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This just occured to me. I apologize if my thoughts seem kind of jumbled becuase of that.

I am agnostic, simple as that, so please don't give me faith-based answers to my questions. I need actual logic. I don't mean to offend anyone.

Now, its ocurred to me that the soul is usually considered the life force. This, of course, indicates that not just humans have souls. But when does the soul leave the body? Does it leave simply when a person goes braindead? Does a person in a vegetative state still have a soul? Is the soul consciousness or just life? After all, a person in a vegetative state, kept alive via machines, should be dead. Can a machine trap the soul in the body?

If you don't believe in the existance of a soul, I'd like to know why.

Edit: What I mean by a non-religious answer is an answer that has actually been thought about, rather than simply accepted as fact. I understand that this is a wholly spiritual concept, I was just exhausted when I posted this so I didn't quite clarify that. Sorry sweatdrop

Edit: Grr. I'm having issues coming up with how to put this. I more or less believe in a soul because I've done extensive research into reincarnation. There are cases upon cases of young children knowing graphic details about the life of a person that lived in another part of the country, died 20-30 years previously, and had no association with that child's family or anyone associated with them. See? A non-religious statement. Ha!

That's what I'm looking for...

In Chinese thought the different organs house different aspects of the soul. This is worth an entire book discourse, but it is funny, because some people after having organ transplants report having bizarre emotions and cravings. I recall the story of a woman who had a heart transplant. Previously she had thought asian women were attractive, but after the transplant starting seeings blondes as cute. She also developed weird cravings for chicken strips which she had never liked before. Later, when she was able to meet the donor's parents she found out that her donor liked blondes and chicken strips.

Odder still, no classical belief I'm aware of saw the brain as an organ housing a part of the soul. Children with severe epilepsy sometimes get half of their brains removed to stop the ceizures. Amazingly, or not so, their personalities don't change.

And we do find some personality differences after stroke which effects the brain, but more in the effect of lost inhibitions. And then of course we get into what defines a personality...again books and books..

Personally, i am a spiritual Pagan who believes the 'soul' is your essence. It's what makes you, 'you'. I believe in reincarnation, so I believe the soul leaves you when you die, and travels into a new body.

Since you are looking for non-religious answers, I'll say there's no such thing as a soul. What shapes us is how we experience things, and our daily influences.

I like Kanon's explination at best, though I had came up with a theory for myself as to explaining what a "soul" is. As we know, electrical currents run through our body to regulate everything from heart beat, to muscle actions, to brain activity. So my theory has been that what if the "soul" is that electrical current created by our body. *shrugs* I know other chemical reactions and hormones are involved with running the body as well, but as for brain function, electric currents are responsible. Just a theory mind you, but I mean, when studying a person's brain wave created by these currents, one could pick up many things that affects a person such as dementia as well as other mental diseases. Sure there is a normal pattern created through everyone's brain, such as most of us all have organs at the same spot on our body, however, I believe that our technology isn't advanced enough to pin point distinct differences between individual brain wave activity caused by these electrical currents. Thus I believe it is these small differences that may determine alot such as our thinking as an individual much like how a single gene can make a huge difference in a person...um...did anyone follow that? Kinda of a stream of conscience going on with this, but with a slight purpose and meaning behind it...

I belive that this thread deals with the most dificult question man kind ever had to answer.

My catholic formation has tought me that soul is the escence of the individual itself (to make it extra extra short). However in other dogmas is not necesarely that way, so I can't really give a safe answer.

However, I do know that it weights 21 grams, which is apparently the wight people loose when they die, here's an interesting link: 21 grams.

I know people hate to click on links, but hey give it a try, the website seems pretty decent.

My line of thinking is that it is in essence, one's life force, for lack of a better wording. If you've ever researched aura, it's known that the aura is different based on a person's energy, etc. If the aura is gone, then so is their soul.

The soul is the spirit of a person, the thing which allows a person full sentience and emotion. Without a soul, the human being would simply be a human-creature, incapable of any more thought than an animal.

EDIT: I typed the above only knowing the title. Now I'll add more in response to the above. A soul isn't the life force of anything, it's the object which exists in any living human that allows him or her to be, well, human as we know it. Any human who is still alive, not dead, has a soul, and yes that includes people in vegitative states. A machine cannot trap the soul because it is a supernatural existence, and a machine would be man-made. A soul is basically the infinite object inside of a finite human.

As for non-religious answer, that's basically impossible if one has a religion at all. Your meaning may allow for slightly more, but it's still generally unlikely. I can't do much more than tell you what I believe on something such as this.

The soul is consciousness, and maybe other non-physical constructs associated with it (a non-physical copy of memory and personality, maybe). A soul is what makes a human being different from a machine that takes in a great deal of varied stimuli and, as dictated by the algorithms set into the machine, acts in response. Sadness is not just a change in thought patterns and the probability and intensity of different reactions because of the soul; without it, thoughts would still change and a human would still act in the same way when "sad", but the FEELING of sadness itself--as divorced from its effects--would not exist.

Basically, the soul is the true self, consciousness, absolute identity--a non-physical construct tied to a physical body. The mind, I'd say, the psychological, non-physical, subjective and sensational rather than objective and material analog to the brain, is part of the soul. So, consciousness and the mind, the non-physical self tied to but probably not (by virtue of its non-physicality) dependent upon the brain (and the body at large).



Maybe non-physical is defined as being able to affect and "know about" the physical without necessarily being affected by the physical?



I think the existence of consciousness (as I talked about above) and the fact that it cannot be physical (in the same way that a thought cannot be physical: there may be some physical analog discovered, but the fact remains that a thought itself cannot be explained in terms of physical descriptors (such as mass, shape, volume, charge, energy, etc.)--consciousness is perception, is being, is experience, is existence; a physical system of moving electrons and chemicals does not equal information, it just encodes information and manifests a physical analog to information, and by the same token a physical system can't actually BE anything psychic, including consciousness... At least, seems that way to me.) indicate that there's something to humans beyond the physical body; and if a non-physical object can be dependent upon a physical one, I don't see why the non-physical object wouldn't somehow fall under the category of "physical" after all (for instance, having four of something and getting rid of one does not in any way affect the number four, nor does it affect the concept of four OF whatever-the-somethings-were; erasing a math equation--or not knowing it--does not impact the truth and reality of the equation); hence, if consciousness exists and if consciousness is non-physical (and the same argument applies to the mind), I don't see any logical reason for it NOT "surviving" death.

(That was a long sentence o_O.)