Lusastrium

Does an immortal soul exist, or is it merely a lie created to make humans feel better about death?

gohn67

Can you define soul for me?

I'm not sure how to answer unless I have a definition for soul.

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The Frowning Dog Blog

Lusastrium

A difficult question, if not an impossible one. The answer, if a soul actually exist might be that a soul is a different thing for everyone, but most consider a soul to be the living heart that defines a person.

Penelope

I believe in soul but don't believe one has to die in order for it to be revealed. To me, soul is the essence of our humanity and the reason we look upward to the stars for answers. Some folks have more soul than others and they usually project it naturally. A human magnet so to speak.

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Kane

How can anyone answer, with any degree of certainty, a question regarding something that, if it exists, does so in a spiritual realm?

Lusastrium

No one, wih any degree of anything can say something about a soul is true. However, there is one exception: you. A person defines a soul for what they believe it is so, and from their belief, their definition of a soul for them turns into a reality in their heads.

Kane

So this is more of a, "let's get another pointless argument going" thread than a sincere question? gotcha! =)

Maithias

I'd think the definition of the soul is that part of us which feels the sixth sense. When you close your eyes, and feel something that was not in your mind before hand. When energy is transmitted to or from you, then that's something that can't be experienced by the body, or controlled by the mind. It's a soul thing.

It is a curious question though. One worthy of a debate. Some people are total realists, and probably have never felt the things some obtain from meditation and the like.

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Lusastrium

Yup! But in my opinion a soul is memory. A soul is everything a person has done and the regrets that a person obtains. A soul is what makes a person human, because it is the overbranching structure that contains such words as 'the consious', 'humanity', and 'ethics'. The soul defines where you are going and how much a person accepts the inevitable approach of death. A souless person is someone who is not alive, who does not live, does not fear, and does not feel. Without a soul there can be no experience, because the soul allows a person remember what happened yesterday or the day before and what they plant to do today. I believe that a soul must change over time, and if a soul tries to resist change, then it becomes tainted. All in all, a soul is the expression of oneself throughout time.

Saponification

I don't know.

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Metta.

mammamaia

i prefer my coined term, 'intellessence' to 'soul'... to my mind, what people call the 'soul' is merely the 'mind'... the 'contents' of our brain's data bank...

anyone who's ever had an eeg will know that what we think, dream, imagine, etc., is actually a transmittable/receivable energy of some kind... and, as any who've taken 9th grade biology will recall, we know that energy can never be destroyed... it can only change form...

so when this energy's storage facility shuts down [death of the brain], it makes sense that the 'contents' can be 'freed' to go elsewhere... which gives credence to the reincarnation theories/beliefs of many peoples...

religions [especially the christian] turned this into a 'soul' that can go to heaven or hell after the body's death, as a way to control the 'faithful'... the old 'carrot and stick' schtick...

here's my take on the subject:

On Endday…

where will the souls go?

where the spirits by the billions wend
when their bodies meet a sudden end?
when Endday stops the evil ways
of humankind’s most cruel days,
when Fourth World into Fifth World turns,
as mountains fall and man’s world burns—
where will the souls go?

will our spirits by the billions blend
or, minus bodies, begin to mend?
what will become of all that force
which humankind thinks is the source
of all its thoughts and words and deeds
while, within such, much evil breeds—
where will they all go?

how will spirits by the billions spend
undying energy no longer penned?
when Endday frees them suddenly
from humankind’s reality
and leaves them floating here and there
with too few then with which to pair—
where will they all go?

tell me if you know—
when Endday’s trumpets blow
where will our souls all go?

if what we’ve made is our heaven and hell
and without it we end— it’s just as well.

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Kane

Without dragging this into another debate... How does the idea of reincarnation merit any more credence than the belief that the soul can go to an afterlife? As human beings we are all pretty much unique individuals (aside from the fact that we are all human beings and share characterics as such). Why would it make more sense that as we die, our energies transfer to an unborn child, rather than enter the next stage of existance? I would agree that the Catholic church -- and to a lesser degree, the protestant church that broke away in some instances -- has been a great influence of control. However, before Christianity or Catholicism was a major world religion, believers were few and not in control of anything. They were killed in the streets, fed to the lions in the Arena, crucified by the thousands for their beliefs.

Christianity was born as people heard the teachings of Christ and witnessed the miracles he performed. It was ratified as people learned of his resurrection. It was a long, uphill battle just to be able to believe in Christ without suffering consequences for it. Just because men of power, sensing that they could increase their power by using religion to control people, abused others in the name of one god or another, doesn't mean that Christianity is a control mechanism, or that the views of a Christian are not valid.

valeca

~steers clear of the religious issues being brought in~




I believe we have a 'soul', but what, exactly, that is...no clue. I see it as an individuals thoughts/feelings/inner voice/beliefs/uniqness/energy.


Maia's word 'intellessense' strikes a note with me. It sums it up nicely.

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I'm here.

Kimberly Bird

I believe everyone has a soul, at least I know I do and some others just from my own personal experiences. When my brother passed away, he came to say goodbye in my dreams. And this was no touch me on the shoulder and say goodbye sort of thing. We talked and laughed about our childhoods before he said these words to me, "Your girls will be just fine Kimberly, don't worry so much. As for you, I'll see you later."
When I woke up in the morning I knew he had passed on. What was really amazing was the fact that I had never met this brother of mine. He had been adopted out at birth. I had put in a search for him, but because records are sealed, all I could do was wait in the hopes that he would do the same then we would match up. It was his wife who contacted the adoption agency the next day because she wanted to find us, something that my brother thought about but kept putting off.

I have had other experiences like this over the years, some more stranger than that, but then I am a bit of a strange bird. Maybe I am just more opened to things of this nature. Some days I cringe because I know someone is going to pass on but I don't know who or how. All I can do is keep my feelings to myself and comfort when it happens.

We all have souls and it is hidden inside and between your rib cage, it's dark and tunnelly, reminds me of the inside of an imbiblical cord. That came to me in a dream by the way, as most of my visions do.

I told you I was a strange bird

Kimberly

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Ozmandius

It doesn't. It's all just arguing over who's got the better invisible buddy.