If there is such a thing as a soul, is it tangible?

Question

It seems to me that what we describe as our souls are really just our thoughts and feelings. If that's the case, how can our souls continue to exist after we die, and our brains stop functioning?

Answer 1

Chances are they don't. If you've ever had general anesthetic you'll know that you just stop existing for a while

Answer 2

The "soul" is interpreted differently, depending on beliefs. If you read the Bible carefully, in Genesis, God made Adam from dust of the ground and then breathed life into him, thus making him a "living soul." If you continue reading the Bible about death, you'll find out that when we die, we're then non-existent. No memories, no feelings, no concept of time. Kind of like a really deep sleep. Our only hope is the resurrection in some future time. The Bible shows examples of people dying and coming back from the dead (Lazarus), but having no stories of the "other side."
Other beliefs think that when we die, we have a spirit that lives on outside the body and goes back to our maker. Basically, we take a break until we decide to come back to live another life. This is reincarnation.
Don't know what is true, but I don't believe that death is the end. If it was the end, then what is the point of life and living? Why not do whatever we want, get whatever we want, and step on everyone else. Also, what's the point of morals? They just slow our desires down. We might as well get rid of the disadvantaged too. They're just taking up precious resources. If the Earth was destroyed, would the universe notice?
We do things that we do for a reason. It's ingrained in our hearts to act correctly to others in order to get along. Hard to believe that a "chemical accident" made us this way. Most likely we're made from the divine.

Answer 3

The soul’s existence can be perceived—through consciousness, the symptom of the soul. Dead matter has no consciousness and therefore no soul.
For example, if you watch a football game on TV and a power failure occurs, the game disappears from the screen. If we think that this is the evidence that the football game was produced by the TV that is foolishness. Actually, the machine simply transmitted the game that was going on independently of the TV. In the same way, consciousness is transmitted by the brain but not produced by it.
Matter is by nature inert and requires superior, living energy to manipulate it. Every machine needs an operator. The body consists of chemicals and does not move without the presence of the soul. The best evidence for this is that when a person dies, all bodily functions stop. But the soul doesn't die. In Bhagavad gita is explained:
"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."
All feeling that we posses, are from the body, but of the soul. The body and senses are just the outlet where these feelings manifest, then when we die, the same feelings travel with the soul to the next destination.

Answer 4

From the inside out, we have a spirit, soul and body: The soul is inside the body that God calls a (vessel) Body = vessel: Acts 9:15. Romans 9: 21-23. 2 Corinthians 4:7. 2 Timothy 2: 20-21. I Thessalonians 4:4. The soul is inside the body: It's like a body within the body. Genesis 2:7. Matthew 10:28. Ezekiel 18: 3-4. your soul belongs to God. Your spirit is inside your soul: these two are inside your body: Ecclesiastes 12:7 I Corinthians 5:3-5. I Peter 3:19...spirits without their bodies. Good Question.

Answer 5

Not a Bible Teaching

How, then, did this pagan belief in the immortality of the soul come to be taught in Christendom and Judaism?

The New Catholic Encyclopedia understates matters when it says: “The notion of the soul surviving after death is not readily discernible in the Bible.” It would be more accurate to say that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not found at all in the Bible! That encyclopedia admits: “The concept of the human soul itself is not the same in the O[ld] T[estament] as it is in Greek and modern philosophy.”

In the so-called Old Testament, the Hebrew word ne′phesh, commonly translated “soul,” occurs 754 times. In the so-called New Testament, the Greek word psy·khe′, also commonly translated “soul,” appears 102 times. When we examine how these words are used in the Bible, a surprising picture emerges.

At Genesis 2:7 we read that God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and Adam “came to be a living soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh].” Notice: Adam was not given a living soul; he became one. In other words, the newly created Adam was a soul! Little wonder that the New Catholic Encyclopedia concludes: “The soul in the O[ld] T[estament] means not a part of man, but the whole man—man as a living being.”

Other scriptures confirm this. Leviticus 7:20, for example, refers to “the soul who eats the flesh of the communion sacrifice.” Leviticus 23:30 says: “As for any soul that will do any sort of work.” Proverbs 25:25 says: “As cold water upon a tired soul, so is a good report from a distant land.” And Psalm 105:18 tells us: “With fetters they afflicted his feet; into irons his soul came.” Now, what is it that can eat meat, do work, be refreshed with water, and be put in irons? Is it a separate, spiritual part of man, or is it man himself? The answer is obvious.

Interestingly, being a soul is not unique to man. Genesis 1:20 tells us that in one creative epoch, God said: “Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls.” Yes, even fish are souls! In another creative epoch, God indicated that the “domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast” are souls!—Genesis 1:24; compare Leviticus 11:10, 46; 24:18; Numbers 31:28; Job 41:21; Ezekiel 47:9.

“Soul” in the Bible, therefore, does not refer to some shadowy spirit entity that leaves the body after death. It means a person or an animal, or the life that a person or an animal enjoys.

What Happens After Death?

Clearly, then, the Bible is at odds with the pagan notion that man possesses an immortal soul. Who, do you think, taught the truth in this regard? Pagan Greek philosophers or God’s own covenant people? Surely, it was God’s people, to whom he gave his inspired Word.

Still, the question remains, What does happen to the soul after death? Since the soul is the person, clearly, the soul dies when the person dies. In other words, a dead person is a dead soul. Scores of scriptures confirm this. “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die,” says Ezekiel 18:4. At Judges 16:30 we read: “And Samson proceeded to say: ‘Let my soul die with the Philistines.’” Other scriptures show that souls can be cut off (Genesis 17:14), slain by the sword (Joshua 10:37), suffocated (Job 7:15), and drowned (Jonah 2:5). A deceased soul, or a dead soul, is a dead person.—Leviticus 19:28; 21:1, 11.

Answer 6

Greetings!

Some Celtic Druids consider the Soul to be composed of three different components-one which relates to the "Aura" or electrical field that all organisms generate, and this dissipates after Death, returns to the electrical field of the Planet.

Another part stays intact, and is added to the Cosmic Record-the Energy which the Universe is composed of-the Spirit of Life, which is Re-Born without end.

We believe there is a part which is Immortal (beyond mortality, beyond our knowing), that comes from, and stays with The Great Mystery-what it is, where it goes, no one knows.

Yours in the Light /!\

Answer 7

The Soul,biblically defined is that which is:Mind,Will and Emotions.
The Spirit,not to be confused with the soul, is the real you,or "spiritual heart". Further,it is my belief that both exist eternally. Only the body dies.

The Soul is brain dependent as a means of function and communicating only while here in this body..(a conduit for our brief stay)

Answer 8

tangible: "perceptible by the senses especially the sense of touch"
soul: "the immaterial part of a person"
Apparently not.

"It seems to me that what we describe as our souls are really just our thoughts and feelings."
If that would so, then our soul would cease to exist if we were unconscious.

"how can our souls continue to exist after we die, and our brains stop functioning?"
Because our souls are immaterial, while our brains are not. Some also make a distinction between the brain (physical) and the mind (non-physical).

Answer 9

Using symbolic language, the Bible says that God willed man to be both corporeal and spiritual. "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7).

In Scripture "soul" can mean human life or the entire human person. "Soul" especially means man's spiritual principle.
Animated by a spiritual soul, the human body shares in the dignity of "God's image." The human person, body and soul, is meant to become a temple of the Spirit.

The spiritual soul is the "form" of the body. Man is not the union of two natures. In man, spirit and matter form one nature. God creates every spiritual soul immediately. It is not "produced" by the parents and does not perish at death. It is reunited with the body at the final resurrection.

Peace and every blessing!

Answer 10

we don't. A soul is not tangible, it is just a word we used to describe part of our brain that does feel. Therefore when we die and our brains stop functioning we no longer exist.