How does it interact with the brain? How do you know the Soul is eternal? How do you know that it could not disperse itself into some other form, mix with another Soul, split into two different Souls, etc.? Are you just making an assumption, and then depending on lack of counterexample?
2006-08-21 05:47:15 · 16 answers · asked by overseas and broke 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Funny but you know if you ask an Atheist if they would sell it they say no.
If you don't have one then why not sell it to someone who believes in it.
2006-08-21 05:55:38 · answer #1 · answered by psych0bug 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, from a Mormon point of view, I could offer the following scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants which may or may not help answer your question: D&C 132:7 "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;" So when someone says the soul - or that is to say, the spirit - is made of energy - well, energy is also made up of matter, but a different kind of matter. I believe the spirit and the brain are very closely related. I also believe that music is intrinsically linked to the spirit, because even when there is severe brain damage, people still respond to music if their sense of hearing is not impaired. I realize, of course, that it is a different part of the brain that processes music in general. I think it is possible to have one kind of spirit try to mix with another. In the New Testament there are some accounts of devils - or unclean spirits - being cast out of people. I also believe evil spirits do their best to try to possess people in this day and age - which is why there are such heinous crimes going on - and why some people take so long to realize they have done something wrong because they are still under the influence of an evil spirit. People should still be held accountable for their actions, however. I have some minor experience with seeing that in the eyes of people engaged in terribly risky behaviors but choose to keep it to myself for now, thanks.
2006-08-21 06:25:59 · answer #2 · answered by Cookie777 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it's postulated that consciousness, or awareness, or sense of self resides in the soul, it's difficult to see how this can be reconciled with the complete oblivion which accompanies general anaesthesia. How could a straightforward chemical, injected into the bloodstream, anaesthetise a soul so that it effectively ceases to exist during this time? If consciousness, in the form of a soul, were some kind of supernatural faculty, it would seem implausible that it could be completely disabled by a chemical.
How about some of the other things which we regard as essential parts of what makes a person what they are? How about love, compassion, reason, empathy, memory, conscious thought, character, 'spirituality' and so on? Well, there is really no plausible doubt that all these things are properties of the physical brain - We can alter all of these properties very simply with alcohol or other drugs, and observe how they change in people who have suffered significant brain damage. Previously placid people become uncontrollably violent, intelligent people become imbeciles, and so on. Stimulate the brain artificially, and the subject reports corresponding mental activity, e.g. 'religious experiences'. We can see from brain research that all these things - thought, emotion, sensation, character traits and so on - are correlated with activity in the brain, and some things can be identified with specific areas of the brain.
So, if all these faculties and characteristics of what we regard as the 'person' reside in the physical brain, as seems to be undeniably the case, and they all cease when the person dies, then what is left to be attributed to a 'soul'? As far as I can ascertain: Nothing. If there is no part of us that can continue after death, then there is no 'afterlife'... and if there is no afterlife, then most of religion is null and void.
2006-08-21 06:05:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A soul consists of the body and the spirit. When a person dies here on earth their body returns to the earth, but the spirit continues on in progression in the spirit world. The spirit is made up of intelligence or light which continues with us after this life and also all that was known before this life is remembered. However much intelligence one has acquired in this life will only benefit them in the eternities. Spirits can take possession of the human body if left unguarded and unclean, due to choices and decisions we have made, or in some cases they are used to increase faith in others, or glorify God. The union of souls can only happen when to souls are united and joined in holy matrimony and sealed together for the eternities. Other than that the souls may be joined in this life through wedlock, abiding by the earthly laws of marriage, until death do you part. Two souls can also be joined together in sin, creating spiritual and physical bondage to one another.
2006-08-21 05:58:51 · answer #4 · answered by Angel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What then is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms -- in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.
We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist: to be truthful means using the customary metaphors - in moral terms, the obligation to lie according to fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all...
2006-08-21 07:15:25 · answer #5 · answered by Hoolahoop 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your soul is YOU, all of You, In the account of creation in the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1 "Then The Lord formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into His nostrils the breath of life, and MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL" It does not say man came to have a soul, separate from his body, but MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL.
2006-08-21 06:04:28 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't believe in a "soul", but I do find a spiritual side to the life force phenomenon. Something makes non-living components, like atoms, into a living species.
I don't believe in individuality, but that all life in all forms originates from the same life force phenomenon.
Be good.
2006-08-21 05:54:37 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The soul is made of fantasy...sugar, spice, and everything nice. It is a manmade concept that has enabled us to feel immortal through our consciousness being able to survive our physical bodies. It is a product of fearing the unknown...death.
2006-08-21 05:55:03 · answer #8 · answered by bc_munkee 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The body consists of flesh, soul and spirit. The soul consists of your emotions.
2006-08-21 05:54:02 · answer #9 · answered by MJ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you are a girl; sugar and spice and everything nice. If you are a boy; snips and snails and puppy dog tails.
Really, though, I believe energy comprises the soul.
2006-08-21 06:02:42 · answer #10 · answered by MishMash [I am not one of your fans] 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How were we created?
(GEN.2:7 = "AND THE LORD GOD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; AND MAN BECAME A LIVING BEING.")
The Bible does not teach that God placed a soul in us at creation. It specifically states that God formed man(body) out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul(person or being). To state in equation form, body + breath = living soul.
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Is the soul mortal or immortal?
EZEK.18:14 = "BEHOLD, ALL SOULS ARE MINE; THE SOUL OF THE FATHER AS WELL AS THE SOUL OF THE SON IS MINE; THE SOUL WHO SINS SHALL DIE."
"MORTAL" MEANS SUBJECT TO DEATH.
"IMMORTAL" MEANS NOT SUBJECT TO DEATH, IMPERISHABLE.
Who only has immortality?
1TIM.6:15 = "...HE WHO IS THE BLESSED AND ONLY POTENTATE, THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, WHO ALONE HAS IMMORTALITY, DWELLING IN UNAPPROACHABLE LIGHT, WHOM NO MAN HAS SEEN OR CAN SEE, TO WHOM BE HONOR AND EVERLASTING POWER. AMEN."
Man receives immortality at the second coming; but for now we're asleep or alive awaiting for his return.
Actually when people die; they're asleep in the grave. Death is called a sleep (Matt.9:24; John 11:11; 1Cor.15:51; 1Thess.5:10).
The spirit goes back to God that gave it!(Eccles.12:7; Psalm 146:4)
Texts for you to look up:
1THESS.4:16-17
1COR.15:21,45; 51-53
2006-08-21 08:08:09 · answer #11 · answered by KNOWBIBLE 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋