This really is intended to be an unbiased survey of general concensus amongst atheists. No prejudice intended.
2007-01-05 01:44:11 · 19 answers · asked by your_name_here 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
There might be something that people have historically called a soul. I think it's far more rooted in physicality than previously thought, an artifact of physical processes that we are beginning to understand.
Buddhism and physics have some curious overlaps. Add in a dash of up-to-the-minute neurobiology and things get really interesting.
2007-01-05 02:16:51 · answer #1 · answered by The angels have the phone box. 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First I would say that the existence of what most people believe is a soul is irrelevant, it does not matter. What does mattter is that we as a species are physically apart of this planet coupled with an awareness of or own mortality, we are environmentally unique. I would also say that the human brain is incapable of imagining non existence, because in our life times your awareness has always been. This would allow our understanding of life to carry over the death, but the reality of this existence is over at death. So enjoy your life and forget about the crap that does not matter, embrace your existence to the best of your ability, and remember the only thing that lasts longer then your span of life is the memories you leave behind with others.
2007-01-05 02:11:02 · answer #2 · answered by lonijean 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am an atheist. I know that people are both body (material - physical "stuff") and mind (mental stuff or 'information'). The 'soul' as defined by many religionists is some non-physical entity that is supposed to reside in you or with you (with your physical body that is) and leaves when you die. There is no evidence that a soul as thus defined exists. Now if you recognize that the soul is simply your thoughts, experiences, emotions, memories, - the information being transmitted back and forth and being stored in your brain circuitry, then yes, there is a soul, however, again, there is no evidence that this definition of 'soul' survives your body's death.
2007-01-05 01:53:15 · answer #3 · answered by Orland C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i believe that there is more to the mind and body than our brains can comprehend, and that we have not fully figured out how to explain phenomena often associated with the idea of "souls."
i for one believe that a person's mind is not separated, but integrated into, the body, so why take the idea of a "soul" as a seperate entity either?
example of new reasearch... patterns of electromagnetic energy in the brain altered by the metabolic processses in cells, electromagntetic energy in the heart, and by e.m. energy emitted by others in the room.
also, sounds that we can't hear causing "strange" ghostlike feelings in us, etc.
2007-01-05 01:51:57 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Golly, ccttcc did a lot of typing.
By soul, I think a person has a unique, individual persona which exists while the person is alive.
When they die, whatever it is dies with them.
I do not believe that anything lives beyond the body, and sometimes it dies before the body. (Alzheimer's, dementia, and brain trauma, for instance, destroys the part of the person which makes them an individual.)
2007-01-05 02:01:01 · answer #5 · answered by Ara57 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Atheist" is one that would not have confidence in a god or gods. Strictly talking. So asking "atheists" approximately another perception assumes they seem to be a homogeneous team whilst i discover that its fairly the different, even with what the media and the internet portrays. often, i might wager no. yet that may not to declare its impossible for an atheist to have confidence in considered one of those thought. undergo in techniques many Buddhists are additionally in certainty atheists.
2016-10-30 01:49:31 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe more in the Buddhist concept of a consciousness that survives death rather than an individual spirit or soul.
2007-01-05 01:55:10 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tell me what a soul is and I will answer you. What is a soul? How does it differ from mind. Without defining terms how do we know we are talking about the same thing?
2007-01-05 01:50:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nothing that survives death. The whole notion of soul was created by man to give a higher meaning to his pitiful existence.
2007-01-05 01:58:08 · answer #9 · answered by iknowtruthismine 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no consensus.
Different atheists subscribe to different philosophies. Some have spirtual overtones others don't.
We are all different people who only share the fact that we know there is no god.
It's like comparing theists. The only commonality really is that there is a God. Many of the rules and rituals are different.
2007-01-05 01:46:59 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋