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 )

[JehovahsWitness]

But in reality the only thing I do is respond to each post as it comes, without considering the beliefs of the person who posted it

Or to the content of the post evidently. I am usually fairly good with words but I cannot begin to express how uninterested I am in your approach. If you have anything to say about something I post, feel free to say it but as I said, I see nothing in your reply that relates even remotely to what I wrote, which is, if I am not mistaken the basic form of debate.

Your worldview is of no interest to me.

JW

[marco]

There is no evidence biblically 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.

And it's a reasonable idea.

Genesis 2: 7 says "And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE. And man became a living soul."


Of course we could sensibly take the account to be figurative but if we want to walk on a literal road then the soul is the "breath of life", the anima, which is what most people regard it to be. By breathing into the body this life force, God placed together a body and a soul.

Man became a living soul because the essential element in him, God's breath as it were, allowed him to live. A living soul refers to the union of body and soul - the soul made into something living by its introduction to the body. Today we speak of someone as being " a good soul" - and we are referring to the person, while of course realising that the soul is the spirit IN that person.

Death is when the soul leaves the body. Thus the initial breath of life is withdrawn. That interpretation makes sense. Having the word "soul" meaning person simply makes the word soul redundant.


Why strain for meaning when the meaning is clear? Soul and body = life.

[JehovahsWitness]

There is no evidence biblically 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.

And it's a reasonable idea.

Not if we read the text carefully.

The "Breath of Life" - What is is

Evidently the idiomatic name itself "breath of life" is likening what God did to the air we breathe. What happens to a person when you stop them from breathing? If a person can't breath after few minutes they die. Would it be reasonable to conclude then that the "breath" is something inside them that keeps that keeps them alive after they die? or rather something that enables them to live? The "breath of life" in the bible is more often referred to as "the spirit" (ruach - Strongs #7307 "breath" "air" "blast") and it refers to that which animates or makes the person (or animal) live. It is not part of the person that enables him or her to continue living after they are "dead" (afterlife).

Yours or Gods?

While your breath, its "yours" in the sense of you are using air to stay alive (ie its "yours" as long as you are using it) ultimately, the air we breathe is actually part of the atmosphere? Notice in Genesis 2:7 the bible doesn't actually speak of God "giving" or "placing" a breathe inside Adam, but rather actively "breathing" or blowing into his "nostrils" that breath. If you breathe into someones mouth or nose, whose breath is the person feeling, their own or yours? Ultimately, "The breath of life" (or spirit) "belongs" to God in that he is its ultimate source. Just as when you unplug an electronic device from its power source it stops working, when God withdraws that "breath of life" or his active force/power (spirit) that keeps that person alive, the person dies and ceases to exist. They are not "transformed" to continue living elsewhere any more than if you unplug your fan, it is transformed into a computer and continues working in another room.

Further scriptural evidence:

PSALMS 104:29
When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. - NIV

PSALMS 146:4
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.


ECCLESIATES 12:7
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life's breath returns to God who gave it. - NET Bible

CONCLUSION: People often use the words "soul" and "spirit" interchangeably, but in the bible these are two distinctly different words. (As has been previously noted, at no time does Genesis speak of God placing or introducing a soul IN (inside) the body). Neither soul nor spirit depict a part of the person that enables them to continue living in another form after they die.

RELATED POSTS

What is a person's the SPIRIT?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 60#p877560

Is there a difference between the soul and the spirit?
viewtopic.php?p=820981#p820981

What is "the breath of life"?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 72#p819272

What is a soul/spirit/death/hell?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 56#p330856

To learn more please go to other posts related to...

SOULS, SPIRIT and ... THE CONDITION OF THE DEAD

[onewithhim]

[Replying to 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."

I believe that is Genesis story also.

Did you read tigger's post #12? Many scholars have weighed in to explain the soul. Doesn't this add a tiny bit to your understanding?

[onewithhim]

The soul is something all good men and women have been trying to understand. That means all good religions too. The best I can see now is the soul is of God. Like the poles of a magnet , positive and negative.

Did you happen to take a look at tigger's post #12? Anyone who wonders what the soul is will really not wonder too much more after reading that.

But do people really want to know?

[Checkpoint]

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.

Not if you take God at His word.

"The soul that sins, it shall die". Ezekiel 18:4,20.

Not if you believe what Jesus told us.

Matthew 16:

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

25 For whoever wants to save their soul will lose it, but whoever loses their soul for me will find it.
26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

God, the divine, sins, and dies as a result?

No way!

God, the divine within us, is to be denied, and if not, will be lost?

I think not.

[Monta]

[Replying to post 26 by Checkpoint]



"The soul that sins, it shall die". Ezekiel 18:4,20. "

Jesus the Christ: 'but I say unto you...'

[onewithhim]

Do you guys read only the posts that are written by those that you tend to agree with? I don't get it. The "soul" has been explained here, even on this particular thread, thoroughly, yet you continue to act as though it's a mystery, as if you didn't bother to read the posts (which are excellent).

You have comments from all kinds of Bible scholars and academics, stating that the "soul" is quite DIFFERENT from the "spirit," and that it involves the whole person. Adam BECAME a living soul (Genesis 2:7). What was breathed into him was simply the breath of life, so that he could keep on breathing. It was not some ethereal mini-me that would go on living consciously after death.


Jesus "gave his soul" in behalf of many. (Matthew 20:28) How do you explain that?

[dio9]

[Replying to onewithhim]

And this scholar says the soul is God hiding in us, playing hide and seek if you will, waiting in delight for us to find him/her. Mystics of every tradition encounter the sacred within the ground of their being as if God is the positive magnetic pole and we the negative. Same and not the same.

[marco]

The soul is something all good men and women have been trying to understand. That means all good religions too. The best I can see now is the soul is of God. Like the poles of a magnet , positive and negative.

Did you happen to take a look at tigger's post #12? Anyone who wonders what the soul is will really not wonder too much more after reading that.

But do people really want to know?

Post 12 gives a set of opinions about what a soul might be and these coincide with what an atheist might accept, namely there is no internal spirit, just flesh. And flesh is subject to decomposition. Dreams of immortality for perishable flesh seem fatuous but dreams of immortality for an internal "anima" can at least make sense. Heaven is obviously not a physical place and to deduce the soul is non-corporeal is reasonable.

Those who want truth will find post 12 interesting, then ignore it as yet another fanciful opinion.