Did you know that some atheists believe we possess souls?

Question

I don't know what they are or where they come from, but I believe they are what gives us our humanity.

I am not the only atheist in this forum who feels this way.

Comments?

Yes, I believe in an afterlife.

Well said Paien.

Answer 1

Honestly I never thought about it, but I wouldn't doubt it. My personal concept of what a soul actually is (as scientific as I can describe it), a soul is the electrical and magnetic pattern a body develops in life, which creates a resonance in the cosmos which can either dissipate upon death, drift away from the body that it is no longer attached to, where it can either connect its self to another life in formation, or roam around doing whatever souls do... the presence or lack of a higher power has no relevance to this theory.

Answer 2

Yes, some atheists do believe people have souls. I'm not one of them, but a minority of atheists do believe in souls. You've asked for comments, so I'll discuss what I know about the subject.

Beginning about 400 BC Plato and Aristotle invented two important philosophical concepts. Idealism postulates the existence of a realm of ideas which are more perfect than the actual objects they represent. This led to Solipsism, which maintains that our subjective experience is actually real and that the objective (physical) world is merely an illusion created by our mind.

Late in the fourth century, St Augustine invented the concept of the soul (or human spirit) to explain how Christ's promise of eternal life was possible. The central idea was that God loans each human being a bit of his own immortal essence at the beginning of the human's life. God's essence is transformed by the experience of having lived into the human soul. When the human dies, the soul returns to God in Heaven. St Augustine thus combined Plato's Idealism with Aristotle's Solipsism and crafted both an explanation for conscious awareness and the mechanism of human immortality. For 1300 years all educated (western) men believed that the combination of Idealism, Solipsism, and Soul correctly described the essential principles of reality.

About 1590, Galileo's physics experiments began to illustrate that, contrary to the doctrine of Solipsism, the objective physical realm was actually quite tangible and real. The Church responded by burning heretics for denying the doctrine of Solipsism. More scientists emerged with further proofs that the objective external world was undeniably real. Around 1640 Rene Descartes, a devout French Catholic who lived in Protestant Netherlands because he feared the irrationality of the Church hierarchy, published a compromise philosophy called Dualism. Decartes maintained that existing Church doctrine correctly explained subjective reality but that Solipsism was partially in error because the objective (physical) realm was also real. The Church modified the definition of Solipsism but continued to burn freethinkers for the heresy of denying that consciousness was God's gift. The last stake burning occured in Mexico, about 1850 and was a medical doctor who stubbornly insisted that the origin of his consciousness was not a soul, but his own living brain.

During the first quarter of the twentieth century the elecrtoencephelograph (EEG) was invented and proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the origin of thoughts, emotions, memories, and perception was a living human brain. Idealism, Solipsism, and St. Augustine's invention of the human soul turned out to have nothing whatever to do with conscious awareness or, for that matter, human immortality.

Just as "heart" is an obsolete term used to describe the seat of human emotion, so too is "soul" an obsolete term used to describe the origin of human consciousness. Neither archaic term is accurate when discussing the true nature of objective reality.

Answer 3

Sampling widely enough , I suspect we could
find people who believe *anything*. It's one of the delights and horrors of humanity.

Transmigration of souls as natural phenomenon, not mediated by a conscious deity...
Yes, that's not so far beyond the pale it's invisible!

That's why I don't believe in the supernatural.
If something exists, it's natural.
I just need to keep in mind that nature might be odder than I think it is, even when I'm allowing for it being odd.

Answer 4

I feel we have a soul but I feel my soul is my subconscious and my solar plexus. I'm a free thinker and I dont believe in an afterlife, but instead in reincarnation. The "soul" never dies, it just transposes energy and dying is just another form of energy. The skin is left but the soul goes to form again. All this can be accessed again through past life regression. I dont believe we are going to some place in the sky or to burn to death, heaven and hell are all on earth. You create them, not some deity.

Answer 5

Well, I didn't know that. A person who simultaneously rejects the scientific AND the theological viewpoint. How very interesting.

Neeva: You shouldn't go around stating your opinion as fact: "You are correct. Everyone possesses a soul." Have you any proof?

Also, that 'good person' test is baloney. You don't have to worship God to be a good person, just a Christian. To suggest that the two things are one and the same is bigoted fundamentalist nonsense.

Answer 6

Do animals possess souls? I'm an atheist...I believe in life, and though I wouldn't necessarily call it a soul, there is something in every creature that is life, and when death happens, of course that essence of life leaves the body.

Answer 7

Red Queen. Thank you for sharing this viewpoint!

A few years ago, my best friend died at 35 years of age. It devastated me to see her in the coffin, but the pastor reminded me that what I saw in that coffin was not her, but merely her shell. What made my friend special was her love for others and that soul definitely made her human.

Answer 8

No, you're not the only atheist in this forum that feels that way. People keep adding meaning to the word "atheist" that just doesn't apply.

Answer 9

I believe in a soul depending on how it's defined. I too believe it is what defines our humanity -- no supernatural explanation needed. I think believing that some god is pulling the strings cheapens the idea of a soul.

Answer 10

True! Atheists ONLY have common ground on the disbelief of a deity. Beyond that, they are people too, with varying beliefs.