I don't think that the wide spread of the belief in a soul is based on observable facts. If instead we simply ask "why do so many people believe in souls?" then we find that in itself believing in the soul has many social, practical and neurological benefits so proving its existence isn't necessarily important. In our society we have become more and more reliant on scientific facts and so come to doubt anything that is not provable but rationality is nothing but logic applied to a goal and if the goal is happiness then having certain beliefs might be more rational than not having them because of certain benefits it might bring while rejecting all beliefs to live in perpetual doubt might seem rational to someone seeking nothing but fact but irrational for someone aiming to be happy. inevitable doom and a pointless existence might be the ultimate fact-based conclusion but sure makes life a bit gloomy. do we want hard facts or happiness? the type of rationality we choose will be determined by how we answer this question.
@newjaninev2 you kind of took a sentence out of its context. reread what I wrote and I'm sure you will understand why I said that, keeping in mind the subject of this post: are there facts supporting the belief in a soul. I suggest that believing in a soul might serve certain function, some of them neurological or existential, and basically help to increase happiness but rejecting this concept because it isn't fact-based might be more useful for a fact-seeker but not useful if the goal is to be happy since it leads to realising the absurdity of it all.
For me it's not proving there is a soul, I just can't imagine why a life of love and accomplishments would evaporate upon death. If there is nothingness, life has no meaning. A serial killer and Mother Theresa have no viable difference... There must be something more.
@newjaninev2 Mother Theresa, as you well know, is not a sympathetic figure. Her actions have consigned thousands of poor women in India to abject poverty and suffering @hertoy
@Pikachu exactly , I don't think I "believe" in anything , but I can totaly get this way of thinking , not only for ourselves (our own souls) but for the people close to us who die . If I lose someone very close to me this might be a very comforting thought until I come in terms with it .
that's why I said i don't exactly "believe" in anything . But to me whatever you or me ,or anyone might believe happens or doesn't happen after death is kind of irrelevant and doesn't even communicate with the world we live in . How can I explain this ? I view all this religion stuff ( while not underestimating people's faith) as simply defence mechanisims. I mean religion, souls , even atheism is something that by normal standards shouldn't even bother us , it doesn't affect us one bit (basically it shouldn't affect us , it does in the sense that people base entire tyrannies on religion ) in our everyday life . My living life will be exactly the same if I have a soul or if I don't , except if my moral code changes ,based on some fear of an unknown god . These subjects though , however irrelevant with the living world we currently exist in , are quite interesting .
Reason? I suppose that might be different for individuals. For me I guess it explains feeling bigger than my body. There’s such consciousness here that it seems to require its own name. I don’t much try to define it beyond that though. What is will be and what I decide to believe won’t alter that.
That's interesting. Why isn't that name just consciousness? And even if you want to call it a soul, does that refer to a thing which exists without the physical body?
@Pikachu “soul” sounds more poetic and it’s easier to spell. 😂 your second question goes beyond what I bother trying to guess. Mine have stuck together so far. 👍
