What is a soul?

[Skrill]

It is fact that the Physical Brain controls memories, personality. Thousands of other actions are all controlled by our nervous system, which is managed by our brains.

Therefore, what consensus is there for any evidence for a soul(s)? As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

(my first post )

[Divine Insight]

Hello Skrill, welcome to the forums.

You ask some interesting questions but you've posted them in a limited forum. You posted this in "Theology, Doctrine, and Dogma". In this forum people tend to discuss religious doctrines and dogmas. But the questions your asking are more philosophical. Or at least they can be addressed from that perspective.

You ask in your forum title and subtitle:

What is a soul?
Why is there no evidence?


Well, you definitely need to answer your first question before you can even begin to address the question of evidence. I would actually like to address both of those from a purely philosophical perspective (i.e. not dependent upon any specific doctrines or dogmas.) but it would be inappropriate for me to do that in this forum.

However, I would like to address briefly a few points you have made.

It is fact that the Physical Brain controls memories, personality. Thousands of other actions are all controlled by our nervous system, which is managed by our brains.

I agree. And therefore memory and personality cannot be the essence of the "soul".

I would also like to point out that Eastern Mystical religions have recognized this fact. They have been maintaining for eons that the "ego" (i.e. memory and personality) is not the soul. So they do not define the ego to be the soul.

So I just want to make that clear right off the bat.

Clearly the Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Chrisitanity and Islam are all totally focused on the ego as the basis of the "soul". They really don't make any distinction between them at all. To them the ego and the soul are one in the same thing. Wherever your soul goes your ego is sure to be there.

It is actually their ego that they imagine goes to heaven or hell.

Therefore, what consensus is there for any evidence for a soul(s)? As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

Well, like I say, your definition of "soul" may or may not be central to any belief or religion. Although your definition of "soul" certainly is central to the Abrahamic religions.

In the Eastern Mystical religions your soul is not your ego. Your ego is not your soul. And so the Eastern Mystical religions don't even view the "soul" in the same way you are defining it. Your soul has nothing to do with your memory, or your personality. Those are attributes of your ego, not your soul.

Therefore it's senseless to even speak about "evidence for the soul" until you first understand the difference between soul and ego. But we can't discuss that in this forum because this is not a forum to address those type of concepts. That's better done in the "Philosophy" forum.

[myth-one.com]

It is fact that the Physical Brain controls memories, personality. Thousands of other actions are all controlled by our nervous system, which is managed by our brains.

Therefore, what consensus is there for any evidence for a soul(s)? As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

(my first post )

Welcome Skrill!

Great first post.

The soul is a myth as proved here: http://myth-one.com/

In Genesis 2:7 of the King James Bible, it specifically states that man was made a living soul:

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)

The word in the original scriptures translated here as "living soul" is the Hebrew word "nephesh." However, in two separate groups of Bible translations found on the internet, nephesh was translated in Genesis 2:7 as a soul only 30% of the time. In 70% of the translations man was created as a mortal being!

But the majority does not rule in religious circles. The overwhelming majority of theologians teach what they believe and what they have been taught; that man is born as an immortal spiritual soul living within a physical body.

The Hebrew word Nephesh occurs over 750 times in the Bible. It is used to describe living, breathing, beings, both man and beasts. It is best translated as a "living breathing being." In the plural it could be translated as "creatures or animals that breathe."

As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

Actually, the belief in mankind's "immortal soul" is the death knell of "Christianity."

This initial false belief that man is born as an immortal soul living within a physical body seals the remainder of the Bible from man's understanding.

Repeatedly, the Bible states that mankind will die. The wages of sin is death. But if man has an immortal soul, he cannot die.

Thus many parts of the Bible must be "reinterpreted" to support this original myth of man's immortality as initiated by Satan:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (Genesis 3:4)

Accepting Satan's lie that mankind is immortal seals the Bible from man's understanding and condemns the "Christian Church" to utter failure.

And incredibly, God informed mankind in the Bible that it would be that way!

It's an incredible Book!

[OpenYourEyes]

Skrill wrote:
"It is fact that the Physical Brain controls memories, personality. Thousands of other actions are all controlled by our nervous system, which is managed by our brains.

Therefore, what consensus is there for any evidence for a soul(s)? As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

(my first post )"

My response:
The soul is the most essential part of man, just as subatomic particles are the smallest unit of matter (at least from what's been discovered so far).

I view it as including the 'mind' but not limited to it in that it's more essential than that. Perhaps, it's best to think of it as just being 'awareness' or 'consciousness'. Hopefully, I'm not being influenced by Hindu thought : )

In a more strictly Christian view, I believe that man has a tripartite nature consisting of a soul, spirit, and physical body. The following website does a good job explaining the Scriptural references to each as being distinct, but I didn't see any clear definitions: https://bible.org/seriespage/2-man-trin ... -soul-body.

The following does a decent job of explaining the 'soul' from a Christian perspective, but it covers it within a bipartite view while of course rejecting the tripartite view (sort of, if man has a body, spirit, and soul then the spirit part is a foreign nature that is really God's nature according to the article):
http://www.catholic.com/blog/tim-staple ... -bipartite

[Stonez]

It is fact that the Physical Brain controls memories, personality. Thousands of other actions are all controlled by our nervous system, which is managed by our brains.

Therefore, what consensus is there for any evidence for a soul(s)? As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

(my first post )

The way I see it, the soul is just the unique individual. I don't see anything mysterious about it. Even animals are all unique individuals or rather, souls.


I'd go another step further and claim that the spirit is just the expression of the soul or rather, the attitude of the soul.

I think there is plenty of evidence for that simple understanding.

[Talishi]

The way I see it, the soul is just the unique individual. I don't see anything mysterious about it. Even animals are all unique individuals or rather, souls.

The way I see it, the spirit and the soul and the mind are absolutely indistinguishable from each other. That they are three separate things is a religious claim with no objective evidence to support it.

[JehovahsWitness]

Therefore, what consensus is there for any evidence for a soul(s)? As the existence of the soul is very central to any belief or religion.

What is a soul?

It might surpise you but according to the bible the word "soul" is just another word for a physical living breathing flesh and blood person or animal.

Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in the immortality of the soul because that is not in the bible



There is no evidence bibilcally that people have something invisible part of them inside their bodies that continues to live after they die. That is something many churches adopted from Greek philosophers.

[Monta]

[Replying to post 7 by JehovahsWitness]

The breath of God is a living breath.

Can it be anything else but the living breath of life from God?

Man hasn't lost it. It is his soul, his life-force indwelling from God.

The Scripture is full of it, from the thief on the cross to Saul being brought up from either hell or heaven. God is not a God of the dead but of the living.

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 8 by Monta]

Yes but if you read the Genesis account carefully, you will see the words are demonstratively different. "soul" and "breath of life" (some bible's say "spirit") are not the same words and do not refer to the same thing.

Genesis said, "Adam came to BE a living soul" The soul was described as what Adam was not what he had. Just as a man who came to be a doctor, doesn't have an invisible immortal doctor living inside himself that escaptes at death. No, he IS a doctor, he IS a man and he IS a "soul". SOUL = Just another way of describing a living breathing person.

[dio9]

First off, I see the soul in the eastern sense as that which is divine within us. Under the cover of our personality and ego wants needs and desires like the ground . As Paul Tillich wrote, " the ground of our bring". Our soul is something like God hiding in us.
Proof? only an encounter with it.