Soul

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The soul is the name given to the supposed "immaterial part"^{[note 1]} of an individual, which some believe can exist separately from the body in the afterlife. Though the term itself largely comes from Christian traditions, most religions have some concept of a "part" of the person that is separate and distinct from the body. It's considered by those who believe in it to be a self-evident and intrinsic part of humanity (hence why things like philosophical zombies can exist in some peoples' minds). It is an important aspect of much religious belief — particularly when concerning the afterlife.

The term is often invoked in a metaphorical sense (such as a poetic statement "my soul was moved by his words") without implying the actual existence of a separate "magical" part of a person that exists after the person dies.

A fringe Christian belief separates people into two spiritual "races", pre-Adamic and Adamic humanity, where only the latter is endowed with the soul-spark and a large portion of humanity is viewed as missing it and being beyond salvation.^{[note 2]}

Religious and spiritual belief systems differ in whether non-human animals have souls; typically, Christianity does not grant them that.

Scientific view[edit]

Science does not recognize the concept of a soul, because the soul provides a supernatural explanation of the phenomenon of human consciousness, and as such the idea is non-falsifiable. Believers postulate that soul-stuff is completely immaterial. Scientists who attempt (and without exception, fail) to find evidence of the soul will usually be told that they can't measure or characterise it anyway — compare Non-Overlapping Magisteria. Like most other spiritual beliefs, the inability to measure makes the idea of the soul (conveniently) immune to scrutiny. Those who logically and scientifically argue against a "soul" would state that if something can't be measured or tested — directly or indirectly — in any way, then it can't affect the material world and therefore is, in all practicality and in all actuality, non-existent.

Soul-fans usually describe the soul as an immaterial "thing" in a way that implies that it "contains" someone's consciousness, emotions, personality, and memories. In reality, the only possibility of a soul existing would be through a function of awareness; that is, awareness from a body at a moment in time. We know from physics that time is merely space, so the fact that humans experience from one point in time rather than simultaneously experiencing the entirety of our lifespan creates an argument for the idea of the soul occupying a body, and traveling through space connected with it. The movement would be what we perceive as time.

Neuroscience suggests that these various aspects of the mind are almost exclusively dependent on the brain. Changes to the brain from injury or illness directly affect memories, emotions, and in fact a person's overall character.^[1][2][3] If those changes in actual personality can be identified within a working brain, how can the "soul" — which is generally described as these aspects in collective — exist? One wouldn't expect an immaterial entity to be affected by a giant rod ploughing right through its owner's skull.

If the soul does not interact with the physical body at all, then it should not bear any responsibility for the actions of its "host", such as "sin". (The soul would just be some sort of "observer", but even just "observing" something — according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics — may physically affect that thing.) If a body sins, it cannot be the soul's fault. (Compare conscience.^[4])

If the soul interacts with the physical body in some way, then that makes the soul a physical phenomenon…

Weighing[edit]

In an effort to put the soul onto a more scientific footing, Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts tried, in 1901, to weigh the soul (he disagreed with the common view of the soul, believing it was material, thus having mass). He took a dying man and weighed him until the "moment" of death, at which point he apparently noticed a reduction in weight of three-fourths of an ounce. The Sunn Classic Pictures 1978 pseudoscience documentary Beyond and Back^[5] dramatized MacDougall's experiment — with a great deal of artistic license. MacDougall subsequently repeated the experiment with fifteen unfortunate dogs and found no such reduction. Over time, he repeated the experiment with five other dying humans, and got a variety of differing results — which rather invalidated his premise.^[6] The human weight-loss he arrived at, about 21 grams, lived on in the urban legend stating we all lose this upon death, referenced in the title (and briefly in the plot) of the 2003 movie 21 Grams starring Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Naomi Watts.

Harry La Verne Twining also attempted to weigh the soul of animals in a set of experiments and obtained some interesting differences in weight loss. However, scientists (including Twining himself later in his life in 1915) claimed that the experiments turned out to be the result of the natural cause of moisture loss.^[7]

Other[edit]

The physicist R. A. Watters in the 1930s carried out some experiments with a Wilson cloud chamber and claimed to have observed the souls of insects and animals leaving their bodies at death. His results have not been replicated by other scientists, and skeptics believe his photographs depict dust.

Some parapsychologists have also reported cases of "soul mist" being seen after people have died; however, the scientific community does not regard these reports — based on personal stories or testimonials — as evidence for the existence of souls.^[8]

The number of souls[edit]

Modern monotheists often posit one soul per person. This soul is sometimes divided into several parts but is still a single soul. Other religious traditions, on the other hand, give out souls more generously.^[9] Ancient Egyptians distinguished at least five souls,^[10] and Aristotle, following Egyptian lore, subdivided the soul into three.^[11] One Chinese tradition postulates three souls,^[12] but Taoism features ten souls, sanhunqipo (三魂七魄) per person: "three hun and seven po".^[13]

Soul in Abrahamic religions[edit]

Before the influence of the Greek concept of the psyche on Hebrew thought, the Bible's authors only spoke of a man having breath (spirit) using the word nefesh in Hebrew, and any living creature was called a "soul". Consider in Genesis 2:7, describing the creation of Adam:

Genesis 2:7

Then YHWH God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and so the man became a living being.

In Judaism, the concept of the soul was expanded on later through the Kabbalah, which proposes separate elements of the soul (of sefirot): Nefesh (breath), Ruach (wind/spirit), Neshamah (breath), Chayah (life), and Yechidah (singularity). There is also an "animal soul" and a "godly soul". Many Jews also believe that one's soul is "Jewish" (even before conversion).^[14]

Meanwhile, in the canon, Ecclesiastes explicitly denies the belief in consciousness after death:

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes is also notable in the extent to which it dwells on the futility of the human condition. In the Hebrew writings, humans have no ontological superiority over animals.

Ecclesiastes 3:18-20
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Jews do not traditionally believe in an afterlife in the Christian sense, instead waiting for the prophecized resurrection in Olam haBa. Some believe that the souls may be put in the Chamber of Guf or Gehinnom. However, the New Testament begins to speak of parallel destinations of either hell or heaven/paradise:

Luke 23:43

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Opinions on the soul in Christianity vary greatly, in great part due to the sheer number of denominations. A common perspective is that humans are tripartite: body, soul, and spirit. The origin of the soul is also a subject of discussion. According to soul creationism, God creates each individual soul directly, either at the moment of conception or some later time. According to traducianism, the soul comes from the parents by natural generation. According to the preexistence theory, the soul exists before the moment of conception. A great deal of Christian perspectives on the soul concern the judgment of the soul by God.

Matthew 25:31-46

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: [...] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: [...] And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

And so on. Limbo comes later, coming from Catholicism. Some have argued in favor of annihilationism rather than an eternal hell, although that has never been the most widely-held or traditional view. It's not entirely clear how heaven or paradise and the resurrection fit together (Christians have wrangled over the details for generations); however, the Book of Revelation indicates the whole scenario does not take place "in the sky", but rather on a future Earth. The idea of the soul being immaterial may also be wrong, with every dead person rather being resurrected, judged, and then either sent to eternal torment/annihilated (depending on the specific interpretation) or given eternal life in heaven/paradise while inhabiting an immortal body.

Like Christianity, Islam also expounds upon the afterlife of the soul, heaven and hell being jannah and jahannam, respectively, along with resurrection. In Islam, the soul is typically referred to as the nafs (نَفْس - literally meaning "self" in Arabic). The soul is often considered to have three stages in Islam. First, the "soul which commands", where the soul causes one to do wrong, the "soul which blames", a soul that recognizes its own imperfections, and finally the "soul at peace", a soul that has found tranquility through God.^[15]

Qur'an 17:86

And they ask you about the soul. Say: The soul is one of the commands of my Lord, and you are not given aught of knowledge but a little.

See also[edit]

• Non-materialist neuroscience
• Afterlife
• Dualism

External links[edit]

• What Is The Soul?

Notes[edit]

References[edit]