Some say our soul is our essence. They say that when we are born, our soul is pure, and as we grow, our soul is either tainted or purified, thus reflecting the nature of the physical being that the soul occupies. And once the physical being wears out, or dies, the soul is sent to cycle of life and death/heaven/hell/paradise/any other planes of the afterlife based on how it has lived in its physical being. In fact that has been the concept that I have been following most of life until very recently.
Another view, is that the soul is the life force of a being, not necessarily something religiously bound, but more of a natural thing. A personality, or something that gives instinct/consciousness to a being. People like Deepak Chopra support this theory. I almost did, but then I got to questioning(again).
What if there is no soul. That its all a myth. A myth that was reinforced because of the lack of knowledge on the subject. The questions I asked myself were: What happens to the soul, when a person becomes "brain-dead"? If the soul is something that is from God, or from the cycle of LIFE, then why does a clone have similar characteristics as a natural being? And if a soul occupies every living thing, what of plants and single cell organisms, do they have simpler souls?
It dawned on me, that it just might be possible that the soul is non existent. Ethics, morals, consciousness, rationality, all of that might not be from the soul, but from our own minds. Could it be that simple? That because our brains are more powerful than anything else on this planet, that our brains are our souls? A human judges better than a chimp, a chimp judges better than a dog, and a dog judges better than an ant. That is the truth. That would mean that instead of having an equal "soul" in every living being, we have more advanced minds in different organisms, just like it has been proven. Therefore, we humans, having the most advanced minds, also have the most ethical, moralistic, self conscious minds.
When humans become extinct (it's possible)(2012), will other organisms be judging and "feeling" the same way humans did? Well, no. They'll most likely just be animals, uncaring about what happens around them. Nearly every animal on Earth doesn't even know what the Earth is. Not because its ignorant, or it doesn't have a soul, or is doesn't care, but because it CANNOT know. It's mind is less developed than ours, and is more focused on the here and the now. Instinct has already been proven to be false. What we believe to be animal instinct (a.k.a birds flying south for the winter) is actually genetic memory. A long line of trial and error by their ancestors, that is passed down in their offspring's DNA. That is how a new born chick know that its in danger when it sees the silhouette of a hawk. Not because its soul knows the danger, and the parent hasn't even taught it yet. It is because in the past, a "granpa" chicken was nearly killed by a hawk. Its basic mind imprints this onto the DNA and passes it down as a warning.
And why all these warnings? Is it the soul that needs to survive, or the species? Obviously, the species needs to survive because it is aware of mortality. In fact, mortality may be the only thing nearly all complex organisms are aware of.
In conclusion, I believe what we've been taught to be called the "soul" in reality is just our minds, our judging, blaming, caring, loving, endearing, hating, loathing minds. NOT our "souls". The reason why an elephant doesn't worry if it's going to heaven or hell, is because its mind is not developed to think that way. Its all in the mind, not in the soul.
Another view, is that the soul is the life force of a being, not necessarily something religiously bound, but more of a natural thing. A personality, or something that gives instinct/consciousness to a being. People like Deepak Chopra support this theory. I almost did, but then I got to questioning(again).
What if there is no soul. That its all a myth. A myth that was reinforced because of the lack of knowledge on the subject. The questions I asked myself were: What happens to the soul, when a person becomes "brain-dead"? If the soul is something that is from God, or from the cycle of LIFE, then why does a clone have similar characteristics as a natural being? And if a soul occupies every living thing, what of plants and single cell organisms, do they have simpler souls?
It dawned on me, that it just might be possible that the soul is non existent. Ethics, morals, consciousness, rationality, all of that might not be from the soul, but from our own minds. Could it be that simple? That because our brains are more powerful than anything else on this planet, that our brains are our souls? A human judges better than a chimp, a chimp judges better than a dog, and a dog judges better than an ant. That is the truth. That would mean that instead of having an equal "soul" in every living being, we have more advanced minds in different organisms, just like it has been proven. Therefore, we humans, having the most advanced minds, also have the most ethical, moralistic, self conscious minds.
When humans become extinct (it's possible)(2012), will other organisms be judging and "feeling" the same way humans did? Well, no. They'll most likely just be animals, uncaring about what happens around them. Nearly every animal on Earth doesn't even know what the Earth is. Not because its ignorant, or it doesn't have a soul, or is doesn't care, but because it CANNOT know. It's mind is less developed than ours, and is more focused on the here and the now. Instinct has already been proven to be false. What we believe to be animal instinct (a.k.a birds flying south for the winter) is actually genetic memory. A long line of trial and error by their ancestors, that is passed down in their offspring's DNA. That is how a new born chick know that its in danger when it sees the silhouette of a hawk. Not because its soul knows the danger, and the parent hasn't even taught it yet. It is because in the past, a "granpa" chicken was nearly killed by a hawk. Its basic mind imprints this onto the DNA and passes it down as a warning.
And why all these warnings? Is it the soul that needs to survive, or the species? Obviously, the species needs to survive because it is aware of mortality. In fact, mortality may be the only thing nearly all complex organisms are aware of.
In conclusion, I believe what we've been taught to be called the "soul" in reality is just our minds, our judging, blaming, caring, loving, endearing, hating, loathing minds. NOT our "souls". The reason why an elephant doesn't worry if it's going to heaven or hell, is because its mind is not developed to think that way. Its all in the mind, not in the soul.
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