Do you believe we all have souls? (exodus, Buddhism, eternal)

[Rex]

Do you believe we all have souls?

[Runt]

After we shed the Body and the Personality only one thing exists. The Consciousness. The Consciousness is the little piece of God you have within you. You can have a little bit of Consciousness stuck in a body and call that a soul, but when the body dies the Consciousness immediately becomes indistinguishable from the vast pool of Consciousness because it is no longer contained. Individual “souls” do not survive, but rather are absorbed into the big “soul” (Consciousness) of God.

[Green Gaia]

Yes. :lol:

[painted wolf]

down to every plant, animal, mountain and river.

wa:-do

[Engyo]

I guess that would depend on the specific definition of "soul" you are using. If the definition has the word eternal in it, then no.

Buddhism teaches dependent origination (also known as Dependent Co-Arising, or Interdependent Transformation): “When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases.”

This is applied to all phenomena; nothing is exempt from or outside of this principle.

[anders]

I have had a tolerant and religion-wise rather neutral upbringing, an eduction in natural sciences and am now studing religions (and languages). My primary influences probably are Daoism and Theravada Buddhism. This combination leads me to think that there is no "soul". I am that I am, to misuse Exodus 3:14, and there is no more. When I die, there is nothing left of any kind. (This view is perhaps even more radical than Buddhism.)

[Lightkeeper]

Yes, I believe there is something in us that goes on and is eternal. I protect that part of me fiercely.

[Entil'Zha]

I personally don't believe in a soul. I don't dismiss the possibility however. Scientifically I can't dismiss the possibility is a better way I can put it.

As far as I can see currently when I die my body will decompose fertilizing the soul, and so on, and so on. On an atomic level part of me will live on, but that's about all heh. Just my view though.

[Alaric]

What is it that makes me me? I would say that it's the way my brain is wired from birth, the connections made from my experiences I get from my senses, and the memories I have of those experiences. I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, although the connection remains through my memory. If I get part of my brain removed, my personality could be radically altered - even making me feel differently. I could lose my memory, and thereby react very differently to people and situations.

Does any of that go with you when you die? What would a soul consist of? Not memory. Not experiences. Both are dependent on the brain. Not even the initial configuration of my brain cells, since that could be affected in vitro. How then are 'you' be reborn or can 'you' go to heaven when everything that makes you 'you' is dependent on physical matter? And there can't be some other core unique thing about 'you' that gets transferred that would mean anything, because our self-awareness depends on memories and experiences. I think we can get so close to disproving the existence of a soul that any workable notions of what a soul is would be so watered-down as to be meaningless.

[anders]

Alaric,

You sound almost like a Theravada Buddhist. Although not being one, I sympathise with your idea that we are not the same persons that we were X years ago.

A thing about Christian resurrection that always bothered me is, what kind of body will you get, will you be resurrected as a being of a certain age, how will you look etc. if the resurrected being is "you" and is to lead a life, the descriptions of which seem to resemble your first life on Earth.

As there is no self (or soul) in Theravada, there is nothing personal about the fruits of karma that cause the emergence of a new being, and therefore the new existence seems to have no personal relationship to the originator of the karma.