No soul, no afterlife, when you die, you’re dead.
Lisa: Hmmm…Pablo Neruda said laughter is the language of the soul.
Bart: I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda.
There is insufficient data to define the nature of a soul.
The word “supernatural” is a null term–if a thing exists, it is part of Nature.
No two cultures agree on the nature of the Divine, if any.
But beliefs regarding the existence of consciousness after death occur in all cultures, ranging from ghosts to an afterlife. Given this broad common reaction, it is not unreasonable to assume that some aspect of this exists, in some form, until strong evidence suggests otherwise.
The processes have stopped, and the brain structures that define the mind have decayed in a corpse.
Atheists may or may not also disbelieve in souls; materialists/physicalists don’t.
Why ? There’s no evidence anything survives - or can survive - after death; wishful thinking and/or a lack of imagination easily explains why belief in an afterlife is so common.
Couldn’t the same be said about gods?
And magic, and fate, and lots of things. Mass belief isn’t evidence of much.
What distinguishes a car that is running from one that is not? Does the running engine have a soul?
When you started the car, you made it run until you turn it off or it runs out of gas or something breaks down. What I’m getting at, is what started a human life? Consider a human fetus to be similar to a finished but non-running car; what turns our ignition switch on, and takes us from being a non-conscious egg and sperm to a conscious, self-aware individual? Could you name the exact biological reaction that imbues consciousness in a baby? Do you think we will be able to some day?
The kind of moment you are decribing does not occur. There is no “switch.” Consciousness grows as the brain grows.
What makes you think it’s “a” biological reaction; consciousness is a higher level phenomenon, like image recognition. We’re talking about neurological functions, not some “consciousness chemical”.
And no, I can’t name it exactly; no one can, yet.
The older I get, the more I become aware of my mortality. I want desparately to believe in a soul, but logically I can’t. I just hate to think that everything I’ve learned for weal or for woe will be lost in an instant. I hope there is some sort of reincarnation; I need a shot at building better karma. If I can, I will report back when the dread day arrives.
I think a debate/poll about consciousness, the soul and the existence of free will should be moved to Great Debates.
It’s been a while, but… appeal to popularity. Many people believing in something is not evidence of it. Furthermore, what would the “strong evidence” of an afterlife not existing consist of? How would you show an afterlife does not exist?
The word soul comes from the Latin, Anima, meaning life. Life and soul are the same thing. When life leaves any animated being it goes back to being atoms etc. death is just a change. So in that sense We have a soul, if soul is something that can go to a heaven or hell as a seperate thing ,then no, I do not believe we have one any more than other living things. Why would the body be responsible for the soul when the soul would be eternal but the body just temporal?
Monavis
I really hate arguments from etymology. They mean nothing. Here, it means even less. The word “soul” clearly does not come from “anima”.
It isn’t atoms while it’s living?
When I studied Latin the word anima(life and soul )meant the same thing,that is where our animation comes from. God was said to breathe life into Adam,and that was Adam’s soul. When some one is animated we say he is full of life. death is when the life that is no longer in the body, plant or animal.
Monavis
I fail to see the relevance of this, as the claim I was contesting was your claim that the word “soul” comes from “anima”. It clearly doesn’t.
Yes, I believe in the soul. Is there any way I can prove it exists to someone else? No.
You don’t think consciousness exists before age 3? I strongly disagree.
OK, seeing consciousness as the neurological impulses within the brain (DtC’s definition), I see a problem. Consciousness has a center. I am somewhere within my brain. There’s a center that’s aware of the various impulses going around. How can energy be self-aware? What’s the difference between life and other systems of matter and energy?
Irrelevant. Existence of a soul doesn’t imply any sort of afterlife. I don’t claim to know what happens to the “ghost in the machine,” but neither can I talk about the difference between a complex piece of software, which has no self-awareness, and me, who does, without some esse I call a “soul.”
To be conscious is to be aware of self and an external reality. Now comes the hard part. What do “aware” and “reality” mean?
You want I should win two or three Novel Prizes in one year?
We are the electrical activity in our brains. When that stops we no longer are. And you can take that to the bank.
I don’t agree - unless you’re using the word “center” in a different sense?
IMO, better to say "I am everywhere in my brain* and my body*.
Conciousness is emergent, it arises from the interactions of your neurons, your sense organs, your hormone systems etc… It doesn’t just sit in your head, I think - a brain in a jar will have a very different personality from that same brain in a body.