Can you produce any objective evidence or valid argument for the existence of a soul?

Question

Preferably something more intelligent than the usual "Well you're alive aren't you?" kind of response...

Preacherman: Free will doesn't exist. If you don't believe me, try to choose what your next thought will be. You can't. Thoughts come into your mind completely out of any conscious control, and you can't choose what to think before you think it, because you'd already have to be thinking about it... You see?

Good effort though.

Jim Darwin's...: Of course not - There's no reason to believe in any such thing. We're just a particularly clever species of animal, the product of unthinking evolution in a godless universe. Anything else is simply a denial of reality.

Confused chi...: It's quite easy to show that everything that you regard as 'you' ("my spirit my personalliy my will, my flame" etc.) is actually a function of the physical brain, and we can even show where in the brain some of these things reside by experiment and by looking at victims of brain injury. Science is your guide here...

Joel: Sure, there is plenty we still don't know about the brain, but what we *do* know is that without the brain you are nothing. So, what is left to ascribe to a 'soul'? Answer: Nothing.

Captain Atheism: The difference between life and death is the difference between a working computer and one that is switched off - i.e. the hardware is there but the processes have ceased to function.

Kansas: Why would *I* have to provide evidence or argument that I don't have something that someone else claims exist, on the basis of no evidence or reason whatsoever? That would be like me saying you have to believe that purple unicorns exist because you have no proof that they don't? Would you regard the onus as being on you to go off searching the world for pink unicorns just to tell me you don't believe me? I think not.

graceangeleve: That's a touching story and I'm sure it affected you deeply but it's not evidence for a soul unless there is no other *possible* explanation... and I think you have to concede that there are other possible explanations, e.g. involuntary movements caused by random brain activity, or perhaps she wasn't actually unconscious but merely incapacited until that moment. I had a very similar experience with my mum who was in the same situation, to all appearance unconscious but when I said to her "mum, if you can hear me squeeze my finger", she did exactly that. I had the same terribly sad experience of watching my mum die but it didn't make me believe in a soul or heaven or anything like that. I just cannot deny reality that easily.

LARRY S: As I said above, all these things are demonstrably, provably, aspects of the physical brain.

Paul S: Absolutely right.

Prince: Sorry but you just made claims without backing them up with anything, which was not what I was looking for.

Angel: That was even less helpful...

Bindy: It's easy to demonstrate that anything anyone ever claims as a property of feature of the 'soul' is actually a function of the brain. So, it depends how 'soul' is defined, but if it's defined as something that we can show that actually the physical brain does, then the soul doesn't exist, by definition.

donutmiddel: You can't know anything without valid evidence or argument. Love and hate are part of human nature, the product of evolution, and that is amply demonstrated by objective evidence and reason.

durutti_colu...: Wow. Scary. I'm converted. ;-)

Darkmaven: That's all a bit too mystical for me. Yes, the brain works on chemical messages and electrical impulses which dissipate and cease when we die. Why do you have to believe that something 'goes' somewhere? Suppose you take some toy bricks and form the word 'soul' with them, then scatter them in chaos... where does the word go? It doesn't 'go' anywhere, it's just a pattern which changes to a different pattern (one which we don't recognise as a word) when you scatter the bricks. Nothing mystical there, and the same is true of the brain. When it ceases to function there is no reason to imagine that something goes somewhere, it simply changes so that it no longer functions as a brain.

Answer 1

You can be pretty certain that if there were a good argument or evidence for the existence of a "soul", you'd know about it already. And it certainly isn't something you'd get here on Yahoo Answers.

It's important to notice that people who believe in "souls" really have no agreement on what they even mean by that word. If you were to ask people what a "soul" is you'd get a terrible mishmash of inconsistent, incompatible responses even from the very people who are in complete agreement about its existence.

Similarly, if you were to ask those people how they know that they have "souls" you'd get an incoherent jumble, and nothing remotely resembling an answer.

I believe that the notion of a "soul" is something we have simply because it can be stuck into a wide variety of places to support bad arguments in favor of people's personal prejudices. For example, people want desperately to believe that human beings are fundamentally different from other animals. Inventing a "soul" enables people to believe that. Most importantly, people want to believe that they will continue to live after death. Since the body obviously decays there needs to be something else that persists if life after death were true. So we invent a "soul" to rescue that argument.

In short, the "soul" is a crutch to save bad arguments, a tool for avoiding the truth.

Answer 2

Even as an atheist, I find it intriguing that there is definitely a difference between "live" and "dead", even though as far as one can tell, all the same materials are present in the dead body and the live one. (Before necrosis, of course :)

I wouldn't call it a "soul" in the traditional religious sense. But I would say that that is "proof" that there is definitely some sort of energy that powers life, that ceases to do so upon "death". And as yet, we do not truly understand what that energy is...


Edit - in response, however... the computer ceases to function due to electric current no longer being applied. This is basically true in a living animal, as well. However, why and/or how was the current switched off? I think there's more to it than simply electricity. I can fathom that there is something else there, some form of energy that we don't know about yet...

Answer 3

Firstly, in response to one answer given by Joel, it's a myth that we only use 3% of our brain. Neurons are created when needed, and atrophy when they're not. Now I've busted that myth, I would like to state that since the soul cannot be objectively observed, the answer to that question is moot. There is no way to tell. Oh we clothe ourselves, and all think we're pretty smart, but I argue that we're no different from the other animals except that we can write and create amazing things with our minds and hands. I'm sure all the things they do seem really important to them, too. I just think we should stop guessing something we have no way of telling until we're dead, and start putting our energies into what's important here and now, like reading instructions first. I also have a counter question, can anyone objectively claim not to have a soul? Moot point.....! Where're the observable facts for either the initial or the counter question?

Answer 4

Have you ever totally not believed in something or someone because you had no objective evidence or valid argument for the existence of it/them? Then one day you realized without objective evidence or valid argument that this thing or person really existed? You wanted to tell people of your "new" belief but the objective evidence or valid argument for it's/the
existence only incurred within your mind, body or in some cases soul's. Or maybe because of your new belief you did venture out and communicate it with people and perhaps some or many of them believed. But I'm thinking you are now not because it's hard to believe in something when you're only living in a two dimensional world.
If there is no God then 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' Love has to come from infinity and hate does to or what's the point in either one's existence.
Can you produce any objective evidence or valid argument for the existence of love and hate's origin?

Answer 5

At one factor I did consider there needed to be a historic Jesus on the very least however then I seemed into it and determined no quality proof for believing that both. How am I intended to understand what occurred and salary my "everlasting" soul on some thing with so little proof? I wasn't there so will have to I depend on believing within the contradictory writings of primitive men and women? Look into it your self despite the fact that. Why take my phrase for it? A well opening factor is watching at Josephus, Christians use this at all times as "proof" however he used to be born after Jesus supposedly died at the pass. Imagine a young person at present writing approximately JFK's assassination and also you could be nearly what Josephus wrote approximately Jesus. At quality it is rumour. His writings are actually in any case proposal to be a forgery by means of Eusebius. From there I'd say appear at Tacitus, he is the following quality "proof" and from the following (second) century. He talked about a "cult" of direction there used to be, no person doubts that. There had been additionally cults who believed in different myths too. Also Christians say matters like: 'Jesus existed in view that the disciples martyred themselves for him.' But that is dull, men and women die for matters at all times that do not always ought to be reality and there may be not anything for the disciples life external of the Bible. Nobody even rather is aware of who wrote the Bible. It is rather quiet intriguing when you get began. Once you realize this the whole thing else falls clear of Christianity.

Answer 6

The soul that sinneth, it shall die! Ezekiel 18:4
1 Timothy 6:16
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

I believe that the soul is the mind and it's the body's software which only functions wile it's animate with the breath of life. Just like you need hardware and electricity for software to work. Then we die I believe our "software" remains dorman until God resurrects us and only he can because the breath orginiated from him and was passed down to us from Adam (the first man). Satan can maquerade as dead loved ones. When we resurrect, it will either be to eternal life or no life at all (your software is deleted from God's hard drive). Like when you're naughty on cyberspace, your account can be cancelled! Hell comes from heaven and restores the Earth. The evil doers become ashes below th saints' feet. all good atheists will get to trapple the hypocrites literally....sort of, they don't actually feel it, but they'll sure feel hell!

When you die, there is no sense of time. At resurrection you would think you just died a second ago.

Answer 7

Can you produce any objective evidence or valid argument that you don't have a soul? I'm with the first guy, though. free will is pretty convincing. I mean, I've never seen a chicken wonder what it's place is in the universe is. And I've never seen a coyote decide not to eat the chicken on moral grounds.
Hope that helped a little and God bless

Answer 8

free will

short, matter is predictable, science is based on that fact. If toughts came from your brain matter, they could be predictable. The state of all the molecules could be calculate because they depent on interactions and the previous state. All maths.

So if your thoughts came from your brain, you could never choose. It would be the state of your brain dictating your next thought. So its senseless to say that someone should have done somthing differend in the passs (like learn betterfor a better grade). And it would be senseless for us to be aware of the fact we choose wrong. Because we could never change anything anyway.

If we didnt have a free choice, the world would not function as it is. So observation dictates we have.So thoughts cant come from our brains. It has to come from something that is not matter based.So spiritual. A soul...or spirit or whatever you wanne call it.

Answer 9

Funny you should ask that question.... I've actually seen my soul.
One night I was half-asleep, and it arose from the floor and hovered at the foot of my bed.

It had a huge head that was covered in glistening eruptions of the skin, encrusted in which were gleaming eyes like those of wide-eyed doll. It had tiny arms and legs attached to the head that waved around like tall grass in the wind. The mouth --- if you could call it that ( It was more like a slit ) --- was contorted into a hellish leer that raised the hair on the back of my head.

I let out a low wolf-like howl,and then I fully awoke and it was gone. True.

Answer 10

I don't have to tell you that for the believers of religion then no other evidence is necessary.

Equally, those who hunt/study ghosts are believers in the soul. (Though they always desire more proof.)

And those who study near-death-experiences also have their own proofs.

I believe that the evidence you are seeking is related to the argument between those in the sciences who are studying the mind. On one side are the reductionists, who claim that our conscious mind is only a product of neural transmissions. And, on the other hand are scientists who say that our minds demonstrate quantum functions which places our consciousness outside the confines of our brains. I believe science is getting closer to proving that we have a soul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mind