Do we have a soul? - General

Do you believe that humans have a soul? A soul can be defined as something seperate from the body, that the soul is simply 'a ghost in the machine' and our bodies are just vehicles that transport it around. One may argue that the soul exists because of the great diversity between each individual on the planet and how we feel inside, can our brains just be the only cause of how we feel and react to events, and how our character is formed? Believing that the soul doesn't exist, and that our nature and feelings stem from the brain alone, i known as materialism. Dualism is the belief that we do have a soul and it is seperate from our body, and that it will travel to another spiritual plane when the body dies. Soft-materialism is the belief that we do have a soul, but it dies along with the body and doesn't travel to another spiritual plane. Arguments in favour of the soul are ones that include poeple having an 'Out of body experience' or travelling to heaven/seeing a white light when they die for a period of time. Ghosts may also be considered evidence for the soul. I believe that the soul doesn't exist, everyone is different due to the brain growing up in different ways than others (what society/culture etc). An example of this is how many serial killers or generally evil poeple came from a dire background, such as Hitler who had an abusive father, and, witnessed the Jews being more better off than him during Germany's hyper-inflation during the Weimar republic. Ghosts have not been proven to exist, I dont believe in them, so this doesn't affect my view on the soul. I consider myself a Materialist on this topic. What are your opinions? (sorry for the badly worded OP) Dumbs for a debate?

I think we are like any machine, just massively complex. When we die, our circuits break and we do not work any more. I share your opinions, OP.

[QUOTE=Thechuz1337;35033504][B]Arguments in favour of the soul are ones that include poeple having an 'Out of body experience' or travelling to heaven/seeing a white light when they die for a period of time. Ghosts may also be considered evidence for the soul.[/B][/QUOTE] easily discredited by the fact that your brain trips on a helluva shit load of DMT when you have a near death experience. and there is absolutely 0 evidence for ghosts other than "i was alone in the dark and my brain started convincing me i might be hearing things and it was real spooky".

The human brain functions with electrical impulses and stuff, and when we die I like to think that these electrical impulses still exist, kinda like radiowaves. You can't pick them up with equipment, but they exist, and they have our memories and our mind in it, and it floats away and stuff. It's a silly thought, but it's the most logical thing I can think of that resembles a "soul".

We can't prove we do, we can't prove we don't. Simple.

Question will be answered at the same time when we answer the question "Is heaven real?", or "Does God exist?", so, it won't be answered. People believe they do, because they think they are right. I believe we don't have souls. We die, we die.

Probably not.

Y'know, a spin on this question could be "Will we ever invent the soul?", by which I mean will we ever invent something that keeps our minds alive after the flesh fails us, something that divides mind and matter permitting the former to act independantly of the latter? I doubt that organic life in it's current state has a soul in that regard; currently we're probably just machines of flesh and bone. But if we can build it, it will come, and if it comes, things would definitely change. For me, however, it's not necessarily a matter of "Will we ever invent the soul?", instead more like "When will we invent the soul?". If we can find a way to make the mind seperate from the flesh, and ensure the mind survives after our bodies have died, then perhaps the concept of eternal life wouldn't be so abstract. Then again, it probably wouldn't be life as we know it; more like a state of continued mental existence, like a computer that is never turned off but instead always goes to standby, similar to how the flesh must sleep in order to be revitalised.

I do not think it exists. The arguments you list for are purely anecdotal.

[QUOTE=Nossy;35033578]We can't prove we do, we can't prove we don't. Simple.[/QUOTE] The evidence proving that there is no soul is a good deal more valid than the opposing argument. Through countless years of research, the inner workings of the human body have been revealed with greater clarity than before. We are getting closer to fully replicating the human brain, and the closer we do, the much less likely the idea of a soul existing is.

No proof for it -> Doesn't exist until the opposite is proven As simple as simple things which are easily understood

[QUOTE=Nossy;35033578]We can't prove we do, we can't prove we don't. Simple.[/QUOTE] Read up on 'burden of proof'.

I don't think there's a way we can know if it's something that exists parallel to our perceived reality. We're starting to discover materials we can't perceive, only their effects. Our perception, even with machinery, is limited. So while playing with the thought is entertaining, I wouldn't count on it.

I'd like to see some of this evidence of ghosts you speak of, OP.

I don't believe in having a soul in a spiritual sense but I still consider human conciousness as a soul even without all the spooky ghosty bullshit.

No, but we have a mind.

I don't believe in souls. I don't think there's anything more to our consciousness than the functions of our brains. People rather believe in souls, because it's easier to perceive our consciousness as an entity rather than as an abstract concept no more than highly complex reactions in our brains. Due to fear of death, we also like to convince ourselves that our consciousness will never seize to exist and will merely move to another plane of existence. I don't believe in souls, because they can't be proven to exist, and there is nothing that suggests it would be scientifically possible for them to exist. I also don't worry about death in the same way as others, I don't want to live for all eternity. I enjoy feeling that my life is the only one I'll ever have and my only chance to enjoy living, and that death is a restful state of complete freedom from consciousness.

[quote]Arguments in favour of the soul are ones that include poeple having an 'Out of body experience' or travelling to heaven/seeing a white light when they die for a period of time.[/quote] That's proof of hallucinations, not souls. [quote]Ghosts may also be considered evidence for the soul.[/quote] Only if we can consider unicorns as evidence for the soul too

No.

Soul isn't described anywhere, so I like to thing that our mind is same thing as soul, but I don't believe it's some kind of ghosty spiritual thing that floats inside us and magically travels somewhere after we die.

[QUOTE=Noble;35035516]That's proof of hallucinations, not souls. Only if we can consider unicorns as evidence for the soul too[/QUOTE] Some philosophers believe it could count. But as I said, I believe all the out of body experiences and ghosts are bullshit. I'm just throwing things on the table.

There's nothing about the human body and mind that need the assumption of the soul to be explained.

Define what a soul is and then we can discuss if we have it or not.

no

Yes. I think the soul is who we are, what our personalities are like, ECT.

souls come with all kinds of ridiculous baggage because you're proposing that for 13.7 billion years the universe chugged on happily with just the fundamental leptons and quarks, then suddenly a group of apes on an insignificant planet passed an arbitrary threshold of intelligence, and somehow gained an ontologically basic ethereal mental entity bound to their body which controls their actions, yet also makes them behave in a way indistinguishable from how you'd expect intelligent apes that followed that specific evolutionary path to behave. additionally it degrades in thinking ability in direct parallel to physical neuron decay, and develops mental quirks and idiosyncrasies that can be linked to physical changes in the brain (eg schizophrenia). yet, upon the moment of death, the soul escapes unharmed. yeah no.

A soul would be hard to explain really, we can't become ghosts. And we don't have an actual ghost like organism in our body. Which is what you are saying. Our brain could be our soul, or the engine to the machine. The soul is just a saying, when you say you have no soul, you are saying you are a heartless and cruel person. And people believe being heartless and cruel means you have no soul.

I think soul is like your heart, like when someone is described as 'cold-hearted' or 'soulless'. So it doesn't hold any actual importance after all.. Hard to explain. It's actually like when you feel that you are more alive than bored cats and dogs that makes you think you have some kind of a "Soul" inside of you.

[QUOTE=Nossy;35033578]We can't prove we do, we can't prove we don't. Simple.[/QUOTE] This is an awful argument. Burden of proof. [editline]8th March 2012[/editline] I see no reason to believe we do have souls.

[QUOTE=Kybalt;35033537]easily discredited by the fact that your brain trips on a helluva shit load of DMT when you have a near death experience. and there is absolutely 0 evidence for ghosts other than "i was alone in the dark and my brain started convincing me i might be hearing things and it was real spooky".[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYEZOMb4VlE[/media]