For those of you who believe in a soul, when does a genetic human gain a soul?

Question

Your options begin at conception, all the up to, and past birth. If you do not believe in a soul please do not post as that is a waste of everybodies time. If you do not know, that's OK, just give us your opinion, or best educated guess.

The reason I said, "genetic human" is that is when scientists regard human life as beginning. However there are those who proclaim the soul does not enter the body till later development. Often this is used to justify the practice of abortion.

K B, is this a claim based on experience?

Cherie, the supreme court might agree with you on that one.

Cherie, sorry about the miscarriages, I'm sure they were a painful experience. Sorry about my last comment, it was not very sensitive.

Cathy L, I agree with you in part but there is noting wrong with calling a preborn a fetus which simply means offspring. There is also nothing wrong with calling a preborn a child, just as it is not wrong to call a postborn child your offspring.

typetotracy, you gave a deep philosophical answer to the question which deserves to be further explored. By the way I also studied metaphysics. This would be an interesting topic to be included in any metaphysics class.

Q~T, this attitude gives self servicing rationalization to kill anything preborn, or immediately born for that matter. So on the day of the birth the child as no soul before it exists the vagina? Whew! That is some philosophy you have there. Remember there was a time when many didn't think blacks had a soul etheir and just look how history treated them.

Q~T, also remember to a holy roller they believe God did not create with conception till after the fall. Your logic will not hold by their standards. After the fall the bible mentions him/her knowing certain individuals in the womb, as well as in one instance of John the Baptist having the holy spirit.

Firstd1mension, great answer, very interesting, and thought provoking. You are focused on the one and not so much on the individual. I suggest refocusing on the interconnection of the one to the individual.

This begs the question of when exactly did God, who is timeless, conceive the idea. This can easily lead one into the theory of the preexistence of the soul.

AJ, another great answer I cannot necessarily disagree. However if God knew of us long ago, when does the "us" connect into the physical bodies of the world?

sarah s, this is consistent with traditional Christianity. And though I am not a Christian, I also agree this is the point when it a human should be assumed to have a soul, also acknowledging that the soul may be older than our bodily conception.

dickn2000, I explained this in one of my first details but to revisit, I said genetic human to start people at conception as this is universally accepted by the scientific community as to when a human is a human. To a scientist the phenotype is just an expression of ones genetic make-up not the essence of the individual which to them would be the DNA.

turbocharged, you gave a good yet easy to understand answer. Thank you.

debisioux, we might have a different definition of soul. It seems soul to you might be more attached to a physical body for its existence to be, and be continued.

nellai_murug..., huh, I'm not sure I understood your answer. It sounds like you are coming from a pyschological perspective equating the mind and soul as the same thing. Please correct me if wrong, as I have been known to be from time to time.

Answer 1

At conception the new life is growing. Just like school children grow and adults age. We are people all along the way going through all the stages. At times we are not functioning up to par, but we are still with souls. Just because the new life hasn't reached a certain stage or cannot do certain things it doesn't make them without a soul. If we can agree that at conception the new life is a human, then we should be able to agree that it has a soul. Who ever heard of a human without a soul?

Answer 2

My ideas concerning soul have changed over the years, but I do think that a soul is something acquired over time, and I don't think we ever stop acquiring it, unless we willingly make the choice to reject it. In a human sense, I think that the soul is acquired when there is a brain developed enough to interpret sensory input on an emotional level, even if that emotion cannot be expressed linguistically. At least in the case of humans, language comes later--when the necessary inputs are in place, i.e. OTHER humans. So I guess, at its fundamental root the human soul is a partially linguistic phenomenon and something infused from one human (though speech/thought-sharing) to another. From what I know, this is an ability that is aquired later in fetal development...essentially when the developing fetus resembles a human more than a sort of gelatenous chimera that looks more like a bean with a tail and flippers than a person.

Of course, I'm no expert on human cognition or metaphysics, so all I can really offer is my best guess, and as I hope I've illustrated above; that soul, for me is a kind of intelligence that we "breathe in" contextualize and then breathe out...and well...that's my best guess so far.

Answer 3

i believe there is one universal soul that represents God and life, and it exists before conception and after death and is behind all aspects of the universe, not just individual organisms. Anyone who's studied ecology knows that the force of life extends far beyond the body and beyond the individual, and I believe the same holds true of the soul. If every new creature was given an original everlasting soul, then there must be one heck of a stockpile of souls building up somewhere. Stockpiling is not how the universe works, as my eyes and heart understand it. Just as energy and matter is unified and reformed and recycled, I feel the same is true of spirits and whatever force makes reality what it is I do not want to offend the sensibilities of traditional monotheists, but I think the concept of Gods and angels and souls is too reminiscent of our conceptual shortcomings from thousands of years ago and simply applied our understanding of Western social order and authority to the universe and painted the Creator as a Lord or King of sorts. I think tribal spiritualists and some eastern philosophies have a less clouded understanding of these matters.

See below- AJ gives a short but wonderful answer from a christian perspective! Typetotracy as well.

Answer 4

Your soul always is. It is hard to fit into our concept of time and physicality. We need to think there is a time when the soul enters the physical form. But that is because we think in physical ways. So I don't think as humans we can answer that. I think my option can include before conception. We are also under the physical restraints of time. Is there no past, no future, everything just IS?

That is the interest of being here. To experience the physical.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Well, my guess is as good as any. God tells King David in Psalms that before he was born, He knew him, actually, before he was even conceived. I believe God refers to knowing Dacid's soul, andwhat his character would turn out to be like. He communicates with the soul, moulds it and stuff. I don't think he was referring to knowing David's fetal form and shape. My thesis gets a bit hazy from here on, but I think pre-conception is plausible. Either way, a fetus has a soul.

Answer 7

The soul develops along with the neural network and it is said that a fetus also becomes self aware at this stage. This happens at 16 weeks, the same time as a baby starts kicking.

Answer 8

In Psalm 51, David says "surely I was sinful from conception." In order for someone to be sinful, they must have a soul, a sinful soul. I say that we have a soul from the time of conception.

Answer 9

I believe we have a soul from the time of conception because thats when we are known by God.

Answer 10

The soul will the ever present life within the genetic human.