Does the Soul Exist?

[winter salt]

Porpoise,

A materialistic science

is there a non-materialistic science ? Can you give us examples of such studies? Is there any research paper on a subject that doesn't pertain to a material being?

can explain the electrical and chemical impulses making someone's legs run, and the electrochemical processes whereby a brain detects that it is computing - ie. its own awareness. But how can it explain the experience of the Subjective First Person state? Can science explain why I myself am in this body at this moment, as distinct from simply a forum user, Rakovsky, recognizing that he is in his body?

I don't really know, how a "materialistic" or "otherwise" science can explain your question. Therefore we should accept....your "claim" ?
Can you even demonstrate how you can be out of your body at "other" moments?

In life experience,

Wait, did you have any other experience? Were you dead at some point?

many people can sense that they are a subject looking at the world and at their body. This subject as distinguishable from that which they are observing appears to be the being that they call "the soul".

Why "many" not "all" ? Are there some people who can not sense it?
Who are "they", that call that "sense" "soul" ? I don't call that soul. I don't have to call that anything. Maybe somebody else calls it conscience or intellect. Why soul? What do you mean by that? And why do you say "appears to be", are you not sure of what it is?


It's typical for the supernaturalist, for the superstitious to take on "scientists" and use their 'so-called/or not' inability to explain a phenomena to advance their own unscientific, unintelligible claims.

 

[LarryS]

Getting to the original question - does the soul exist - I do not know much about the soul, what the word means, and what it might mean to various people. However, I do know the following: Science reports that I require a functioning brain, yet I am not made of brain tissue. I know that I see, hear, feel, taste and smell; yet I am not made of what I see, hear, feel, taste and smell. If I ask What am I, Who am I, Where am I - the answers do not require a thought or memory - and the answer to all three questions is the same.

 

[StackOverflow]

Getting to the original question - does the soul exist - I do not know much about the soul, what the word means, and what it might mean to various people. However, I do know the following: Science reports that I require a functioning brain, yet I am not made of brain tissue. I know that I see, hear, feel, taste and smell; yet I am not made of what I see, hear, feel, taste and smell. If I ask What am I, Who am I, Where am I - the answers do not require a thought or memory - and the answer to all three questions is the same.

So?

 

[Loss Leader]

However, I do know the following: Science reports that I require a functioning brain, yet I am not made of brain tissue.

Working cars need tires, yet they are not made of tires.

Do you have brain tissue or not?

I know that I see, hear, feel, taste and smell; yet I am not made of what I see, hear, feel, taste and smell.

Nor are cars made up of the bumps in the road, the rain on which they might skid, or the darkness that triggers the headlamps to come on.

If I ask What am I, Who am I, Where am I - the answers do not require a thought or memory

They don't? What answer could you give that you didn't think of? And that you don't express at the very least using your memory of words and syntax?

and the answer to all three questions is the same.

A bald waitress at a Waffle House?

 

[LarryS]

The brain associated with me has brain tissue, but I am not made of brain tissue. I can label my self by my name or any other thought or idea after I’ve answered the question who or what am I.

 

[StackOverflow]

The brain associated with me has brain tissue, but I am not made of brain tissue. I can label my self by my name or any other thought or idea after I’ve answered the question who or what am I.

Dear sir, could you please explain what all of this has to do with the existence of a soul?

 

[Loss Leader]

The brain associated with me has brain tissue, but I am not made of brain tissue. I can label my self by my name or any other thought or idea after I’ve answered the question who or what am I.

I am at a loss to understand how any of this relates to the subject, or the supposed mind/brain duality, or anything really.

 

[LarryS]

Sorry, I'm being vague. Back in post #182 I suggested that the term 'soul' has totally jumped the shark - soul music, soul food, what does the word even mean any more? The term has completely exhausted any possible usefulness. Rather than abandoning the topic, I thought I'd gather some building blocks to see what we could come up with . . . Seeing how the word 'soul' deals with identity, I thought I'd ask: Who, what, where are we?
Now, I've never had the experience of seeing, feeling something and experiencing it as 'I am a tree' or 'I am a cup of coffee' . . . IOW, I am not what I see, hear, touch, etc.
Also, while science (in some circles) claims that I am my brain, I've never experienced 'being brain tissue' or 'being electrical impulses inside my skull'.
So, beginning afresh, stripping the word 'soul' of any ancient meanings . . . and thinking it has to do with identity . . . Who, what, where are we?

 

[StackOverflow]

Now, I've never had the experience of seeing, feeling something and experiencing it as 'I am a tree' or 'I am a cup of coffee' . . . IOW, I am not what I see, hear, touch, etc.

You keep repeating this stuff but is has absolutely no meaning.
Who claims that you should be what you see,hear, touch? Sounds an awful lot like shoehorning your strange ideas into a non existent gap.

 

[jrhowell]

Also, while science (in some circles) claims that I am my brain, I've never experienced 'being brain tissue' or 'being electrical impulses inside my skull'.

Can you describe what the experience of 'being brain tissue' or electrical impulses would be like and how that differs from what you experience?

 

[Loss Leader]

Now, I've never had the experience of seeing, feeling something and experiencing it as 'I am a tree' or 'I am a cup of coffee' . . . IOW, I am not what I see, hear, touch, etc.

But ... you're not a tree. You're not a cup of coffee. So, why should any of that inform how you feel when you actually are something? I've never had the experience of riding a unicycle. That doesn't mean I don't know what it's like to ride a Honda Civic.

Also, while science (in some circles) claims that I am my brain, I've never experienced 'being brain tissue' or 'being electrical impulses inside my skull'.

Why would you expect to?

So, beginning afresh, stripping the word 'soul' of any ancient meanings . . . and thinking it has to do with identity . . . Who, what, where are we?

I'd be interested in your answer, seeing as I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Thor 2]

Sorry, I'm being vague. Back in post #182 I suggested that the term 'soul' has totally jumped the shark - soul music, soul food, what does the word even mean any more? The term has completely exhausted any possible usefulness. Rather than abandoning the topic, I thought I'd gather some building blocks to see what we could come up with . . . Seeing how the word 'soul' deals with identity, I thought I'd ask: Who, what, where are we?
Now, I've never had the experience of seeing, feeling something and experiencing it as 'I am a tree' or 'I am a cup of coffee' . . . IOW, I am not what I see, hear, touch, etc.
Also, while science (in some circles) claims that I am my brain, I've never experienced 'being brain tissue' or 'being electrical impulses inside my skull'.
So, beginning afresh, stripping the word 'soul' of any ancient meanings . . . and thinking it has to do with identity . . . Who, what, where are we?

Like Loss I am somewhat at a loss to get the gist of what you are on about.

I think we should leave the word soul with the woo pedlars. It's their word so let them keep it.

 

[LarryS]

I'd be interested in your answer, seeing as I have no idea what you're talking about.

Interesting (maybe) that in a thread about the soul, and after all these pages and posts, that a question about identity, 'Who, what and where we are' seems harder than rocket science, and no one knows how to proceed.

 

[Loss Leader]

Interesting (maybe) that in a thread about the soul, and after all these pages and posts, that a question about identity, 'Who, what and where we are' seems harder than rocket science, and no one knows how to proceed.

You seem to have a good idea as to how you want to proceed. Nobody else can follow your thinking. We're just asking you to explain your own words.

 

[StackOverflow]

Interesting (maybe) that in a thread about the soul, and after all these pages and posts, that a question about identity, 'Who, what and where we are' seems harder than rocket science, and no one knows how to proceed.

It's not harder than rocket science, it's the fact that you are being intentionally vague

The question "how to proceed" has a very very easy answer (hope you will be able to understand it. Hint: it's not rocket science):

There are no signs of souls existing, there is no method to test for the existence of souls therefore we can safely assume (until evidence surfaces):

There are no souls.

 

[winter salt]

But you've already said:



So, the other 4 are just alternative "yes" options, and you've just suggested that someone who doesn't think they have a soul should tick one of the options which you already interpret as meaning they accept that they do have a soul.

Why are you being so dishonest?

The dishonesty of believers in supernatural is the first cause that led me quit religion.
And I realized I had also been dishonest with myself.
Their mastery in the age of science is intellectual dishonesty.

 

[8Sime8]

Yes, the soul does exist.

Proof:

I believe i have a soul.

 

[MikeG]

Yes, the soul does exist.

Proof:

I believe i have a soul.

Maybe the soul is the repository of your logic. Which would explain why you don't have any.

 

[Kid Eager]

Yes, the soul does exist.

Proof:

I believe i have a soul.

No, the soul doesn’t exist

Proof:

I don’t believe you believe you have a soul

 

[8Sime8]

Maybe the soul is the repository of your logic. Which would explain why you don't have any.

but my positive belief-response must have a referent stimulus that constitutes its condition of satisfaction...