What function does a soul serve?

[Shad Woest]

I would like to know, from people of all religions, what the soul is and what you think it does.
Personally, I don't believe that there is such a thing.
I think that people are driven by their brains, and kept alive by both the brains and their heart, whereas other people would think that's what the soul is for.
But where does it fit in? Where is it held? What is it for?  

[Insatiable Design]

This is what I believe.

A soul is the spark of life, so to speak. All living things have souls. From a scientific standpoint, it's harder to describe, as it seems to be becoming increasingly difficult to determine what qualifies as being alive and what does not. I'm not sure I'd call it consciousness or awareness, as there is no evidence that I know of to show primitive life forms such as bacteria possessing this trait, although they are alive.

What a soul does, well, I guess you could say it's what makes you alive. Not like breathing or eating, more like, if you were the first bacteria or whatever to come into existence, whatever it was that made you alive and not unalive, would be the soul. It's the thing that drives even cells without a nucleus to do the things that qualify them as life (going with the most basic description I've seen, as there are many different opinions.) Multicellular organisms have one soul made up of many smaller, lesser souls.

It doesn't have weight, it isn't kept in a certain piece of you. Think of it not as matter but more as a chemical reaction (metaphorically.) It "burns" while you live and dies when you die. It also changes over time, at least in multicellular organisms that lose cells and produce more while still as a whole remain alive.

Not all souls are equal in assumed "size" and complexity. If souls had a tangible form, the soul of a multicellular organism vs unicellular would be larger, because the multicellular's size would be # of living cells, "plus 1", and the unicellular would be just 1. Complexity is less to do with size and more to do with function and working together with other cells. Generally, the more complex the organism, the more complex the soul.  

[Lateralus es Helica]

I have no idea.

Quote:

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.
4.
the emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments.

The dictionary itself can't even settle on one definition.

As such, I find it fun to speculate.

The latest idea I subscribe to as possibility is the idea that we have multiple souls that each serve their own individual purpose, all parts or expressions of 'self' at least in the context of reality as we experience it.

For example you have a soul for dreaming, a soul for work, a soul for family, a soul for an intimate partner, etc. If such were the case, one could be said to have a dominant 'soul' when experiencing mental illness or personality disorders with the clearest in relation to this particular definition being schizophrenia although clinical depression makes a great example as well as often one whom suffers from clinical depression is practically incapable of expressing themselves except in the depressive state.

I'm not speaking of souls as objects either but more as expressions, processes. To think of them as objects, I think, is to be fooled by illusion. I don't see them as objects or as having constitution but as processes, expressions, energy and change in motion, impermanent.  

[Shad Woest]

So in a basic sense, a soul is one's emotions and actions?
Is it pre-determined or do we choose, this leads into a different topic though of fate but I think it ties in a little :0  

[divineseraph]

Mothette

This is what I believe.

A soul is the spark of life, so to speak. All living things have souls. From a scientific standpoint, it's harder to describe, as it seems to be becoming increasingly difficult to determine what qualifies as being alive and what does not. I'm not sure I'd call it consciousness or awareness, as there is no evidence that I know of to show primitive life forms such as bacteria possessing this trait, although they are alive.

What a soul does, well, I guess you could say it's what makes you alive. Not like breathing or eating, more like, if you were the first bacteria or whatever to come into existence, whatever it was that made you alive and not unalive, would be the soul. It's the thing that drives even cells without a nucleus to do the things that qualify them as life (going with the most basic description I've seen, as there are many different opinions.) Multicellular organisms have one soul made up of many smaller, lesser souls.

It doesn't have weight, it isn't kept in a certain piece of you. Think of it not as matter but more as a chemical reaction (metaphorically.) It "burns" while you live and dies when you die. It also changes over time, at least in multicellular organisms that lose cells and produce more while still as a whole remain alive.

Not all souls are equal in assumed "size" and complexity. If souls had a tangible form, the soul of a multicellular organism vs unicellular would be larger, because the multicellular's size would be # of living cells, "plus 1", and the unicellular would be just 1. Complexity is less to do with size and more to do with function and working together with other cells. Generally, the more complex the organism, the more complex the soul.

The two are split up, often. Spirit is what you are referring to as the Vitalizing Principle. It is what gives motion to all things, but causes growth of biological life in ways beyond the mundane. It powers Ki/Chi, for example. The Soul is consciousness, or Self. As you said, it is hard to determine if primitive life has this, but it is more than possible that it has a muted form of it. It's not necessarily reflective or contemplative, but "knowing".  

[divineseraph]

Asking what the soul is for is a flawed question. It's like asking what the driver of a car is for. The more relevant question is "What is the car for?", as it is the car made for the driver, not the other way around.

The Soul is the Self. That is it. Descartes used a whole bunch of logic to get down to one point- The Self. If you lose your arms, are you still you? Yes, you are. If you lose your sight, are you still you? Yes. I'll skip the rest, but the point is, the only thing you CAN'T lose and still be essential You is your consciousness. If you stop being aware, you stop being. Your body and brain with no self awareness is not you, as it is not aware of itself- It is just a squishy machine at that point, doing what it was programmed to for ever.

Where is it held? It's not physical. Where is energy held? Where is radiation held? Where is heat held? And even then, these are more physical than the soul. To something with zero dimensions, location becomes irrelevant. Actually, this is a key component of scientology- The soul is Zero, shown by Theta, because it is physically zero. It has no dimension. We are Thetans under that theology, as we are that consciousness. Also, since space is irrelevant to something with zero location, we are "Everywhere" and "Nowhere" at once. They claim that by realizing this, our consciousness can travel anywhere in the universe instantly since we are, technically, already there.  

[Lateralus es Helica]

Shad Woest

So in a basic sense, a soul is one's emotions and actions?
Is it pre-determined or do we choose, this leads into a different topic though of fate but I think it ties in a little :0

Sort of...personality is probably more accurate considering the sets of thoughts, behaviors, intentions you have can vary depending on environment and social situations. I'd almost say in this case each individual soul is 'defined' by one's relationship to one's environment and those in it.

As for being pre-determined or choosing, I'd stick with the former for the most part although as mentioned before with mental disorders there may be times when one can become 'dominant'.

Speculation, mind you. You also have to remember I follow the idea of a pantheistic 'Tao' and therefore, there is no individual self, Tao creates the myriad forms of existence, the myriad forms of existence return to Tao and all has the same underlying reality to it, it's just how we perceive the working parts and relationships of the whole that makes everything seem like it has it's own existence. There's not much room in such theology for the idea of the classically defined soul.  

[Insatiable Design]

divineseraph

The two are split up, often. Spirit is what you are referring to as the Vitalizing Principle. It is what gives motion to all things, but causes growth of biological life in ways beyond the mundane. It powers Ki/Chi, for example. The Soul is consciousness, or Self. As you said, it is hard to determine if primitive life has this, but it is more than possible that it has a muted form of it. It's not necessarily reflective or contemplative, but "knowing".

I would consider the terms soul and spirit interchangeable. I think having a consciousness is likely separated from having a soul, like having emotions, it can contribute to a soul's complexity but is not a necessity for the soul to exist. Unless all life forms have consciousness, which would make it a criteria for life and possibly synonymous with having a soul. But, I doubt that bacteria have nuclei complex enough for a consciousness.  

[divineseraph]

Mothette

divineseraph

The two are split up, often. Spirit is what you are referring to as the Vitalizing Principle. It is what gives motion to all things, but causes growth of biological life in ways beyond the mundane. It powers Ki/Chi, for example. The Soul is consciousness, or Self. As you said, it is hard to determine if primitive life has this, but it is more than possible that it has a muted form of it. It's not necessarily reflective or contemplative, but "knowing".

I would consider the terms soul and spirit interchangeable. I think having a consciousness is likely separated from having a soul, like having emotions, it can contribute to a soul's complexity but is not a necessity for the soul to exist. Unless all life forms have consciousness, which would make it a criteria for life and possibly synonymous with having a soul. But, I doubt that bacteria have nuclei complex enough for a consciousness.

There is a difference. Both are nonphysical, but spirit is non-personal and non-specific. It is simply higher energy.

The Soul is the Self. It IS personal AND specific. It is like condensed spirit in a point.

The problem here is that you are calling the soul the vitalizing force. You're using a misnomer, as that term is taken by Spirit.  

[Shad Woest]

What is the difference between soul and spirit? Aren't they the same?  

[Shadows-shine]

This is what I believe: The soul is the physical body and the spirit combined. Without the spirit or the body, you can't have a soul. The physical body is just a shell and will not function without the spirit. The spirit is where the thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. come from. Physical functions come from the body itself.  

[divineseraph]

Shad Woest

What is the difference between soul and spirit? Aren't they the same?

I just explained that. The soul is the individual consciousness. The spirit is the nonspecific, nonphysical vitalizing essence. One is the mind, one is more like energy.  

[Insatiable Design]

divineseraph

Mothette

divineseraph

The two are split up, often. Spirit is what you are referring to as the Vitalizing Principle. It is what gives motion to all things, but causes growth of biological life in ways beyond the mundane. It powers Ki/Chi, for example. The Soul is consciousness, or Self. As you said, it is hard to determine if primitive life has this, but it is more than possible that it has a muted form of it. It's not necessarily reflective or contemplative, but "knowing".

I would consider the terms soul and spirit interchangeable. I think having a consciousness is likely separated from having a soul, like having emotions, it can contribute to a soul's complexity but is not a necessity for the soul to exist. Unless all life forms have consciousness, which would make it a criteria for life and possibly synonymous with having a soul. But, I doubt that bacteria have nuclei complex enough for a consciousness.

There is a difference. Both are nonphysical, but spirit is non-personal and non-specific. It is simply higher energy.

The Soul is the Self. It IS personal AND specific. It is like condensed spirit in a point.

The problem here is that you are calling the soul the vitalizing force. You're using a misnomer, as that term is taken by Spirit.

That is your belief, not mine. As with any abstract noun exact definition is up to the individual within a boundary set by society.  

[Shad Woest]

divineseraph

Shad Woest

What is the difference between soul and spirit? Aren't they the same?

I just explained that. The soul is the individual consciousness. The spirit is the nonspecific, nonphysical vitalizing essence. One is the mind, one is more like energy.

I know you explained it, not everyone else did though.  

[Aakosir]

I believe a soul is held within your entire being. It's not just in your heart, your brain, your liver. It is in every fiber of your being. And the reason a soul exists? It is life. Without a soul there is no life. Your soul will travel from one life to the next, even when the physical body decays in the past. I believe in reincarnation, obviously. And if you have no soul then you do not even exist. How can one live without a soul?