To my fellow athiests (believers are welcome to answer as well)...?

Question

Let me preface by saying that you do not need to be defensive, I am not trying to disprove your beliefs (as I myself am an athiest), I am simply curious about other's opinions on the subject. Let me also say that, christians need not preach here. You are not going to change how I believe.

If you believe that both animals and humans have souls, you don't need to answer.

Do you believe in souls? If not, how do you explain what makes a form made up of muscle, bones, and skin become alive (move, think, breathe, etc)?

If you do believe that we have souls, do you believe that animals have souls as well? If not, how do you explain their existance? Do you believe they have a different type of soul, or do you believe they function completely differently?

Details please.

Like I said, no need for comments like "you need a course in anatomy" and "why are you asking if you won't change".

You need a lesson in english, because I clearly stated I just wanted to know people's opinions.

I'm sorry, the way I worded my question was kind of confusing, because the question itself is confusing.

I will try to reword when I asked what makes a bundle of muscles, skin, and bones function, but it's a hard question to word properly.

Imagine two humans lying next to eachother. They are in the exact same physical health, etc. One of them is alive, and the other is not. Neither of them have suffered trauma, or had any reason to be deceased. What caused the spark in that one live human to make it alive?

I may just be making an *** of myself by trying to explain this..

Answer 1

I'm not going to say I "believe" anything that doesn't have some legitimate empirical evidence to support it. But I do tend to think that there might be such a thing as a life energy. Call it a soul if you must. I think all living things contain it to varying degrees. I think it continues on in some form after physical death (after all, nothing we know of in the universe ever ceases to be - it just changes forms). I think it's all connected. And if you consider string theory, which maintains all matter and energy is part of a single sub-sub-atomic structure like unimaginably tiny threads woven into a vast fabric, then the idea is not necessarily so far-fetched.

Answer 2

I do not believe in the concept of a soul, though I'd like to. It's a very romantic idealogy, but it doesn't seem to ring true. Firstly, think about animals. Most are purely instinctive creatures--they eat, they breath, they sleep, they hunt, etc. They do all the functions that their brain tells them to do, to survive. Some animals are more intelligent than others, and their reactions are more complex; taking care of their young, mating for life (seahorses, among others), and so on. I've discovered that the more intelligent the species, the more feelings the species seems to have. They are able to connect how what they do affects others, and so they are not always completely instinctive beings. Humans, far more intelligent than all the other animals, have taken it a step further to include morality. However, we started off as more instinctive beings (as cavemen), and eventually became more and more complex...creating the society we have today.

Answer 3

Tough questions. I do believe in souls, however souls are not the only way life can exist. Meaning, plants are living entities, yet they do not have souls. The unique thing about humanity is the way God created us as opposed to the rest of the living creatures on this planet. Genesis says he (God) breathed life into us and created us in his image. The Hebrew word for breath is synonymous soul or spirit. It seems according to the Biblical narrative that the soul and body is what makes us human. Angels are spirit only while animals are body only. The whole spirit/soul thing is giant mystery, one that I embrace on faith but will keep asking questions about. Hopefully I will have a greater understanding of the soul/human link, but I'm not sure I will ever want to have a definite answer concerning why we have souls.

Answer 4

No souls.

The human body is "alive" because our cells metabolize energy from the food we consume (which ultimately comes from the sun.) Essentially, we are highly organized, solar powered biological engines. Take away the sun, and we die.

Animals (and ALL LIFE for that matter) function the same way. We all depend upon the sun in one way or another. Even bacteria that live near thermal vents deep in the ocean would eventually die without the sun, because the Earth's core would eventually cool off, and the planet would become a big frozen ball.

It's all thanks to the sun.

The concept of a soul is just a byproduct of human fear, and the unwillingness to accept that the end is the end.

Answer 5

Every living thing has a soul, even the trees and earth. no I'm not pagan, far from. but any life implies there is a soul that can be found. Yes, different forms of life have different types of souls, but all life has a soul. As far as where they go after life is the big mystery. But, I'm more worried about where my family and I might go more then my tree in the back yard and even my dog. So I do what I can to help us, since that is all that really matters.

Answer 6

There is no doubt that all animals have some kind of life force that animates them. What they lack is the self-realization that man has. This makes us unique in all the world and in all of history.

Many other species, now extinct, thrived and progressed through natural selection for millions of years. Yet, never was the level of intelligence of any species more than rudimentary.

Then came man. Poof! He seems to have just appeared like some parlor trick in the course of time. Man has DNA that is not far removed from apes yet man himself is lightyears beyond anything else. It makes no evolutionary sense.

In what can be described in evolutionary terms as the wink of an eye, a primate went from brutish beast to high reasoning self-aware human. Natural selection does not accomodate this.

Early man had an extraordinarily powerful and expensive to operate brain. It is obvious that he had far more learning capacity than there was available information to learn. Why?

This complex brain made human babies nearly helpless for years compared to other primates. This is just the opposite of what would be expected for successful breeding.

This complex brain needed lots of high quality nutrition, too. Not what one would expect to aid survivability. There have been instances where natural selection created smarter versions of species but never such a giant leap. A leap that was unnecessary if simple survival were the goal and certainly a hinderance as far as reproduction goes.

To me, this means that there was something other than natural selection. There was intervention. You can call it divine or otherwise if you like. I am not a religious man but I am a Deist. I believe in a Creator and I believe someone or something intervened and took a primate and modified it creating man. That, dear questioner, is where the soul came in.

Perhaps that was the reason for creating a vessel like man, to house a soul. All purly conjecture on my part, I admit. But it does fit the facts far better than either pure evolution or pure creationism. I beleive both have a role to play in the emergence of the only creature with self realization, man.

.

Answer 7

I sometime dont like my personality. Its then that I realize the real me is not the me that you see. I have no idea where the soul is located, but I believe if were honest with ourselves we realize that the "me" we speak of when we talk, isnt what we see or hear, but something referred to as a soul. Thats why so many people cant accept that when this body dies, our soul will die with it. I think all people that are honest about it at least considers that fact, that when there body dies, there soul may live on.

Answer 8

I believe the soul is eternal and a life is a new journy for it.

How else could I have been recognized as someone who died 24 years before I was born, by a random stranger's toddler who couldn't have any learned knowledge of either me or the person he saw me as. What was even freakier is that the boy tagged my middle name. My middle name was after my older brother's "imaginary" friend, whatever that is. I absolutely hated that story of my middle name growing up, until that strange incident with the stranger's son when I was 25 years old. It was way too weird to be considered just coincident. It what's truly weird is that looking at pictures of your "old" self is a lot like looking at pictures of your "new" self. Not because you look alike or are proud of it. You're ashamed of it in the same way as you are in yourself, and you know why you are different.

If you believe or want to believe in souls, you are cannot be atheist. You are most definitely agnostic, or can be a believer in any religion. For me, life after death is reincarnation, and will not bust any religion, but will bust a lot of church teachings. I consider myself Christian, but in the truest sense of the word. Difference from all Christian denominations being, I believe LIFE IS HEAVEN.

Peace

Answer 9

well i don't know what i think about souls thats for sure but there are a mass of chemicals in our system that cause us to work. How does a bunch of metal and plastic become a computer and what about trees do they have souls because they are alive????? biology, technology, DNA etc. This is exactly why there are believers out there. because they have access the answers

Answer 10

Myself being an atheist, I actually find it kinda odd that you believe in "souls". Bodies are build just like a machine. All parts working together to make it as a whole function. I too am an animal lover, but I do not believe that they have souls, nor do I believe that we, as humans, have souls.