How do we know we have a soul?

Question

Or how do we think we have a soul? Where could this idea even have come from?

Answer 1

it's all speculation. as to where the concept came from here's an excerpt from wikipedia(there's a lot more in the link):

The current English word "soul" may have originated from the Old English sawol, documented in 970 AD. "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"

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, but it existed in the Greek. Ancient Greeks sometimes typically 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 Greek word used is "Psyche" which in Ancient and Modern Greek means soul.

Answer 2

We don't have a soul, we are a soul. The soul is the life force in the body. Life means eternal spirit. There is nothing 'alive' about the body. The body is a bag of chemicals only, all of which can be either manufactured in the lab or procured from a cadaver. Yet, if anyone were to take all the constituents of a human body, put them in their proper places, proper ratios, etc, etc, no one in their right mind would believe this body was 'alive'. It would still lay there as the bag of chemicals it is.

For those who think the body is alive by itself without any need to mention the spirit soul: why has no scientist or doctor or anyone ever given life to a dead body? If this soul-less idea is scientific, then they should prove it in the lab. Make a living body from a dead one. It should be easy with all the medical knowledge we have. The reason that no one has done it is because there is more to life than the body. The body is a vehicle only, nothing more. The driver and occupier of the body is the eternal spirit soul, the spiritual energy of the Lord. Because the soul is eternal and the body is temporary, the soul must leave and find a new vehicle when the body is no longer viable. That leaving is what we call death. In reality the body was never alive in the first place.

Even though no one has proven in a lab that the body is viable without a soul by bringing a dead body to life again, people with very little intelligence in the matter say there is no proof of the existence of the soul. By definition, the soul is spiritual in nature. This means the soul cannot be perceived by the senses and is therefore not measureable or perceivable by any instruments of today's sciences. But this in no way disproves the existence of the soul. What it means is that science today is not up to the task.

Proof of the soul's existence is possible by the process of self-realization. As the name implies self-realization means that the person receives self knowledge of his eternal existence. It is revealed by purification of consciousness to him/herself alone. Just as when you eat a meal and become satisfied, you know your own feelings of satisfaction, but no one else knows this. And to prove to someone else how you felt would be very difficult if not impossible. How do you measure your satisfaction? In the same way, self-realization is the science of knowing the self, the soul, through purification of consiousness. If a materialistic fool has no knowledge of self-realization or knowledge of the soul, this is not a proof of anything but their ignorance. The second chapter of the Bhagavad-gita gives more information than I could put here. So check that out at the link below.

Answer 3

There is something lost when the body dies. It actually loses weight, so something leaves it. Soul? The mind is what we believe the brain contains, but we have no explaination for what it really is and why we have one. Science doesn't deal in absolutes, just facts that spawn informed theories. There is no proof one way or the other that there is a soul. Yet so much of the worlds historical and contemporary literature portrays the soul as a given. The answer to this one, I think, is personal. Some do believe, some don't. You don't have to be religious or even believe in god to believe in soul.

Answer 4

Yes we know we have a soul.
Here is the reasoning:
The basic argument stems from the fact that the human feelings are not externalizable.

Consider:
All human feeling are completely internal and are not possible to describe. Two people might say that they feel pain in the left knee -- but how do we know that their pain is the same? This question is not resolvable by science. Even if one were to understand the brain perfectly -- on would still not experience what the owner of the brain experiences.

Consider the case of a color-blind neurosurgeon. He might know everything about perception of color -- he might know everything there is to know about color. YET he will never to know what it is like to perceive color.

So brain states are not the same as the state of MIND or perceptions. So if the perceptions are not the states of the brain -- what are they? we don't know what it is -- But we might as well call it the Soul.

Answer 5

Yes we do have a soul. Every living thing that God has made has two sides one is physical and other is hidden and thats spiritual. For example if a person dies we cant keep his body with us. If the family and friends cries and says that dont take away the body will they keep it? How long can they keep it. It will smell very bad because the body is nothing without a soul, like book is nothing without a context, like a world is nothing without colours and beauty, like the flower is without its freshness. And always remember in your life one time will come when you will hear your inner voice. If you have done something wrong it will make you feel guilt and if you have done something nice it will make you proud and that inner voice is your soul.

Answer 6

How do we know we have a soul?

Well, I think you know you have soul the moment you glimpse the sad tear in a child's face because she lost her family in a war. And at that moment if you feel a chill running thru your body, you know that you are more than just matter! and that you have "soul".

This idea was placed deep inside you from the moment you came to existence, and the very asking of this question implies that too.

Answer 7

I have a soul but but it is not a spiritual soul. It is that part of me that loves learning. Because my soul is not spiritual, I don't expect that it will continue after my death.

PS: Thank goodness for the vagueness of language, without with I could not have my soul;)

Answer 8

If you'd had into philosophy, you'd know that circa 1500, this was considered part of a logical proof of God's existence. If a person can conceive of the existence of God, the soul, etc. then they must exist. Philosophy and theology have come a long way since then.

Answer 9

religious stuff to make people think where the best race. religion
are just some book a guy wrote because it has the dumbist answers

Answer 10

Becuase we know that DNA is your soul