# Thoughts on the body and soul **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 6, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-the-body-and-soul/683046 "2014-03-06T20:25:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-the-body-and-soul/683046/21 "2014-03-07T21:27:21Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > All it takes is a good knock to my computer to completely change the operating system and all the other programs on my computer. But that doesn’t mean that the operating system and programs are illusions. Father Ronald Knox said the same thing about radios, back in the 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-the-body-and-soul/683046/22 "2014-03-07T21:38:25Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > If I have a soul, where was it before I was born? Just wondering. Why does it have to be anywhere? If we call our personality a soul, it begins when we do. And it ends when we do also. Yeah, it can change. So can programs. My version of Vista is a bit demented at this point. As far as I can tell pretty much everyone in this thread agrees with each other, though they may not be aware of it. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-the-body-and-soul/683046/23 "2014-03-07T21:52:59Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Why does it have to be anywhere? If we call our personality a soul, it begins when we do. And it ends when we do also. > > Yeah, it can change. So can programs. My version of Vista is a bit demented at this point. > As far as I can tell pretty much everyone in this thread agrees with each other, though they may not be aware of it. My point exactly, sorry I didn’t clarify. I have Vista too, it’s quirky to say the least. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-the-body-and-soul/683046/24 "2014-03-08T00:42:18Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > I think you’re misunderstanding what I’m proposing. A “soul” is an emergent process that comes from a brain and a body, just like a thunderstorm is an emergent process that comes from wind, moisture and electricity or this Web site is an emergent property of a silicon arrangement, wires and electrons. A web site is not the same as the servers it exists on or the computers it is read with, but it nonetheless emerges from them! Why “soul” then? What you’re describing can equally well be a definition of “mind.” The word “soul” carries a shit-load of theological baggage. If you don’t want that, you really shouldn’t use that word. > [@](#): > > Nor are our souls/personalities the “same” as our bodies, even though it’s a product of it. Does that make sense? Information is still “physical” but it’s distinct from matter and energy. I’m proposing that our consciousness is a unit of information. Okay: all of this makes sense…and it makes sense in material terms. The mind, the personality, the self, all are made up of matter and energy, and kept in patterns we call “information.” Information may be “emergent” in the way you’re describing, but it depends on matter and energy for its expression. Burn that dollar bill, and the serial number is gone and lost and never retrievable. Information (at least in practical terms) can be destroyed. The “soul” is usually said to be indestructible, and to be non-physical. Again, if you don’t want those properties, you shouldn’t be using this word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-the-body-and-soul/683046.md?page=1)