Thoughts on souls

[Wertbag]

We all know the common questions, what even is a soul?  What does it do?  And if it is meant to be us in some way, our personality or memories, then why do things like drugs, alcohol, brain damage and disease change these things about us?  Why is it possible to be knocked unconscious by a physical blow to the head if our consciousness comes from a supernatural, non-physical source?

But a video I watched raised some further interesting points.  If people gain a soul at some point, when does God install that?  I'm guessing most religious people would agree that neither the sperm nor the egg has a soul, so is there a point at fertilization that a soul begins?  On conception or at birth perhaps?  If a soul gives memories or personality, then why do those things not exist in babies?

 

Then you have the fascinating situations of people with multiple personality disorders.  If someone has multiple people in their mind, one of which is an atheist and another of which is a Christian, then do they go to heaven or hell?  Do they have one soul or is it one soul per personality?  It was still only one conception event, but did God install dozens of souls at that point?  Some have shared memories, while others do not.  Some are children in adult bodies, or women in men's bodies.  If the soul is our personality, then how does one soul give such extremes within one person?

 

There is also a split amongst religious people as to whether animals have souls.  They have personalities and memories, love and hate, dreams and feelings.  So, if souls are a human only thing, then what is it giving us that it unique?  If it's not a human only thing, then do animals have their own afterlife?  Are they judged on some criteria to reach heaven?  Perhaps man being made in God's image refers to us having a soul and the animals not, if so, we are back to question one as what traits to humans have that animals don't?

 

A soul is a necessary tool to allow the afterlife to happen.  It's not your body that moves on, after all the rest of us can still see the body here, so it must be this invisible soul that goes instead.  If you believe in hell being a place of fire and torment, then that punishment must be able to be applied to a non-corporeal soul.  The soul has no nerves, no body to torture or sensation at all, so how is the classic description of hell even coherent?  What even is heaven to a non-corporeal soul?  How do you interact with other souls when neither of you have a physical form?  Can non-physical souls have sex?

 

It feels like most religious folks do a mental flip.  You imagine dying and your soul going to heaven, but upon reaching heaven you reform as the same physical body that you had.  That then allows you to enjoy heaven as a physical being in a physical place, with the soul just being the connecting flight between this life and the next.  This then raises several questions, such as does a still born baby's soul turn up as the only physical form its known, or does it get converted to an adult to enjoy the afterlife?  If it gets an upgrade, does that come with a lifetime of knowledge and experience?  Does it gain language skills?  If someone suffers severe trauma and their personality changes, do you reach heaven with your younger happier self or the traumatized version that died?   If Jeffrey Dahmer reaches heaven, as some Christians claim, then does he still have the broken personality that makes him want to kill and cannibalize others?  If he was born with a damaged brain that sent him down that path, then at what stage does his soul get to heaven?  If parts of your personality are wiped or changed, then is the person in the afterlife even us anymore?

 

Of course, as with anything in Christianity, there is no agreement on any of these points.  Christians cannot agree on salvation, heaven and hell, souls or which bible has the answers.  There is no unity on any question, so looking for answers amongst apologists is a fruitless mission.

[◊ Weezer ◊]

And if the process of evolution is true, at what point did apes gain a soul?  

 

YOu made some great points in the OP.

[pantheory]

9 hours ago, Weezer said:

And if the process of evolution is true, at what point did apes gain a soul?  

 

YOu made some great points in the OP.

 

Since Christians don't believe that humans are apes, or even related to them, they believe that humans are not animals, and that animals have no souls. Of course some of the fairy tale stories of the Bible like humans having a soul and an afterlife would be nice, just like Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny

[TheRedneckProfessor]

Ever since the advent of Dolly the sheep, I've pondered what would happen with the soul of a human clone.  If I had a clone, would we both have a completely separate, individual soul?  Would we share the same soul copied into two?  Or would I only have half of a soul and my clone the other half?  Or maybe there would only be one soul and my clone would have it whenever I wasnt using it, and vice versa.   What would happen if my clone accepted jesus but I did not?  Whose soul would end up in heaven?  These are the kinds of questions that keep me awake at night.  I suppose it's just as well that souls aren't actually a "real" thing.