What is a soul?

Question

From my previous question of "Christians, If an Artificial Intelligent android believed Jesus was its lord savior will it go to heaven?"

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoHaZHvOqEBkTa79z8AZPNPsy6IX?qid=20061016011005AAYzvJn

According to most of the answers the only thing the robot lacks was a soul. Can anyone describe what a soul is?

I believe a soul is who you are as an individual, your intelligences, free will and love is what I consider a soul to be.

What is a soul to you?

Please give logical answers and make sure to not include that only god could make souls.

Answer 1

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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.

Answer 2

This description aligns with what I have personally found to be true, based on my experience and observation. It isn't what I "believe" .

The Spirit or Soul
This is described as having no mass, no wave-length,no energy and no time or location in space except by consideration or postulate.
The spirit is not a "thing". It is the "creator" of things.
The usual residence of the soul, (spirit, awareness of awareness unit....YOU) is in the skull or near the body.
The soul can be in one of four conditions.
1. Entirely separate from a body or bodies.
2. Near a body and knowingly controlling the body.
3. In the body (the skull).
4. An inverted condition, compulsively away from the body and unable to approach it.

There are degrees of each of the above 4 conditions.
The most optimum of these from the standpoint of man, is the second.

The Mind
This is a communication and control system between the spirit and it's (his) environment.
The mind is a network of communications and pictures, energies and masses, which are brought into being by the activities and interactions of the spirit with the Physical Universe and other spirits/individuals.
These activities include the operating of a body and the solving
of problems related to survival and existence.
The mind has 2 Parts:
The Analytical Mind. The keynote of this mind is awareness. One knows what one is concluding and knows what one is doing.
The Reactive Mind. This is a stimulus response mechanism.
This mind acts below the level of consciousness. It never stops operating unlike the Analytical Mind which can be less aware or even completely unconscious.

The Body
A carbon/oxygen engine. This can best be studied in such books as "Grey's Anatomy" and other anatomical texts.

Answer 3

No where in the bible does it say anything about the soul being an eternal entity that's seperate from your self, so that person you see in the mirror everyday, that's your soul the living breathing entity that you are, the book of genesis says he breathed life into man and made him a LIVING SOUL !!!, even down to the description of creating the animals etc.. they're described as souls living souls, the common belief has pagan roots, for the bible says the dead are concious of nothing, so when you die you sleep a dreamless sleep til the resurrection. Oh and only 144,000 goes to heaven as the ruling class the rest of us are resurrected in a paradise here for which he meant for the earth to be, after the destruction of this system of things

Answer 4

A soul is (1) an entity which is regarded as being the immortal or spiritual part of the person and though having no physical or material reality is credited with the functions of thinking and willing and hence determining all behaviour (2) the moral or emotional nature of a human being (3) spiritual or emotional warmth,force etc or evidence of this

Answer 5

There is an entity that leaves body - which had kept the body alive. Clearly there is something that left - because everything else stayed here - and the functioning stopped. Let's call that entity soul.

While living - the soul *uses* body to realize its goal. Body is an instrument of the soul. Soul is a physical entity - an atom. It is an atom of a special kind. It doesn't bond with other atoms - but is complete in its composition. A normal matter atom itself gets quantum-leaped to a soul-atom - through nature's intrinsic law of co-existence.

(1) Mind: The activities of 'selection' and 'tasting'. The selection is done in the expectation of tasting.

(2) Thoughts: The activities of 'evaluation' and 'analysis'. All logic is here. The expectation for justice, solution, and truth is here. In the absence of understanding the basis for justice, solution, and truth - the evaluation is done based on the views obtained from understanding soul as body itself. All such evaluation happens for what pleases to senses.

(3) Desire: The activities of 'cogitation' and 'imagination'. Imagination is required for making any plans. Cogitation is the activity required for understanding the existence as it is, and giving imagination the force for making them real-istic.

(4) Intellect: The activities of 'understanding' and 'determination'. Understanding of Justice, Dharma (Inseparable trait), and Truth. Understanding of all there is in existence - expressed in co-existence with its form, quality, nature, and dharma.

(5) Atma: The activities of 'experiencing the existence' and 'authenticity' resuting thus. Experiencing existence expressed as co-existence in all its myriad forms. And coexistence being The Law of existence.

Living with Understanding of Existence means that mind, thought, desire, and intellect work in harmony with the atma - which has the experience in existence and the authenticity.

Answer 6

The soul is like the sun, a thousand rays whereof fill our life with light. It illuminates our gross body and directs our body, mind and speech. It illuminates our purified consciousness. Soul is the perception of self through the self.

Answer 7

The soul is the will, intellect and the emotion. Jesus came to save the descendants of Adam who are living souls. Artificial beings are not on the agenda.

Answer 8

The soul is you. The part of you that laughs, cries, loves, and hates. The soul is the part of you that thinks, that determines right from wrong. Your feelings of pain, joy sorrow, happiness are felt by the soul. Saddly, upon death, the soul dies. The spirit is given up and returns to God and the body rots in the earth. This is because the penalty for sin is death, and sin is transgression of the law. Animals and robots do not sin. Animals behave as animals, if they don't behave as they were created, they die. Same with a robot, it must function as it was made, if not, it will either be made to do as it was built to do, or it will be piled on the scrap heap. But good news, the day comes when all men great and small will be commanded out of their graves, and the sea will give up her dead, and all will stand to give an accounting of their life upon the earth. The good works as well as the bad will be judged, some to eternal glory and happiness, others to eternal shame and contempt.

Answer 9

My soul is spirit, it is separate from my body, my body carries my soul. It is a part of God and all other souls. It contains my memories, experiences, goodness, love, my knowing.

Answer 10

there is no soul... a soul is supposed to be the "person inside" the physical body. it's the mind. if you were cloned, it will have a different "soul" than you. animals have souls. except that they're pretty un-intelligent.