From Whence the Soul ...?

[StuartJ]

Do humans have a soul ...?

Is it a re-cycled soul ...?

Is it a pre-manufactured soul, sitting on a shelf in Heaven, waiting to flutter down and occupy the result of every successful human copulation ...?

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 10 by William]

We're not going to play the answer the question with a question dodge.

Please address the topic questions directly.

They are very clearly stated.

If you have other ideas on the idea of a soul ...

Please detail them ...

With independently verifiable evidence.

The site rules stipulate evidence.

Faith-based statements of belief ...

Are not evidence.

[Guy Threepwood]

...a soul is only a word used to describe a spirit that is bonded into a body.

If spirits can exist without bodies, then what are spirits doing stuck to bodies to begin with?

if the thoughts you post can exist without an electronic device, what are they doing stuck to devices?

The physical medium gives our souls bodies, breathes life into them, experiences, interaction, tests, learning, & ultimately meaning

[William]

[Replying to post 11 by StuartJ]

We're not going to play the answer the question with a question dodge.

What question did you ask that you imply is being dodged?

StuartJ: "You seem to posit that the soul evolves." < Note not a question.

William: "In what way do you see my positing such?" < Note the question.

Are you dodging my question about your comment?

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 6 by William]

their personality which develops

I initially read it as the soul developing ...

"Growing spiritually" as they say.

So ...

Back to the OP.

Recycled or prefabricated .... whaddya think ...?

[StuartJ]

The Christian denomination, Unity Church, believe in the evolution of the soul ...

(We obviously have one .. as opposed to turkeys ... who don't. Thanks, Jagella.)

Unity founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, studied the Bible as history and allegory. They interpreted it as a metaphysical representation of each soul's evolutionary journey toward spiritual awakening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Church

Yes, members, Christians who believe in reincarnation ...!

Now, this is their statement of faith, so it's as true as any other statement of faith.

Many, many faith communities believe in reincarnation ...

Therefore, reincarnation of the soul is as real as Yahweh creating the first human from mud 6,000 years ago and breathing a soul into him.

Now, if I were to believe that I had a soul, and I've had my soul popped into this carcass to give it another shot at being a good guy ...

(Instead of just one shot ... and then Jesus sending me straight to Hell for all Eternity as a non-Christian ...)

then it's not really MY soul at all ...

I'm not really ME ...!

Is it possible I'm the reincarnation of a Christain missionary who ended up in the pot ...?

Am I being given another chance by the REAL version of "God" to rid people of the superstition and make-believe nonsense of Christianity ...?

[ttruscott]

If spirits can exist without bodies, then what are spirits doing stuck to bodies to begin with?

I tend to think that the reason sinners get human bodies is so that the sinful elect can all come under Adam's death so that Christ need only die once for all sinful elect, not once for each of them.

Plus having us live together with the people condemned already, the reprobate tares, to aid the sanctification of HIS sinful elect might be more efficacious in a body...maybe.

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 16 by ttruscott]

I tend to think that the reason sinners get human bodies is so that the sinful elect can all come under Adam's death so that Christ need only die once for all sinful elect, not once for each of them.

And then Christianity gets the monopoly on Eternal Life ...!!!

Great policy if you can get people to buy it ....

[RedEye]

...a soul is only a word used to describe a spirit that is bonded into a body.

If spirits can exist without bodies, then what are spirits doing stuck to bodies to begin with?

if the thoughts you post can exist without an electronic device, what are they doing stuck to devices?

It's called communication, ie. passing on our thoughts to others and having them pass their thoughts on to us. The point is that encoded thoughts still originated in physical brains. Note the dependency.

The physical medium gives our souls bodies, breathes life into them, experiences, interaction, tests, learning, & ultimately meaning

You aren't answering the question. You can assert what you like about what souls provide to bodies (it's all errant nonsense) but you don't explain why souls need to attach to bodies at all. If they can exist without bodies then why stick to bodies?

And how do they stick to one body? We're told that the material cannot interact with the immaterial in any way which is why science cannot detect a soul. That being the case, what keeps a soul in place? How does all this breathing life into a body happen exactly when souls are supposed to be immaterial?

[Guy Threepwood]

[Replying to post 18 by RedEye]

It's called communication, ie. passing on our thoughts to others and having them pass their thoughts on to us.

I believe this can happen 'spiritually' yes

The point is that encoded thoughts still originated in physical brains. Note the dependency.

Our brains physically 'house' the thoughts- though within that they exist as electrical signals as opposed to physical 'matter' right? , and so from where they truly emanate.. is a good question.

There is no outward physical sign that your thoughts are emanating from anywhere other than the physical device in front of me. I happen to know (believe!) they are arriving via invisible waves of energy- a 'supernatural' concept not so long ago, but already proven in principle by us mere mortals..

You aren't answering the question. You can assert what you like about what souls provide to bodies (it's all errant nonsense) but you don't explain why souls need to attach to bodies at all. If they can exist without bodies then why stick to bodies?

I did, though maybe it needs elucidating a little...

Your thoughts on this can remain isolated in your head, but you attached them to physical devices, by means of invisible communication- why? as a means of breathing life into them, giving them a physical presence which can interact with others. And by this interaction you receive and incorporate the thoughts of others in turn, and grow.

This desire to manifest our thoughts beyond ourselves- is the whole reason this communication technology exists in the first place, and so, (I submit to you)- our souls, lives, the physical universe they reside in.

And how do they stick to one body? We're told that the material cannot interact with the immaterial in any way which is why science cannot detect a soul. That being the case, what keeps a soul in place? How does all this breathing life into a body happen exactly when souls are supposed to be immaterial?

Good question; and anyone just 200 years ago listening to you describe internet communication, or even just radio signals, might have similar questions, be similarly dubious about such 'immaterial' phenomena, and declare it inherently impossible or 'supernatural'- and who could blame them?

The point is, that the greater predictor that this (or anything) would become reality, is simply the desire, motive, will to make it happen- that's what overcame any seemingly insurmountable barriers

Similarly then- our reality ultimately reflects the will of it's creator, that's the better predictor of reality, not our naive attempts to ascertain what is possible based on our limited understanding of it

[Jagella]

if the thoughts you post can exist without an electronic device, what are they doing stuck to devices?

Well, my thoughts aren't "stuck to electronic devices," and those thoughts can exist just fine without electronic devices. In the same way a spirit supposedly can exist just fine without a body and in fact is arguably better off without a body. So we still have the unresolved riddle regarding spirits stuck to bodies for no obvious reason.

The physical medium gives our souls bodies, breathes life into them, experiences, interaction, tests, learning, & ultimately meaning

You need to justify why spirits cannot have experiences, interactions, tests and can learn and have meaning all without a body. Why is it important for a spirit to have all these things?

And speaking of interactions, how can a spirit interact with and control a physical body? If a spirit does interact with a physical body, then you are wrong to say that spirits need bodies for "interaction."