If a soul is taken to mean as some part of me that would survive the death of my body, then no. Consciousness is an amazing phenomenon, but I see no need to believe that it is anything other than software running in my brain – information assembled and interacting in patterns.
Free will? Well, I’d say that consciousness is adaptable and flexible enough that for all practical purposes there is free will. If one were to get very strict with definitions (which I’m not here in IMHO), I suppose it could be argued that if you knew all of the experiences that went into a given person and the precise mapping of their brain, you could predict exactly what they would do in a given situation and so there really is no free will. That’s really speculative, though. I honestly don’t know if such thorough knowledge of a person (which is probably impossible) would provide 100% reliable prediction or not. In any event, barring that kind of nigh-omniscience, I think that consciousness can for all practical purposes be said to exhibit free will.
Yes, but I don’t think it’s the personality or the consciousness. What I do think is more complicated than I can accurately share here, but it involves universal consciousness and imminent divinity. The idea is that we are all part of one huge cosmic “soul” that decided, for reasons of boredom, to split into bazillions of teeny tiny soul fragments and incarnate into physical bodies. As we evolve spiritually, these soul fragments combine with others, reincarnating to play new games and learn new things about ourselves until one day we’ll all be nothing but that one soul again. Then we’ll probably shatter again and start over because being omnipotent, omniscient and alone is boring.
Personality is, I think, tied into each particular brain. That’s why we don’t remember our past lives all that well, although once in a while, our soul fragment gives us “flashes” of insight as they’re appropriate to the lesson we’re working on at the moment. These insights may be from past lives (“Hey, dummy, remember when you got it wrong last time? This is what happened. Don’t screw it up this time.”) or between lives (“Hey, the reason your kid is driving you nuts is that your soul fragment decided you needed to learn about patience this time around, and he agreed to help you with that lesson!”)
“Soul mates” are other soul fragments we’ve made between-life deals with to help us with our lessons. Some are positive, some are not. We have many soul mates, and for some our lesson is how to sever ties with them, like in cases of abuse.
Free will is something that most matter and energy do not have - they are simply reactors to inputs. If free will exists, it argues to me that something beyond a biological machine exists in us.
I see it as a prerequisite for a consciousness. Consciousness could not exist without something beyond the biological machine. I’m calling that thing the soul.
Big ol’ yes here. Mozart, Einstein, hell even the bad ones like Hitler, and Stalin, weren’t who they were from just biology. Something “in” them made them what they were…and for lack of any other definition, I go with Soul.
Since I’ve never heard of a good definition of free will, that’s not an argument I find very believable. Not to mention inaccurate; there’s plenty of randomness in something like a brain, not just “reacting to inputs”.
That’s an assertion, not a reason. Why can’t consciousness exist in a machine, biological or otherwise ? Frankly, it’s never struck me as all that profound.
If I were to believe that I have a soul, than of course I’d believe that animals have souls, as I am fairly sure that I’m not plantae, protista, monera, nor fungi (although there has been some debate on the last one).
I usually shy away from questions like this since they often end up with someone trying to sell Jesus.
But since I already essentially admitted it in the ghost thread - Sure, I believe in souls. I don’t believe that I am qualified to decide who has one and who doesn’t (re: tiny little bug souls). One could say that some parts of the Rocky Mountains seem to have a soul, or at least an awareness. (One could also say that I’m a loon).
I don’t require a higher power to have created the soul any more than I need self awareness to be activated by some shadowy deity.
To all the eye-rolling realists out there - Yes, I know, the whole thing is a steaming heap of BS. Doesn’t mean I can’t believe there is something, tho.
Free will huh? Free will is a result of a certain neurological state. No higher power is guiding my actions, but my genetics and upbringing cause me to behave in a fairly predictable manner.
I like to think that it might be possible for an AI to develop a soul. To me, that would say that the universe is a good place.
Trust me when I say that was the furthest thing from my mind when I wrote the OP. The only one selling Jesus in this thread is the silly ads. I’m just curious about the idea of a soul, not what you do with it or what happens to it when you die if it exists.
For those of you who don’t believe in souls, what started the spark that is the consciousness that is “you?” An egg and a sperm came together, and in their joining, you were formed? Did your consciousness arise at birth, when you started breathing on your own? At what point as a fetus did it start if not at birth? Did it start later than birth, when you started remembering things?
My belief in a soul pretty much stems from the fact that I wasn’t conscious of being alive before I was, and someday my body will be inanimate again, so I believe there must be a thing in me that came when I started to live and will leave when I will die. I call that my soul.
If you mean “free will” as in there is no supernatural force which is dictating my actions, then yes, I do believe my will is completely my own.
However, I do believe that a human is a product of their conditioning and socialization. Not a* prisoner* of it-- plenty of people manage to disregard what they’re been taught when exposed to other points of view or other lifestyles, but we’re mostly guided by our social training.
Conciousness ( or that somewhat nebulous concept of sentience) seems to begin around age three for most humans. It’s when we develop the concepts of the generalized other, and the mirror-image self. (We learn to recognize others’ opinions of us and apply them to our behavior.)
What makes me “me” is a combination of early childhood socialization and life experience. I wouldn’t be “me” if I had been raised in another culture or another time. (I don’t believe personality is inborn. Some may have predispositions toward certain traits, but they are not definites-- they can be suppressed or even exaggerated by childhood training.)
That “spark of conciousness” is simply the product of millions of years of evolution, and I don’t believe it’s especially unique to humans. We are more advanced, of course, but some animals display characteristics of conciousness (or sentience).
There was no “spark.” Consciouness becomes more develped as the brain becomes more devloped. It’s not like flipping a switch. There is no single “moment.” It’s a gradual thing. The more the brain develops, the more complex the electrical activity in it becomes. The brain actually does continue to develop after birth. The “consciousness” of a newborn baby is not the same as an adult or even a one-year old. A lot of it is still pretty limbic, brain stem activity. Higher cortical development still continues post-natally.
Why would you expect to be conscious before you have a brain capable of supporting it? That’s like expecting to be able to see before you have eyes.
Nothing but neurobiological/neurochemical processes, eh? Interesting. What differentiates a living human from a corpse? (Other than 21 unexplained grams. )
I must say, I had not considered previously that atheists don’t believe in souls, either. I assumed that they just didn’t believe in the existence of a god.
Soul=Mind. They are two terms for the same thing which resides wholly in the brain.
As a side note, IMO there is no such thing as the supernatural. Anything termed supernatural is actually natural just not yet understood or not yet detectable by methods/apparatuses that would conclusively establish the phenomenon’s existence/non-existence.
Some people think we (humans) are the only beings with a consiousness, I think we’re just the only beings that talk about it.
It’s easy to consider the lack of bragging by other species to be evidence that they have no consciousness, but perhaps some *are * conscious, and simply have no way of telling us or making it apparent some other way.
Neurobiological activity has ceased in a corpse. When a brain is either destroyed or can no longer receive the support it needs (blood, oxygen) to sustain its activity, it can no longer continue to produce consciousness. The electrical activity in the brain is consciousness.
I’m undecided on the “eternal soul” thing. Souls are linked in with beliefs of existence after death, like the Christian heaven/hell or reincarnation beliefs. Because of that, I’d put a cross beside the soul concept as a possible construct of human myth-making.
Then again, I do believe that something exists after death, however illogical that sounds. Spiritual belief isn’t logical, it’s not meant to be. I like WhyNot’s explanation about the “huge cosmic soul”. I think “soul” is a handy way to describe the concept, where other means might fail.
Can’t say I’ll wait and see, because although I do believe in something out there after death, I also reckon we’ll never ever remember who we are now, those we know, nothing – except the lessons. Once you’re dead, in this life – that’s it. Move onto the next set of players on the stage.
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