What is the evidence for (disembodied) souls?
What is the nature of the soul?
What is its function, when disembodied?
I understand "soul" to mean "a personal immortal entity that survives our physical death and is capable of reincarnation, or of 'residence' in some other state or place." At least I think this is what most people mean when they say "soul."
Here are the first three entries for "soul" in Dictionary.com.
1.
the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.
2.
the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come: arguing the immortality of the soul.
3.
the disembodied spirit of a deceased person: He feared the soul of the deceased would haunt him.
I find no evidence for the existence of such an entity, and am interested in understanding what leads us to postulate its existence. Lacking any evidence supporting the existence of this thing we call soul (and indeed, seeing evidence that tends to negate its existence), and not finding such an entity necessary to our lives in the manifest world, it seems to me that the "soul" is the product of wishful thinking grounded in mankind's utter fear of mortality -- that is, that he has a definitive end and is no more.
I do believe that we are eternal and have no birth or death, but not in the sense of "an immortal personal entity."
Would someone like to provide me with good reason to change my mind?
What is the nature of the soul?
What is its function, when disembodied?
I understand "soul" to mean "a personal immortal entity that survives our physical death and is capable of reincarnation, or of 'residence' in some other state or place." At least I think this is what most people mean when they say "soul."
Here are the first three entries for "soul" in Dictionary.com.
1.
the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.
2.
the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come: arguing the immortality of the soul.
3.
the disembodied spirit of a deceased person: He feared the soul of the deceased would haunt him.
I find no evidence for the existence of such an entity, and am interested in understanding what leads us to postulate its existence. Lacking any evidence supporting the existence of this thing we call soul (and indeed, seeing evidence that tends to negate its existence), and not finding such an entity necessary to our lives in the manifest world, it seems to me that the "soul" is the product of wishful thinking grounded in mankind's utter fear of mortality -- that is, that he has a definitive end and is no more.
I do believe that we are eternal and have no birth or death, but not in the sense of "an immortal personal entity."
Would someone like to provide me with good reason to change my mind?