For those who belive in souls or spirits, do they have a physical existance? If so what and where is it? If not, then what is a soul?
I don’t ‘believe’ as such, but try to keep an open mind. Any time I’ve read about soul or spirit, it seems to refer to a metaphysical connection, between people, or all things, or time itself, or perhaps most popularly the true never-ending self. I think therefore nobody suggests it has a physical existance. Given that this doesn’t jive with any of our current scientific understanding, you’d have to say “God only knows!”, and kind of mean it.
I’m a soul, you’re a soul. We’re all souls. As in the phrase: “The ship went down with 40 souls on board.”
The human body and soul are inextricably combined from conception. The soul has a physical component in that it is always unified with a human body. It is created when the human being is created physically and never dies, even as the human body changes form (but does not die) after the death of the earthy body.
I don’t believe in souls, but I’ll take a crack at this. By definition, “metaphysical” means beyond the physical. Souls are not a part of the physical universe and cannot be detected by the five senses or any kind of scientific observation. Consequently there’s no way to prove or disprove their existence. As to the nature of the soul, “were” it lives, and why it exists, your guess is as good as mine.
–Caliban
Regarding the bacteria which can digest nylon:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mutations.html
In any event, it’s clear that all species have mutations which made them better able to survive. I’ve yet to meet a creationist who can explain the similarity of sequence between proteins of unrelated function- in other words, proteins that were created by beneficial mutations.
-Ben
Uh… the bulletin board won’t let me delete that last mispost…
-Ben
I derived my conclusion on the location of the soul like this: If you trim your fingernails do you lose any part or all of your soul? I don’t think so. How about if your arm is cut off? Lost any soul? Nope. What if you were decapitated? Have you lost any soul? No? Then the soul must be located in your head. Probably its located right next to your mind.
You mind telling me where the mind is located then? Or better, how you can be decapitated and still not lose your head?
If the soul didn’t exist, how could we have Soul Train?
What I meant was that your soul is contained within your skull just like your mind is. If you have to narrow it down to a location your soul sure ain’t located in your toe.
I recently read a good book called “Journey of Souls” by Michael Newton. It is a pretty interesting book based on the authors experience with hypnosis and past life regressions. Not sure if I buy it or not but worth checking out, Later…
Of course you don’t “have” a soul. You are a soul. A soul that has been banned. Poor soul!
…two of 'em!
(One on the bottom of each shou :D)
[sup]Apologies tendered. I just couldn’t resist![/sup]
~~Baloo
I reckon the soul is a less developed explanation for the way our mind controls our body. The holistic functioning of the brain is the mind and individual processes are invisible to us. For instance we dont exactly know how we walk, we just think it and it happens. I think the soul was an attempt to explain this.