Do you believe that human beings have a soul?

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**SlaveToDorkness**

I got Soul.

And I'm Super bad.

**Bullockist**

Fafnir wrote:

There's a species of monkey (forget specifically which one, it's been a while since I took a primatology course) that has a variety of calls that signify specific threats.

Similarly, Ravens are able to express abstract ideas to one another (such as the location of something after the fact).

Honestly I think the majority of animals have language , the fact that humans think they don't is bizarre. Ever heard the difference of calls between animals in a nature documentary? Just because we humans can't understand the differences in pitch ect as well as the part of the spectrum we can't hear does not mean there isn't communication going on.

When there are homosexual dolphins, serial killer child murdering lionesses ect, I find it hard to believe that animals do not have language as involved as our own.

**Smacks**

Avatar 720 wrote:
Smacks, you really didn't need to start implying that religious people are either children or uneducated, and that they rely on "dirt and magic" to explain things, in order to answer the OP.

Your very first sentence would have sufficed, unless you came here with the intention of turning this thread into a religious debate that will ultimately end in suspensions, bans, and tears before bedtime.

Firstly I made no such implication. "Children and the uneducated being able to understand religious ideas" is not the same as "All religious people are children and uneducated". Saying that they are is a fallacy of composition.

Also it is my post, and I felt I needed to elaborate on the idea of the human propensity to attribute 'magic' to systems which are actually just 'complex'. If someone finds that offensive then perhaps they aught to invest their feelings in some ideas that stand up better to scrutiny? As for debate: I will be happy to accommodate anyone who wants to discuss anything I have written in a polite and open manner.

**Jimsolo**

Iron_Captain wrote:
Jimsolo wrote:
Daemonhammer wrote:
I find that life is too dull to allow someting like a soul to exist, and in extention an afterlife.

Does the presence of a soul also require the existence of an afterlife? As opposed to some kind of natural cycle? (à la some form of reincarnation?)

That is an interesting question.
Even if there is a form of reincarnation, there still needs to be a place 'where souls come from', because the amount of people (and thus souls) on Earth has increased over time.
It could be of course that the number of souls is unchangeable, but that the number of souls on Earth at the same time is variable. That would necessiate (new word learned ) a "afterlife" where the souls are "stored" while they wait for their turn on Earth.

Unless the soul is just another form of life-force. The same kind of energy or force that gives any living creature the traits that we identify as personality or individuality. Is it possible that perhaps animals and humans all share a greater or lesser amount of this force, reabsorbed and then recombined in an infinite number of ways? Rather than being a distinct, individual identity, 'souls' would then be like waves. Each a distinct, identifiable thing in it's own right, but also a part of the greater whole, destined to be returned to it eventually, only to emerge again later.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Breotan wrote:

Having a soul implies some level of immortality. Only God is immortal.

That's what you think... When I leave this ground known as Midgard, I will be risen up to Valhalla, where I will fight, drink, and feth... and whatever else goes on up there to my hearts content. Until the Ragnarok, and I'm called into action once more

**Bullockist**

In Valhalla do you get drink appropriate to the century you come from, or does every one have to drink 8th century mead and beer?

**Jimsolo**

Bullockist wrote:
In Valhalla do you get drink appropriate to the century you come from, or does every one have to drink 8th century mead and beer?

I assume the Aesir are hardly going to be the type to ban the technological progress of alcoholic beverages in their afterlife.

**chromedog**

I don't believe in the concept of souls, let alone whether anything has one.

Neither man nor animal nor mineral nor vegetable - nor machine has one.

I understand the desire to wish that things had one, from a theory level - but the whole concept is just ... odd, from my pov.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Jimsolo wrote:
Bullockist wrote:
In Valhalla do you get drink appropriate to the century you come from, or does every one have to drink 8th century mead and beer?

I assume the Aesir are hardly going to be the type to ban the technological progress of alcoholic beverages in their afterlife.

Well, they probably don't have "Cosmos" or "apple martinis" available in Valhalla... as those are drinks for women or fairies

**Smacks**

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Well, they probably don't have "Cosmos" or "apple martinis" available in Valhalla... as those are drinks for women or fairies

Are you saying there are no drunk women in Valhalla? If heaven is just another drinking session with too many dudes, then I'm already there every weekend :/

**Ensis Ferrae**

Smacks wrote:
Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Well, they probably don't have "Cosmos" or "apple martinis" available in Valhalla... as those are drinks for women or fairies

Are you saying there are no drunk women in Valhalla? If heaven is just another drinking session with too many dudes, then I'm already there every weekend :/

Lol, nah... it's just that what women are there are probably the "rugby playing" variety, insofar as their drinking choices and habits

(ie... the women in Valhalla prefer copious amounts of beer and whiskey)

**Bullockist**

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Smacks wrote:
Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Well, they probably don't have "Cosmos" or "apple martinis" available in Valhalla... as those are drinks for women or fairies

Are you saying there are no drunk women in Valhalla? If heaven is just another drinking session with too many dudes, then I'm already there every weekend :/

Lol, nah... it's just that what women are there are probably the "rugby playing" variety, insofar as their drinking choices and habits (ie... the women in Valhalla prefer copious amounts of beer and whiskey)

If that's the case I think the valkyries must get pretty tired of terrible pick up lines around closing time

**KamikazeCanuck**

Jimsolo wrote:
Iron_Captain wrote:
Jimsolo wrote:
Daemonhammer wrote:
I find that life is too dull to allow someting like a soul to exist, and in extention an afterlife.

Does the presence of a soul also require the existence of an afterlife? As opposed to some kind of natural cycle? (à la some form of reincarnation?)

That is an interesting question.
Even if there is a form of reincarnation, there still needs to be a place 'where souls come from', because the amount of people (and thus souls) on Earth has increased over time.
It could be of course that the number of souls is unchangeable, but that the number of souls on Earth at the same time is variable. That would necessiate (new word learned ) a "afterlife" where the souls are "stored" while they wait for their turn on Earth.

Unless the soul is just another form of life-force. The same kind of energy or force that gives any living creature the traits that we identify as personality or individuality. Is it possible that perhaps animals and humans all share a greater or lesser amount of this force, reabsorbed and then recombined in an infinite number of ways? Rather than being a distinct, individual identity, 'souls' would then be like waves. Each a distinct, identifiable thing in it's own right, but also a part of the greater whole, destined to be returned to it eventually, only to emerge again later.

Yep, energy can not be created or destroyed.

People think of themselves as themselves and then the universe as the universe but we're part of the universe. It made us. Life is the universe trying to understand itself. And for better or worse humans may be it's most complex attempt to do so.

**Soladrin**

KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Jimsolo wrote:
Iron_Captain wrote:
Jimsolo wrote:
Daemonhammer wrote:
I find that life is too dull to allow someting like a soul to exist, and in extention an afterlife.

Does the presence of a soul also require the existence of an afterlife? As opposed to some kind of natural cycle? (à la some form of reincarnation?)

That is an interesting question.
Even if there is a form of reincarnation, there still needs to be a place 'where souls come from', because the amount of people (and thus souls) on Earth has increased over time.
It could be of course that the number of souls is unchangeable, but that the number of souls on Earth at the same time is variable. That would necessiate (new word learned ) a "afterlife" where the souls are "stored" while they wait for their turn on Earth.

Unless the soul is just another form of life-force. The same kind of energy or force that gives any living creature the traits that we identify as personality or individuality. Is it possible that perhaps animals and humans all share a greater or lesser amount of this force, reabsorbed and then recombined in an infinite number of ways? Rather than being a distinct, individual identity, 'souls' would then be like waves. Each a distinct, identifiable thing in it's own right, but also a part of the greater whole, destined to be returned to it eventually, only to emerge again later.

Yep, energy can not be created or destroyed.

People think of themselves as themselves and then the universe as the universe but we're part of the universe. It made us. Life is the universe trying to understand itself. And for better or worse humans may be it's most complex attempt to do so.

A thought which still smacks of ludicruous amounts of arrogance.

**Smacks**

Soladrin wrote:
KamikazeCanuck wrote:
People think of themselves as themselves and then the universe as the universe but we're part of the universe. It made us. Life is the universe trying to understand itself. And for better or worse humans may be it's most complex attempt to do so.

A thought which still smacks of ludicruous amounts of arrogance.

Which is ironically what you might expect. I admit it's a stretch to believe that we are the universe's most complex intelligence, but we could well be its most narcissistic.

**Asherian Command**

I think humans do have a soul. Just like how I have a heart. I don't know what it is or what it looks like, but i think it might be the electricity that gives life. The thing that makes me move, and lets all beings move. Some call it the universe, others call it friction, some call it god. I do not know because I am not a creator, My soul is my own in a vast network of other souls in a giant organism.

**KamikazeCanuck**

Soladrin wrote:
KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Jimsolo wrote:
Iron_Captain wrote:
Jimsolo wrote:
Daemonhammer wrote:
I find that life is too dull to allow someting like a soul to exist, and in extention an afterlife.

Does the presence of a soul also require the existence of an afterlife? As opposed to some kind of natural cycle? (à la some form of reincarnation?)

That is an interesting question.
Even if there is a form of reincarnation, there still needs to be a place 'where souls come from', because the amount of people (and thus souls) on Earth has increased over time.
It could be of course that the number of souls is unchangeable, but that the number of souls on Earth at the same time is variable. That would necessiate (new word learned ) a "afterlife" where the souls are "stored" while they wait for their turn on Earth.

Unless the soul is just another form of life-force. The same kind of energy or force that gives any living creature the traits that we identify as personality or individuality. Is it possible that perhaps animals and humans all share a greater or lesser amount of this force, reabsorbed and then recombined in an infinite number of ways? Rather than being a distinct, individual identity, 'souls' would then be like waves. Each a distinct, identifiable thing in it's own right, but also a part of the greater whole, destined to be returned to it eventually, only to emerge again later.

Yep, energy can not be created or destroyed.

People think of themselves as themselves and then the universe as the universe but we're part of the universe. It made us. Life is the universe trying to understand itself. And for better or worse humans may be it's most complex attempt to do so.

A thought which still smacks of ludicruous amounts of arrogance.

We have yet to find something else that has even bothered to ask a question like "do I have a soul?"

**Bran Dawri**

nkelsch wrote:
Primates in the wild weave baskets for fishing. Octopuses build houses to live in to keep them safe from predators.

If left to their own devices, other species may have every opportunity to match or exceed our 'extraordinary' feats. We wouldn't even had been here without previous mass extinction events making room for us. It is said if another ice age or asteroid impact hits the earth and wipes out land-based animals, Cephalopod will inherit the earth as they would be the most insulated from such impacts and one of the most intelligent species.

We will be just another chapter in a future history book: "First giant lizards roamed the earth, then pink hairless primates, and then our great squid civilization! But that is because we clearly have superior design with our suction cups and tentacles and large eyes and brains... "

My money's on dolphins. They're smarter, and we've taught them a thing or two. Or killer whales. Just as smart, but with more mass and bigger teeth

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bullockist wrote:

If that's the case I think the valkyries must get pretty tired of terrible pick up lines around closing time

No, see, what makes it a heaven is that those pickup lines actually work there

**Bullockist**

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

We have yet to find something else that has even bothered to ask a question like "do I have a soul?"

I'd correct that to we have yet to understand something else has bothered to ask a question like "do I have a soul". We do not know. Considering that our understanding of ourselves on a sociological level changes seemingly every decade I'm thinking that our understanding of other creatures may be flawed.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Bran Dawri wrote:

No, see, what makes it a heaven is that those pickup lines actually work there

That's it I'm becoming a viking, I'm going to walk around Valhalla proudly proclaiming "I have a sword" and seeing all the valkyries swoon.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Bullockist wrote:

That's it I'm becoming a viking, I'm going to walk around Valhalla proudly proclaiming "I have a sword" and seeing all the valkyries swoon.

Learn to talk like Honey Badger, and you won't have to become a viking

**focusedfire**

Yep, they have souls.

Tho' it's to bad that evolution has made Human Beings such a rare and endangered species.

**Deadshot**

I believe nothing. I simply accept scientific facts as facts, theories as likely to be true and hypothesis as an idea. Religion, belief, faith? Doesn't come into it for me. That said, a soul would be nice, as long as it dies with my body.