What is the soul?

Question

Thanks V. C.

Answer 1

Here's what Bertrand Russel thought.

Answer 2

It is my belief we do not have souls, but we are souls. The soul is the whole. God breathed into the clay form and it became a living soul. I believe that there is not just bottom-up causation (stimuli affecting neurons > causing chemical changes > determining thought processes) but also top-down (volitional thought > changes chemicals & and neuron structures > determining behavior) as what we call mind is an epiphenomenon that arises out of the physical substance we call "brain", and has volition to act upon the substance from which it has arisen. There is no dualism (division of body and spirit). Just one whole. Unlike others with similar views who have suggested throwing out the word soul entirely, I believe that a concept of the soul as the whole is still very valuable… there is more to us than meets the eye; we are not just the clay from which we were formed, but are given life from the breath of God- breathed into each of us… I am not a body. I am more than that. I have a will and act through this body which is not just part of me but a part I can not exist without. I can not be divided. There is no me with out the clay, nor is there me without the breath of life that animates this clay. I am all of that. There can not be disembodied souls (ghosts if you will) for the material is needed for the soul to exist… like a flame does not exist apart from something that burns. The soul is not just some mythical "ghost in the machine". There is nothing eternal about humans- we exist only as God wills our existence and sustains that existence. We are not immortal and there is no component of us that will not parish. Eternal life can not come to us in our own power but only through the resurrected Christ who will come to resurrect us all. We will not stay dead, but will be raised to renewed life with renewed bodies.

The Soul is the Whole.

Answer 3

Every body has one, but it has an "R" in front of it..

How self centred to think that only humans have an alleged "soul", and even then only those who adhere to a particular doctrine..

It's a completely absurd and bigoted concept.. If there is any life force or life energy, then it MUST be present in ALL living things, from algae to insects to mammals..

Any percieved biological or special pedistal for humans is completely imaginary and without a shred evidence or logic..
It is a self serving concept and a usefull tool for manipulating the ignorant and ill informed flock... The "soul" is an anthropocentric fairy tale..

Answer 4

Biblically it refers to the seat of self, and the intermediary part of the inner man which interrelates to the spirit, the highest and noblest part of man and the part which is able to know God; and the body, which is the physical part of the man and interacts with the natural world.
All men possess a soul, but the spirit of man is spoken of as being dead because of sin, and alienated from the life of God until animated by the power of Holy Spirit through the rebirth that takes place when men believe in the heart the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and fellowship with God is restored.
Until this occurs, men are bound to live out their lives as nothing more than intelligent animals.

Answer 5

"I believe that if we are honest with ourselves, the most fascinating problem in the world is, "Who am I?" What do you mean--what do you feel when you say the word, "I; I, myself?" I don't think there can be any more fascinating preoccupation than that. Because it's so mysterious. It's so elusive. Because what you are in your inmost being escapes your examination in rather the same way that you can't look directly into your owns eyes without using a mirror. You can't bite you own teeth, you can't taste your own tongue, and you cant touch the tip of this finger with the tip of this finger. And that's why there's always a element of profound mystery in the problem of who we are."
--Alan Watts

Answer 6

Hebrew word for it is Nephesh, and its translated Soul, Creature living being, Life ect.

So is nothing more than the life of a person.

Answer 7

It is as though you too have gone where they have gone, the same sleeping place has caught you and the same place has detained you. What will then be your position when your affairs reach their end and graves are turned upside down (to throw out the dead)?

There shall every soul realise what it hath sent before, and they shall be brought back to God, their true Lord, and what they did fabricate (the false deities) will vanish (away) from them. (Qur'an, 10:30)

Answer 8

The human soul can only be seen to exist in two ways; one is expressed in the seat of our pants. It is a foul smelling but temporary odor emitted from the anus in a burst of sound and its function is to eliminate an excess of overly exuberant and unhealthy belief in emotionally driven falsehoods like the misguided concept of after-death life..

The only other existing expression of soul is that which comes from the mouth in the form of loud bursts of laughter. It's function is to ward off the infectious spread of god-belief fantasy before it can establish itself in ones emotionally sensitive temporal lobe brain areas.

(This answer may sound like a load of BS but it is no less true than all the rest you have read here and elsewhere, each of which touts itself true for an existing and functioning human soul.... a thing that, in fact, is just as false as the idea of god... and just isn't real.)

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb62/Randall_Fleck/I_believe_I_found_him_GIF.gif

[][][] r u randy? [][][]
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To Z H... you're on the right track... but that isn't called soul it's called consciousness.

Answer 9

well I think I have the craziest theory out there on this one. Thoughts might generate unrecognized subatomic particles (like neutrinos). I am desparate to believe in such a thing. I dont want to ever envision a world without my woman.

Answer 10

You, yourself as human is the soul however, after your death the spirit in your body will move away from your body and will be under the care of God.
jtm