Does "soul" really exist? Are there scientific proofs about its existence?

Answer 1

The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self-aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. In these traditions the soul is thought to incorporate the inner essence of each living being, and to be the true basis for sentience. In distinction to spirit which may or may not be eternal, souls are usually (but not always as explained below) considered to be immortal and to pre-exist their incarnation in flesh.

The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what may happen to the soul after the death of the body. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it to possibly have a material component, and some have even tried to establish the mass (weight) of the soul.

The current English word "soul" may have originated from the Old English sawol, documented in 970 AD[citation needed]. "Sawol" has possible etymological links with a Germanic root from which we also get the word "sea". The old German word is called 'se(u)la', which means: belonging to the sea (ancient Germanic conceptions involved the souls of the unborn and of the dead "living" being part of a medium, similar to water), or perhaps, "living water" [citation needed].

The word "soul" did not exist in the times of Jesus, Socrates or Aristotle, and so the quotations, interpretations and translations of the word "soul" from these sources, means that the word should be handled very carefully. One might go as far as saying that the word "soul", in the sense we use it today, did not exist in Hebrew or Aramaic, and only partly in Greek [citation needed]. Ancient Greeks sometimes referred to the soul as psyche (as in modern English psychology). Aristotle's works in Latin translation, used the word anima (as in animated), which also means "breath". In the New Testament, the original word may sometimes better translate as "life", as in :

"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26)
The Latin root of the related word spirit, like anima, also expresses the idea of "breath". Likewise, the Biblical Hebrew word for 'soul' is nefesh, meaning life, or vital breath.

The various origins and usages demonstrate not only that what people call "soul" today has varied in meaning throughout history, but that the word and concept themselves have changed in their implications.

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Philosophical views
The Ancient Greeks used the same word for 'alive' as for 'ensouled'. So the earliest surviving Western philosophical view might suggest that the soul makes living things alive.

Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar in saying that the soul sleeps whilst the limbs are active, but when man is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals in many a dream "an award of joy or sorrow drawing near". [1]

Erwin Rohde writes that the early pre-Pythagorean belief was that the soul had no life when it departed from the body, and retired into Hades with no hope of returning to a body. [2]

Some Christians believe that when a person dies their soul will be judged by God, who sees all the wrong and right that they have done during their lives. If they have repented (to turn away from) their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ (the one who took the punishment for our sins) before death, they will inherit eternal life in "Heaven" and enjoy eternal fellowship with God. If they have not repented of their sins, they will go to "Hell", and suffer eternal separation from God.
Most Christians regard the soul as the immortal essence of a human - the seat or locus of human will, understanding, and personality - and that after death, God either rewards or punishes the soul. Different Christian groups dispute whether this reward/punishment depends upon doing good deeds, or merely upon believing in God and in Jesus.

Christian belief also holds that the soul cannot be bought; this is why money is not an accurate measurement of spirituality. You can be very wealthy, and still be "poor, and blind and naked" (Revelation). The notion that the salvation of the soul cannot be earned by good deeds can appear to contradict Biblical teaching, when Christians are instructed to "Love your neighbour as yourself" as the second most important command. However, scripture holds that only by grace directly from God the father are we "saved", and to make the robe of the soul clean requires only an acceptance of this grace, which incidentally is a neutral deed, neither good nor evil.

Many Christian scholars hold, as Aristotle did, that "to attain any assured knowledge of the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world". Augustine, one of the most influential early Christian thinkers, described the soul as "a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body". The apostle Paul said that the "body wars against" the soul, and that "I buffet my body", to keep it under control. Philosopher Anthony Quinton said the soul is a "series of mental states connected by continuity of character and memory, [and] is the essential constituent of personality. The soul, therefore, is not only logically distinct from any particular human body with which it is associated; it is also what a person is". Richard Swinburne, a Christian philosopher of religion at Oxford University, wrote that "it is a frequent criticism of substance dualism that dualists cannot say what souls are.... Souls are immaterial subjects of mental properties. They have sensations and thoughts, desires and beliefs, and perform intentional actions. Souls are essential parts of human beings..."

The origin of the soul has provided a sometimes vexing question in Christianity; the major theories put forward include Creationism, traducianism and pre-existence.

Western science and medicine seeks naturalistic accounts of the observable natural world. This stance is known as methodological naturalism[4], which is silent on the question of whether non-material or supernatural entities, such as the soul, can or do exist as distinct from natural entities. Scientists, therefore, investigate the soul as a human belief or as concept that shapes cognition and understanding of the world (see Memetics), rather than as an entity in and of itself.

When modern scientists speak of the soul outside of this cultural and psychological context, it is generally as a poetic synonym for mind. Francis Crick's book The Astonishing Hypothesis, for example, has the subtitle, "The scientific search for the soul". Crick holds the position that one can learn everything knowable about the human soul by studying the workings of the human brain. Depending on one's belief regarding the relationship between the soul and the mind, then, the findings of neuroscience may be relevant to one's understanding of the soul.

A search of the PubMed research literature database shows the following numbers of articles with the indicated term in the title:

brain – 167,244
consciousness – 2,918 (842, 29%, of these articles also include “brain” in the database entry)
soul - 552 (40, 7%, of these articles also include “brain” in the database entry. Many of these articles deal with medical ethics issue such as the implications of religious beliefs on decisions about life support for people in persistent vegetative states)
An oft-encountered analogy is that the brain is to computer hardware as the mind is to computer software. The idea of the mind as software has led some scientists to use the word "soul" to emphasize their belief that the human mind has powers beyond or at least qualitatively different from what artificial software can do. Roger Penrose expounds this position in The Emperor's New Mind[5]. He posits that the mind is in fact not like a computer as generally understood, but rather a quantum computer, that can do things impossible on a classical computer, such as decide the halting problem. Some have located the soul in this possible difference between the mind and a classical computer.

Answer 2

There isn't really scientific proof, but then again there is no scientific proof of Love. But what is it going to be like when you die? If you have no soul then it will be like if you never existed, and what does that mean? That means that there would be nothing to talk about here because everything you know would vanish and you would cease to be. This doesn't make sense for me.

Answer 3

Well, even science is not perfect. There are many things which are still proved by scientifically. What about when you feel pain or feel the wind? U can't see them either. I will just give you and example. The relation between a soul and a human body is the same as the relation between a hardware and software.
Hardware is the body and software is the soul. Without the software, there is no use of the hardware.

Answer 4

Gather all the scientists together and have them pray that Satan take their soul and do with it as he pleases. You will find few of the greatest minds on earth that would do that. Why, because they believe they have a soul and won't risk it, that is scientific proof. The inner man knows it's true on a universal scale. Only the die hard skeptics that are bitter with "whatever' on a conscious level, force a deliberate point there is no soul; because he knows he can win the "no proof" argument and bolster his ego.

Answer 5

It can be argued that we must have a soul, as this accounts for the extremely unique multitude of differences between each person, even if they have the same genetics and/or upbringing.

Or...science has shown the complexity of the human brain. Maybe it's so complex that it allows for an infinite number of possibilities and combinations, explaining why each person is so uniquely "them".

Personally, I believe in both the soul as well as the science of the brain.

Sorry, this didn't really answer your question. But thanks for letting me ponder out loud. *smile*

Answer 6

There is no scientific evidence whatsoever for the soul. All scientific investigation shows that when the brain shuts down (or is damaged) that's it, no extra bit of soul left.

Answer 7

Genesis 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 soul.
Therefore, a soul = breath of life + dust of ground
In that sense we all have souls, and we lose them when we die. That's why when some ship sinks, you hear about "563 souls" perishing with the ship.

Answer 8

Well, It's a fact that energy can be created and changed form. But, cannot be destroyed. You brain and nervous system is a network of electronic energy. Used to operate you whole body. Since energy can't be destroyed. When you die the energy will still be here. Could that be your soul?

Answer 9

The Bible says that God created man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man BECAME a living soul. It doesn't say he was given a living soul.

By that definition, you ARE a soul, and there shouldn't be too much difficulty in proving your existence. :)

Answer 10

yes it exist,s.its not necessary that every thing that not explored till date does not exist,s.in our galaxy till date we are unable to know all stars.HINDUISM, BUDHHISM,JAINISM [religion,s]has it,s answer,s.soul is immortal.simply change,s .body.its just like atom
of an element. till atom was not discovered no body knowing about neutron proton.same thing is with soul it,s discovered thousand,s of year before. but not tested by ous so called science.there are certain thing,s that we can not define on logic or science.soul is something like atom a smallest creation of that unknowen super power[you may say mother nature/god]

Answer 11

No. If you're looking for scientific proof in religion, more often than not, you're going to be disappointed. Religion is based on faith.