Re: Re: Re: Prove to me that you have a soul.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
My cat has a body and is alive, therefore, my cat has a soul.
I'd agree. Unless of course the term "soul" is similar to the term "man" and what a cat has is termed something else. All the same, yes I'd agree with that Shaky 🙂
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
IMO ether all animals including humans have souls or they do not have a soul.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Yes. Including non living things.
Mormon beliefs state that God created everything spiritually before creating it physically. This would state that if a soul is the combination of spiritual and physical then everything has a soul.
Originally posted by Alliance
Yeah.You said i might not.
😆 Am I confusing you?
The idea of the soul in the Buddhist (my form of Buddhism) is known as the 8th level of consciousness.
I am the incarnation of my entity and my entity could be considered my soul, but it is not mine, it belongs to my entity or God.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
😆 Am I confusing you?The idea of the soul in the Buddhist (my form of Buddhism) is known as the 8th level of consciousness.
I am the incarnation of my entity and my entity could be considered my soul, but it is not mine, it belongs to my entity or God.
I've always seen this as a fancy way of defining soul. Yes, I realize it's different than the Western sense of the word 'soul' but it's still something that transcends the body (or the material world).
Reincarnation (and the Buddhist belief in it) is an example. With absolutely no extra-body "soul entity" there wouldn't be anything able to reincarnate.
You call it the incarnation of your entity. Fair enough. Many would say you're just referring to your soul, however.
I've always strayed away from such definitions since it's so hard. I believe in reincarnation. And whatever it is that reincarnates, people can call it whatever they like, and think of it however they like. My sphere of "belief" ends with the evidence I can point to that supports a belief in reincarnation (in that sense, I'm rather empyrical rather than 'spiritual'😉
Originally posted by DigiMark007
I've always seen this as a fancy way of defining soul. Yes, I realize it's different than the Western sense of the word 'soul' but it's still something that transcends the body (or the material world).Reincarnation (and the Buddhist belief in it) is an example. With absolutely no extra-body "soul entity" there wouldn't be anything able to reincarnate.
You call it the incarnation of your entity. Fair enough. Many would say you're just referring to your soul, however.
I've always strayed away from such definitionssince it's so hard. I believe in reincarnation. And whatever it is that reincarnates, people can call it whatever they like, and think of it however they like. My sphere of "belief" ends with the evidence I can point to that supports a belief in reincarnation (in that sense, I'm rather empyrical rather than 'spiritual'😉
To me the difference is like: is the Earth the center of the universe? Once we thought the sun went around the Earth, but later we found that we go around the sun. It is not my soul; I am not the center of my own existence. There is something bigger then myself. To take it one step further, all entities are one, and that is how we are all connected.
This thread is confusing, so let me just say this,
The proof of a soul is like the proof of God, there is no knowledge of it, yet that doesn't disprove it. It was most-likely made up in ancient times, therefore, should be ignored by anyone sensible. Having that said, you might say we have no souls because it's made up, still, you never know, so it's best to just ignore it.
I don't think "Do we have a soul?" isn't the question to be asked. We first need to know "What is a soul?", "What can and cannot have a soul?" and "Is a soul even necessary?"
I guess you've now probably realised I'm getting ahead of myself here and shouldn't of posted this at all.... Ah well.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Yes. Including non living things.
Consider consciousness, awareness, in broadest terms. Perhaps it's everywhere, but we don't see this because, in a way, consciousness is like gravity.
The more massive something is, the more noticeable its gravity. A moon is more massive than a pebble, so we notice lunar gravity. Lunar grav is nothing, however, compared to the gravity of a black hole.
The more complex something is, the more aware it is. A lizard is more complex than a pebble, so we notice it is aware. We can even talk about our awareness, we're so aware, which makes sense since we are the most complex entities we know of.
I might define the soul as a process of consciousness. And the only way you could hope to prove anything like this is by showing the skeptic "the way," and to let him draw his own conclusion.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
To me the difference is like: is the Earth the center of the universe? Once we thought the sun went around the Earth, but later we found that we go around the sun. It is not my soul; I am not the center of my own existence. There is something bigger then myself. To take it one step further, all entities are one, and that is how we are all connected.
Understood. I realize you see 'soul' as just a diferrentiation from the entity that is "All". In that respect though, if all is one (and you and I are in agreement here, since I believe roughly the same thing with regards to everything being connected) then our individual "souls" are, to create a metaphor, arms on a body. We aren't seperate from other aspects of the body, but that which is you (an arm) is different than that which is me (another arm). But we're a part of the same whole.
We'd just have to imagine an infinite-armed creature to get the metaphor truly correct. 🙂
Not too far from a 'we're all children of God' analogy from Christianity, but I think that's the general idea.
...
Back to the main subject though:
I'd still simply point to the considerable (non-biased) evidence we have of reincarnation (not proof, but evidence) and use that to say that there's at least evidence of something greater than the body/material world/etc.
Shaky, I always thought of it this way.....
We are not our bodies...our bodies are a part of us, and belong to us (atleast for now) but they are not who we are.
Our mind is not who we are either...it is also just a part of us. If your mind was really you, then you would always be in union with it, and that is not the case.
Ever have thoughts that enter your mind without your permission ? Has your mind ever stressed you out in any way ?
There has to be something deeper. Your beleif in your Entity is pretty much the same concept of the Soul.
The Soul predates the Concept of the Christian/Judeo God. The idea of a soul existed way before the mainstream religions, because it existed in Egyptian, Peruvian, and Greek mythologies as well......
I sort of believe it like this:
Your Body is the dwelling place for your mind. And your mind is the dwelling place for your Soul. The mind is such a complex "place"....a network of thoughts, dreams, and emotions. However, what absorbs all of that? You can't be your mind, because your mind is more of a "place" than a state of identity. Your identity, ego, or purest self has to be something else....if not a soul, then what ?