Do you believe in an afterlife of sorts? Do you believe we have "Souls"?

[Biased Liberal Media]

I saw a response to a post I made a while ago stating that I believe our souls do go somewhere and we are reunited with each other when we die. I don't know how I came up with this...I once read this book, Journey of Souls (can't remember who the author was) and it was fascinating. I sometimes wonder if I have a previous life just because I do not know where I get my passion for certain causes from. I don't see that passion in my family at all.

So why? Why not? Do you think it's weird for a self-proclaimed Athiest to believe in souls/karma/reincarnation?? Why??

[fshrink]

1. Nothing is gained, nothing is lost

Everything is transformed. We ARE 95% water plus 5% of various compounds of carbon and nitrite. We breathe the same molecules the ancient breathed. We don't know much more and I am perfectly fine with that. Leaves a bunch of amazing questions for science to tackle.

[Biased Liberal Media]

2. Thank you for your response

[BlueEyedSon]

9. I think they are not "scientific" questions, so I wouldn't expect science

to answer them.

[Biased Liberal Media]

3. So can those who voted NO give me some insight??

Just curious as to why you said no.

Thanks.

[gottaB]

4. The ideas of soul and afterlife are not absolutely meaningless. However,

They tend to lead away from understanding rather than towards it. Death and impermanence are difficult to come to terms with, but the effort must be made if one is to live well.

[SlackJawedYokel]

7. I said no

because there is no evidence of either.
Aside from the historical evidence in the various and sundry beliefs in such things.
I lump all of these sorts of things into the "supernatural" category of things that only exist in peoples minds.
Show me evidence to the contrary and I can begin to take it seriously.

Cletus

[Biased Liberal Media]

11. There is no evidence

but I believe (this is MY personal belief) that our souls have meaning to them. I don't know how or why, but I just do.

But there is no evidence of it. I just don't like to think of having no soul, but that's just me.

[PassingFair]

10. I voted no.

Does that mean that a fairy dies?

[Biased Liberal Media]

12. Huh?

[PassingFair]

21. Isn't it from Peter Pan or somesuch....

that if you don't believe, a fairy dies in Neverland?

[gollygee]

19. What would a soul be?

I think we use the word "soul" to try to explain rational thought and knowledge. But the term "soul" really means something supernatural and magical. Something that lasts after death? I don't buy that at all.

[displacedtexan]

5. I have a "soul" of sorts.

I firmly believe that that which we do and say here on earth lives on after we die...

in the form of our mannerisms, beliefs, and deeds.

On some level, I believe that others sense or recognize those qualities (or some combination of mannerisms, beliefs, and deeds) in our future "selves" and are either attracted to them or repelled by them.

Does that make any sense?

Still on my first cup of coffee.

[Biased Liberal Media]

13. Makes total sense

that's where I'm at at the present time.

[Phentex]

6. I believe in a reincarnation of sorts but not necessarily a soul....

and I don't even know if we return to this world as we know it. I believe we each have some sort of energy that changes into another form when we die.

Clear as mud, eh?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. Not energy -- information

We're information.

[fshrink]

25. That's the quantic way anyways. nt

[Az]

8. We are the result of our brains

The mind arises from the process going on in the brain. It does not direct or guide the brain. It is not a gremlin or spirit directing things from an invisible perch.

Consider that we can change a person's identity and memories simply by altering their brain. When we are drugged (as I am right now, vicadin due to root canal) our perceptions change. Physical exertion and all manner of physiological changes affect the mind.

[stevebreeze]

14. While I voted no I do think there is life after death in a way

we CLEARLY live on in the works we have done and we teaching we have passed on to others and genetically through our children and grand children.

That we somehow live on through our "soul" or otherwise is mankind desperately rationalizing it's own demise, and refusing to admit to it's own mortality. In the beginning man creates God(s)to explain things it does not understand.

[Dookus]

15. No

for a few reasons.

First, I believe in evolution. We are descended from ape-like ancestors. Did they have souls? Did their ancestors have souls? If the answer is yes, we have to assign a soul to every living organism. If the answer is no, at some point humans became endowed with souls. When did that occur?

I've often heard it said that it occurred at the time we became self-aware. Poetically, that is true. It is self-awareness and a recognition of mortality that creates the NEED to invent a soul. But self-awareness did not occur suddenly - it is the sum total of a variety of brain functions. Was there a tipping point? Did one soulless female give birth to a baby with a soul because he had a .05% greater level of self-awareness? Seems implausible.

Also, do people believe souls NEVER die? That is too horrible to contemplate, and raises other issues. Real eternity would be unbearable. Say you spend a trillion years doing what you love best, then a trillion years doing what you love next best, etc. etc. After going through a billion activities, you've made no dent at all in eternity. So then you start having sit-down talks with all the great people. Then the not so great people... each talk lasting a trillion years. So by the time you're saying goodbye to Fran Drescher because you have a trillion year appointment with Joan Rivers, you're probably pretty sick of this shit.

Let's say you somehow grow, as a soul, though. You gain a point every trillion years. After you achieve a trillion points, you become a God. You can make your own worlds. So you do that a few trillion, trillion times and you're longing to go back to Fran Drescher.

Then... if souls are really eternal, they must exist outside our bodies, outside this planet, outside this galaxy, indeed, outside this universe, because it ALL will end some day. If they do not exist outside the universe, then an "end" (i.e., death) will come at some point. So real death *IS* imaginable - we just put off thinking about it.

I think few people actually consider the consequences of an immortal soul - sounds like hell to me. And if the soul is NOT immortal, then death IS thinkable, so why not use the evidence at hand to determine it happens when our brain functions cease?

[Kolesar]

16. That was quite a treatise

I will just say "no" and tell you that it is because I live in the natural world. I am as the raven or the bristlecone pine. My time will come.

I find the meaning of life in the life cycle of organisms. It is a marvelous thing and is the only way that life on Earth spans the eons. It is just that the individual does not survive. While we are on Earth, it is our responsibility to provide mercy to the sick and those in pain. (do I sound like a Democrat?)

[hoi polloi]

22. Based on our science as known today

We don't have souls. One person mentioned earlier that there is no scientific evidence, therefore souls cannot be. Imagine how dismayed ancestral scientists were when a genius discovered new facts and usurped them.
I do not believe we have souls.
My belief isn't based on good science. Maybe science hasn't reached the intellectual level of understanding as yet.
I do not believe we have souls. But, I believe in the laws of conservation of energy and mass.
We could be transformed from one form to another. I know that we were formed from energy of our star to matter of the earth to us in some as yet unidentified way. I know we will return back to the matter of the earth.
We were star dust in the beginning and we will be stardust in the end because the Universe appears to be doomed to extinction in the distant future. What will go on beyond then? What came before?
You cannot deny there is a mystery. That is the stuff religion is born of, when things are not knowable.

[Dookus]

23. I just re-read the whole thread...

and your assertion that "One person mentioned earlier that there is no scientific evidence, therefore souls cannot be" is false.

[trotsky]

17. Excellent response, Dookus.

I could basically say "ditto" to that entire post. I can't imagine a more horrible fate than eternal life, to be quite honest. A longer life here, just to see more human history as it unfolds, would be great, but we get what we get.

[immoderate]

20. Great post.

A lot depends on whether you get the "Nanny" Fran Drescher or the "Spinal Tap" Fran Drescher.

Your post reminds me of Mark Twain's essay on why he wouldn't want to go to heaven. He couldn't tolerate the idea of standing around for eternity -- singing hymns. Not to mention the people you'd get stuck there with. He hypothesized preacher types would get to heaven.

--IMM

[BlueHandDuo]

24. Nope, it's all wetware...

...and there's no Superego, Ego, and Id in there, either.

[Modem Butterfly]

26. Do I think it's weird? In all honesty, I kind of do

As much as I hate to judge, I think that an atheist who believes in souls, karma, and/or reincarnation as more of an agnostic. Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course. It just seems to me that those things pre-suppose an over-arching, supernatural consciousness or purpose, perhaps a deity, perhaps a simple first force.

On a personal note, souls, karma, and reincarnation are all beautiful ideas that are very appealing. There have been many times when I wished I did believe in such things.

[Biased Liberal Media]

28. Perhaps...but I do NOT believe there is a god

Who knows. I guess when I die I will find out.

[Az]

29. Ironically perhaps not

If those of us saying there is nothing after we die are right then you will not find out anything. You simply will not. As in not be. Perhaps a bit austere but that is the deck we may be playing with.

[Synnical]

27. Define "after life"

Define a "soul". Define "god".

As Shrub apparently just discovered, words have meaning, and when you're the leader of the "free" world, they have consequences.

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale