What is the soul? - Page 6

I am not sure what the reasons for very existence of soul should be. My reason and perception could be result of neural activity in my brain, I am fully satisfied by this theory. Any other theories are usually only wishes of its authors. Why shall man trust fully science in matters of his everyday life and yet deny any of its attempts to say whatever against some cherished and untested (too often they cannon be tested at all) ideas passed to us from ages long gone??? The word SOUL itself means in fact only UNKNOWN. What does it explain? Nothing, I say. Brain as neural network is the theory of certain value, it can say us what to expect or not to expect from it, it helps us anvance in medicine and in construction of machines using similar principles. These are the merits that cannot be easily denied. Opposing "soul idea" is silly; it cannot give us "anything"; I would like say "nothing" as it is usual in my native language because one negative seems to be insufficicient. The only purpose of soul is the thought of "life after death of body". If we were mere physical entities doomed to die after few years of existence why shall we live? I would like to live forever, I would like to try anything worth of trying in the world. But it is not THIS case. We are capable to improve life of people, to lengthen it, but not to make it eternal. I wonder if the idea of soul could persist in world of immortal human beings. I suppose not. Even though I cannot expect to live forever I do not need such comforting tales. In his last book Carl Sagan wrote that he was happy for this opportunity of life and bold enough to look in the eye of death and rejoice of the days gone and yet to be gone. He did NOT need soul. Why shall we?

Most likely the soul is just a romantic notion meant to abate fear provide an avenue for some to feel there is purpose in life, but as I've mention in other threads being a "special" entity made by god that has a little life on a little planet only to simply rejoin god for a grand ol' tea party isn't a very purposefull purpose. It is a romantic notion.

Everything would have to be of god and his creation under such beliefs involving god, a soul is just another thing.

Speaking as a human myself, as far as I know (there has been debate on this in the past), I can understand the profound sense of amazement of the seemingly unique and complicated make up of life and the human experience as lived and seen from the human mind and or soul, this doesn't however just make me believe that there is anything special about us, we still kill destroy and act selfishly to no end. If we do good we usually enough bad to counter it, and that just isn't special.

Perhaps the problem with the idea of the soul, is that it tends to have a definition of "not physical", people don't what they mean by "physical".

The soul is the 'invisible' and intangible essence of man.

Here is something,,,,,we take in air, we take in food, it processes, we take in thought, we take in light, we take in pleasure, we take in water, we take in sights sounds and all other tangible and intangible aspects of life. Intangible are dreams, we ahve them but we have no understanding of them, we take in emotions, we take in pain...

Without 'something' to give us life, all of these other outisde influences are unimportant.
Life begins has its processes, lives the gamut of emotions (Also intangible) but we believe them because we FEEL them. feelings come from the soul. The soul is where we hold and guage our emotions.
The soul above all things holds together the embodiment we live in.

Take away the soul, and all you have are physical needs, and physical outputs.

Eating, sleeping, breathing, and drinking.
The soul takes the physical of the body and gives it 'LIFE' we use to discuss our feelings and our thoughts. (Thoughts are caused by how we feel about something.)
The soul regulates the brain.

The intangible reaches the tangible, and thus we have personailty.

All these factors are intangible. Therefore regulated by an intangible force, we call the soul.

You cannot pinpoint a personailty, a thot, a dream, a feeling...but they are there.
And the soul if absent from the body leaves the body lifeless.

You are confusing the soul and emotions, there is a difference between feeling something and implied meanings developed to explain why something is felt, just like applying to life itself, to claim you know what that is is arogant.

From physical biological science to theoretical and spiritual (whatever that really is) ways of explaining things there is room for lots of possiblities, including many we are far from even thinking of yet.

Its really ok to run with romantic notions as long as you aren't trying to call them real, untill they can be proved as such, saying that I know because I feel is saying nothing, feelings change instantly and over time with the discovery and understanding of both new and old information and life experiences.

Your idea of what a soul is happens, is it not based on a book? Regardless of what you may possibly think or feel about this book, what is the answer to my question? If you say its based on your beliefs, religious or even just sculpted by what you have heard when people talk about the bibles descriptions of a spirit and soul, did not these images and ideas shape what you have come to believe to be a soul?

Things are amazing and scary no matter what true explanations lay behind them, none of this is either right or wrong, it just is. God made death and killing if it is wrong than so is god. We are supposed to take responsibility for our actions why not him? Lead by example.

What does invisible mean? Invisible like a neutrino? It means not-physical doesn't it?

no it means unseeable by the naked eye in general context, then also respective to any other ways of seeing, not physical would be more like not real, imaginary, or something that deals with not able to be felt physically, some would relate that to emotion, but emotions are physical reactions in the body.

I can't see the germs I breathe in, I can't see neutrinos and I can't see air. Obviously people don't mean that neutrinos and germs and air are the same as the soul.

People have an implicit definition they won't tell me because they don't know it themselves.

I don't know if you caught what I meant about invisible's respective definitions, it depends on who is talking about what and what type of visibility they mean physical or otherwise.

When someone speaks of the soul's invisibility or absence of the physical world, they don't know what they mean by the terms.

well, if they are just using the words from the bible then its from a old world perspective, if they say it today as just how they explain it, then they probably aren't even thinking about technical scientific possibilities, that goes towards questioning and learning the w's (who why etc.) of religion, and that isn't someplace they tend to go.

There is no such thing as 'a' soul. No one has an 'individual' soul. The soul is not some 'lifeforce' or something.
Everything has a soul, or rather, a being. The rock in front of you, as well you yourself. In reality, there is no 'I', in reality, there is no difference between you and that tree.
The ultimate aim of meditation is becoming one with the universe, which is called enlightnment.
What is the soul? It is you withought the distraction of ur mind, it is the 'true' you.
People think that they are their personality, that they are their mind, which is wrong. In essence, me and you, are the same, we have no difference, the only differences are in our personalities, which are illusions. So, we can say, that we all are part of the same 'soul', or 'being'.

Yet you don't believe there is energy (from the energy and matter post). What is it that connects you to me to the tree if there is no energy to do so. If you look at the world from a physical perspective we are distinct and separate entities. To me, it's when you can see the energetic values of everything that you know there is a connection.

I agree absolutely that everything is connected but I also think there is distinct aspects of everything that exists.

"The ultimate aim of meditation is becoming one with the universe, which is called enlightnment. "
If there are no indivisible souls. Why can't I see out of your eyes? Why do I see out of my eyes?