Thread: Do We Have Souls?

Originally Posted by kayangelus

Sorry, let me refrase that. Are you saying that mammals are better than all other living beings?

What makes mammals so special? Cause the only thing that they have that plants/reptiles/birds/fish don't have is that they are warm blooded. seriously, what makes mammals all that special.

i didn't said that i believed mamals had souls (penta said it, and i repeated it to you because you didn't seem to have read what he wrote ^^)

but i think humans have a soul.
does it makes humans better ?? it depends what you call "better"... sometimes intelligence is a pain in the ass ain't it ? i'd say it makes us different, and in some ways privileged..
(be careful : i didn't said soul == intelligence...... )


@ aikido : how do you think the toys in toy story were able to move during 1 and a half hour ??
obviously, they used energizer batteries !!!

Originally Posted by kayangelus

Originally Posted by pentaelemental

Soul is the essence of a living being. It's the property of a living thing that sets it apart from a self-replicating machine.

Actually, primitive and simple organisms don't have souls, since every one of them are automatons, like plants. The higher organisms such as mammals, have definitive intelligence and can react to other intelligent beings.

Souls are real, but not tangible.

So you are saying that humans are better than other living beings.

What makes us qualified to have souls? Is it that if we have enough cells than a soul is produced? Than how come those trees that are a few hundred years old don't have souls?

Anyways, my opinion is that we don't have souls. If we had souls, what kind of energy would souls be made out of? I just simply think that thoughts are due to reactions in our brains, and souls were used to explain to the not-so-well-educated-people how it is that we think.

What qualifies us to have souls? Our intelligence.

Trees don't have souls, but they are necessary for our survival. For now.

Souls are not made of energy. They are more like Identities. They define who and what we are.

Souls don't explain how we think. They are the defining characteristics of how we think.

And Shautieh, mammals actually do have souls, even if it is crude and rudimentary. If an entity can recognize itself apart from other things, it has a soul. That is to say, computers with AI, may have a basic structure of soul elements. However, we aren't even close to the complexity of a entity that can speak for itself.

There's no such thing as a soul. That's about all there is to it. The whole idea of a "soul" is nothing more than a way to make people feel special and believe there's something beyond our life on Earth. You are not special and when you die you cease to exist. There is no soul.

Originally Posted by pentaelemental

And Shautieh, mammals actually do have souls, even if it is crude and rudimentary. If an entity can recognize itself apart from other things, it has a soul. That is to say, computers with AI, may have a basic structure of soul elements. However, we aren't even close to the complexity of a entity that can speak for itself.

with your point of view yes ^^
but i guess there are as much "truths", ie viewpoints as people (this message is also aimed at cooler ^^")

i don't stick with your idea that computers with AI are intelligent... they are ones of the most non-intelligent things you can find on earth...
and i don't believe every being with a somewhat evolved intelligence has a soul..

Dug this one up,read it,its about scientists discovering the soul(thanks to the funny and awesome thread)
http://www.quantumbiocommunication.c...-the-soul.html

I beleive that there are souls but not just humans or mammals have them.In Hinduism(is that how you spell it?) you are reincarnated as any living thing,be it an insect or an alien.

Souls are identities. Ideas. Someone taking your "soul" is really just committing identity theft. However, without a soul you don't have the capacity to feel and think as a living being. You will be a robot. Thankfully, nothing can really take your soul.

Souls are structures. Or blueprints of structures. They are made of pieces of our memories, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. However, like buildings, they seldom change. The interior is refurnished, the exterior is repainted. Windows and tiles are replaced. A human mind is very much like a house.

Now why are we intelligent?

Let's take a look at the most basic unit of life: the cell. The cell on its own just reacts to whatever has been programmed into it. It makes molecules and breaks other molecules. These molecules have certain properties that allow a specific function or performance. When many cells produce functional molecules and are grouped together to increase productivity and efficiency, they are now tissue. Tissue group together to become organs. Organs group together to become a organ system. Organ systems group together to become an individual.

The human brain is made of many types of tissue. It is an extremely complex and structured system. It has chemicals swarming within it, and they swarm in specific routes, like roads and highways. The molecules do what they exist to do. The cooperation of these molecules create structured patterns known as "thought". Some patterns are stored, and become "memory". Some molecules are created to symbolize a reaction known as "feeling". The combined peices of thought, memory, and feeling become beliefs. This is our minds. A miracle of formed structures and systems. (It's so beautiful I want to cry )

Not all creatures have brains of this capacity. Ants for example, cannot think on their own. They only react. However, they stick together and swarm. As a swarm, the reactions form a complex system that can solve problems (like how to steal a person's lunch, or in the bee's case, how to gather honey). Swarms also exibit intelligent behavior, but because the individual unit is much larger and separated from each other, and thus communication is more blurred, they cannot form the same efficient system as a brain. Our brains are like swarms of cells, with exceptional efficiency and potential.

I hope I cleared up what the soul is now.

Edit: Good find Hanul. Quantum instrument. They probably did a far better wording job than I did. But I like what I do.

Originally Posted by coolerimmortal

There's no such thing as a soul. That's about all there is to it. The whole idea of a "soul" is nothing more than a way to make people feel special and believe there's something beyond our life on Earth. You are not special and when you die you cease to exist. There is no soul.

i agree ... a little

i dont belive in souls i believe in conscience. that once we die our concscience surpasses this world and lives on dreaming a contiuous thought for eternity. each persons one is different and varies on things like what they belive in to how they died. and from that i guess that heaven and hell and you are all in how you die and what you believe in. if you die wanting to go to heaven your conscience will produce a heaven for you as you trancend this plane and if you die knowing or expecting hell then your specific hell will await you, and if like me you dont want either, i think youll end up just in a world that you want. not perfect not horrible but just a mirror image of what you are in your own...

same way people brought back from the dead swear they see lights and feel warmth even though they were dead.

No. Our consciousness is caused by electrochemical reactions in our brains. This also explains why animals are dumber than we are, their brains are simply less advanced. Bringing in souls as an explanation is not necessary, and in fact completely arbitrary.

Basically, Occam's Razor applies in this case.

I heard once that scientists noticed that people weighed slightly less after they were dead than when they were alive....21g, I think... which gives evidence to the idea that there is a soul.

Being a person who believes in reincarnation, I do believe in the idea of a soul. It's who you are, who you were, and who you will be, even if your body changes. At least... that's how I see it...