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 )

[onewithhim]

[Replying to post 226 by JehovahsWitness]

Biblically, you would have to ask Paul that. He said we will all be resurrected with a new, superdooper body.

Yes indeed he did. What he did NOT say is that humans survive beyond the grave, that was you, which is why I'm asking (you not Paul) to explain yourself.

If you believe the soul is entirely physical and that a soul is the whole person, and that the whole person survives death and continues living (as a soul/whole person) "beyond the grave" then how is this possible when the physical body ceases to exist as such with death? My issue is not with Paul's point of dying (and coming back to life later). My issue is with yours that one doesn't die at all but lives on "beyond the grave".

The "atoms" left in a corpse are not the same atoms that were there when that guy was alive.

Right so, where is the soul (the whole physical person) that according to you "surivives" (lives on without being destroyed) beyond the grave? You were the one that mentioned "atoms" when I was asking about the soul, not me. I'm just trying to clear the fog of your belief that the soul is the whole physical person that at the same time survives beyond the grave which by definition is the end of the whole physical person.

I asked him the same thing. Let me know if he ever answers you. Where is this physical person that "survives death"?

[onewithhim]

Nowhere does the Bible say that the soul exists eternally or separates from the body!

If one’s body can be lost while the soul is saved, which Christ said, then it would seem that the two can indeed be separated.

No. The body can be killed by men. But the "soul," which is the whole person, cannot be killed off by man, because even if they kill the body, God remembers that person and everything about him/her and can bring them back to life. The men who kill the body don't have any control over the complete person and the life that person will gain back in the future.

[JLB32168]

The body can be killed by men. But the "soul," which is the whole person, cannot be killed off by man, because even if they kill the body, God remembers that person and everything about him/her and can bring them back to life.

So the body can be killed, but the soul remains alive, but the soul isn’t immaterial?

When someone kills the body, what happens to the soul – since it hasn’t been killed off? What does “killed off� mean as contrasted against a simple “killed?�

The men who kill the body don't have any control over the complete person and the life that person will gain back in the future.

Okay – so they burn the body and reduce it to ashes.
Where’s the soul – since it hasn’t been killed off?

[onewithhim]

The body can be killed by men. But the "soul," which is the whole person, cannot be killed off by man, because even if they kill the body, God remembers that person and everything about him/her and can bring them back to life.

So the body can be killed, but the soul remains alive, but the soul isn’t immaterial?

When someone kills the body, what happens to the soul – since it hasn’t been killed off? What does “killed off� mean as contrasted against a simple “killed?�

The men who kill the body don't have any control over the complete person and the life that person will gain back in the future.

Okay – so they burn the body and reduce it to ashes.
Where’s the soul – since it hasn’t been killed off?

No I did not imply that the soul remains alive if the body is killed. If the body is killed the soul is also dead, because the soul is the complete person. "Gehenna" is the word Jesus used to describe what God CAN do if He so chooses----obliterate a person PERMANENTLY. That is what "Gehenna" refers to---total annihilation. God is to be feared more than mere man because man can merely kill the body. God can DESTROY the person forever and never bring him back---that's what "Gehenna" means.

If a man is killed, God can remember him and bring him back---the total person---everything about that person. He has that power. Man doesn't have that power.

So, the lesson is.....don't fear man, because he can't make you stay dead. Respect and love God, because He has the power to leave you dead or bring you back to life.




"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." (Matt.10:28, New American Bible)

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 238 by JehovahsWitness]

You were under the correct impression. That is what I am claiming. I am not sure where you are having a problem with what I am saying. I suspect it's because I said we live on through perishing occasions of our bodies. So let me clarify a point. Many persons think of the soul s like a straight, unbroken line. It always exists, never changes. I don't think that way. I think of the soul, as the body, as having an intermittent existence. Moment to moment we are new souls, new people. No thinker thinks twice. The soul is a name for a society of perishing occasions. Each moment of experience, we are a new person. So there is the soul at time one. Then a perishing and reformulation. A new soul or moment at time two, and so on. These moments, these right nows, go by so fast that it seems they are continuous. But they are not. Between each of them, there is a period of self-creation. You might think of the soul or self as analogous to the frames on a strip of film. Between each frame, there is a time-out, a gap. However, the film goes by so fast that we never are aware of these intermediate periods.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 239 by JLB32168]

Christ never preached anything like that. If, for example, you look at I Cor. 15, we live on in new bodies, not as something disembodied.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 244 by onewithhim]

The Bible does not view Gehenna as total annihilation, however. Read Lk. 16.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 241 by onewithhim]

I have answered this question several times already. Please read my posts. The Bible does not tell us where the resurrected are, where Paradise is. Jesus and Paul didn't tell me and I want to know.

[JehovahsWitness]

I think of the soul, as the body, as having an intermittent existence.

You said earlier that you believe the soul to be the PERSON and that the person is wholly physical. Now if that person goes through "intermittent existence", are you saying they exists, then doesn't exist and then exists again? If so when they don't exist wouldn't you call that them being dead? If they cease to exist, how is that "living beyond the grave"?

So there is the soul at time one. Then a perishing ..

So I take it that when the soul is a "perishing" equates with the above period when it doesn't exist. Usually when a person ceases to exist we call that being dead. How can you be dead (not exist) and also be spoken of as living "beyond the grave".

A new soul or moment at time two, and so on.

So are you saying that the soul is "the whole person" that the person becomes a new person (not just body, a whole new PERSON). If the person changes and is a new person, what happens to the "old" former person? Does he change BACK to the first person - since the process is "intermittent"? . "Now I'm Sara - flip - now I'm Jason - flip - Now I'm Sara again" etc.

Your statements sound nice but they make absolutely not sense.

[Talishi]

[Replying to post 239 by JLB32168]

Christ never preached anything like that. If, for example, you look at I Cor. 15, we live on in new bodies, not as something disembodied.

But these new bodies are not flesh.

1 Cor 15:50 ... flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...