's the purpose of this aura then? Does it even serve one? Do you believe that people who say they can sense colored auras are sensing your soul?

That's a widely believed opinion as well. Is that to say you don't believe in any kind of life force or aura, that it's just the mechanical processes of your body that let you see your surroundings and form thoughts and ideas?

 

I honestly don't know what to believe in, as I said, I'm young, and may not have a lot of knowledge, but I do not believe that there is a 'soul' that is my life force. Life is to complicating for ANYONE to comprehend.
Now my question for you is, what is your full view on the 'soul'?

 

Souls don't exist.

 

the idea of the soul is part of the remains that is religion.

descartes and his theories made prevalent the idea that the physical world and the world that contains god and the soul are separate entities.

since then, we have found many many more findings linking the soul and its activities to the activities of the brain.
that is to say, the brain creates all the properties the soul claims to have.
without the brain, there is no ability to create anything, including consciousness.

also, there is no such thing as auras. this is a widely held view of superstitious people and perpetuated by fortune tellers.
there is no evidence supporting the theory of auras.

 

This isn't spamming time. This is for intellectual debate.

I agree with this.
Either way, after death, even if there is a god, your memory would be erased. As it all lays in the brain not your soul.
So this makes me think, what does your soul do?
Gives you your life?
But if you didn't have a brain, you wouldn't have life. I'm not in any religious ways, but a soul seems to have no meaning.

 

Just inputting my opinion, sir.

I re-assert my belief that souls do not exist, and that defining a soul would be a waste of one's time, seeing as it is a non-existent thing.

 

Have some backup for it then, it's intellectual debate.

 

It is like you without your body.

For example, when you die and you go to heaven/hell, your body does not go there, just a soul.

 

A soul is the creation of religion. There is no evidence supporting the existence of souls, so one would logically assume that they are not much more than fairy tale/delusion.

 

I know many people who believe in the idea of having a soul who are not religious.

 

True, but for the most-part it's a religious thing, yes?

 

The soul is a part of us that is separate from our physical being. It's essentially immortal and has been through all walks of life, including the after-life. That's what I would see the definition of a soul as being anyways... not that I personally believe in the existence of the soul.

 

Not religious and Atheist are not synonymous, you shouldn't use them as if they are.

The point is it's illogical to believe in something in the absence of evidence. It's also illogical to believe in something when many of the things thought to have been associated with it turn out not to be linked at all (i.e. many of the functions of a soul have actually been pinpointed in our brains, a physical organ). It is the mathematical equivalent of saying if x =/= y, then x = y.