What is meant by the soul?

I have often wondered why the idea of a soul is so pervasive and why it seems to be considered by some that the soul is an actual entity seperate from the body. Is it the impression we have of a consciousness that seems to "float" within our skulls or is it something more?What leads people here to believe that a soul exists and further what does the term describe in your view?

Thread moved here from the Proposed New Topics forum.

I can't say I believed in the soul, at least not as an entity separate from the body, until I became a Christian.But before becoming a Christian I certainly had a strong sense that the most important thing about human beings is the mind, thoughts, feelings, etc., in a word the psyche or personality, and I can say that I resented to the point of disgust the materialistic interpretation of this nonmaterial part of us, especially as it used to be encountered in Behaviorist Psychology, B.F. Skinner and company.Disgust certainly isn't evidence for anything, but then the materialists have no evidence either.And now I know we have souls because God told me so.So there.{abe: Oh one more thing. I remember when my father died being impressed at how "he" was not there in his body in the casket. His face didn't look like himself, the personality was gone.That's not evidence of anything either of course.This message has been edited by Faith, 01-14-2006 08:20 PM

I think it's multiply determined. I think soul is an explanatory reference that arose thousands of years ago partly as an explanation of death and then of dreams.Having been present at births as well as at deaths I would say that death to me is the more difficult thus "miraculous" event. You've known someone all your life and suddenly their body is lifeless! It's a very strange thing. The notion that something has left them presents it's self. And then you dream about them. Awaking you know they died and yet they spoke to you in a dream and for that time seemed real again.Religion was and is very much an important functional part of the social fabric of humans and the authority through tradition maintains these early approximations of how things work.And we do have this sense, this "egoic" sense of ourselves as an entity. Soul is an explanation of that and an explanation that is taught and upheld by the authority of tradition.That is how I see it.lfen

The human person with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material", can have its origin only in God.In Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human person. But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image. The "soul" signifies the spiritual principle in man.The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit.The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the "form" of the body, i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.And last but not least:"What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church." - St. AugustineMay we all better know, love, and live out God's will for us.
One4Truth

You recognize all these indications of a soul and yet you believe they are all illusory, and the idea of the soul is merely an illusory explanation for these various phenomena that is maintained by "tradition." THAT's the mystery it seems to me, that you ultimately decide it is all illusory.This message has been edited by Faith, 01-14-2006 07:38 PM

He didn't say that they're illusory. It seems that he's simply found a better explanation for the things which some attribute to a soul.

Faith,There is something. I think "soul" is a poor explanation, a poor approximation of it.Observe the flow of consciousness. Observe the activities of the organism and the world it observes. The body changes. The emotions, beliefs, activities change. Even awareness changes. All these phenomena depend on other phenomena for their arising and passing away. Everything is interconnected. I am aware of things from my perspective. You from where you are.What we call our "selves" are all things that are objects to us and that change. We aren't our hair color, we aren't our knowledge, or our feelings. Those are things the subject "I" is aware of. All can be lost. The subject "I" is a mystery. If I haven't misunderstood him, Sidelined thinks the mystery will eventually be explained by neuroscience. I don't see how at this point but I can't rule it out.It's not that there isn't individuality it's that individuality is utterly dependent on everything that makes it up and none of that is unique. My example is of a tapestry that has some people and camels or something in it. You see a woman perhaps in a red robe and some camels and tent. But if you examine the tapestry closely from the back you discover that the same threads that make up the womans red robe are part of the camel and part of the background. Every thread serves multiple objects and it's all ONE tapestry. No figure can be isolated or removed from it. There are no individuals in the tapestry there is only the appearnace of individuals.This is how I understand the Buddha, Ramana, Bernadette Roberts, Franklin Merrell Wolff and many others. They looked into their experience and discovered that they only appeared to be an individual. That there was no soul there. There was no "I" there. What there was was a figure in the tapestry of the entirety of creation. They didn't exist, only ALL THAT IS exists. Anything else is appearance, imagination, something transitory.Seeing this, like many other experiences, isn't something you can do. It either happens or doesn't, another way of saying it is grace. To the ego this seems like death and is feared. Those who have experienced it, and I hold the possiblity that a historic person later mythologized as Jesus Christ might have experienced this though I don't see how we would ever know, report back that it is not death but greater life. But that is only someone else's report unless and until it's experienced.lfenedit: "the" historic person TO "a" historic personThis message has been edited by lfen, 01-14-2006 08:09 PM

A soul is what seperates us from nature.

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porteus@gmail.com

so you know animals don't have souls? how?
iI could argue that my dog showed plenty of signs she had a soul, on the note we are part of nature so your statement is kind of meaningless

I'm not sure I have one of those. How can I tell? Seriously.

A soul is a belief held by some people that there is something that continues on after life ends.But worrying about it or what it is is pretty much a waste of time and energy.If a soul exists, it exists even if no one believes a soul exists.If it does not exist, then it does not exist even if 100% of the people believe they do have souls.If souls do not exist then we just try to live the best life we can.If souls do exist then we just try to live the best life we can.So why worry or even ask whether or not they exist?

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Nicely put jar.

Is there an afterlife? If there is, then we must have what is called a soul.

quote:

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on the note we are part of nature so your statement is kind of meaningless

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"Meaningless" seemed out of place there.We are not part of nature beyond the physical state of being, can you see past the physical state of being?