"The fact it can be done begins to move us away from some of the mysteries surrounding human beings; things like the existence of a soul, which frankly is pure imagination," -- Professor Christopher Higgins, director of the Medical Research Council's Clinical Sciences Centre in London, UK.


This is the same guy who chose the top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2004. This kinda bugs me.

So, does the soul exist? Or is it part of our imagination?

“There's no such thing as a soul. It's just something they made up to scare kids, like the boogeyman or Michael Jackson.” - Bart Simpson

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

According to science life is just a series of events involving atoms and forces. I think there has to be more to it than that, but I just dont know.

Let's call it energy instead of a transparent blueish copy of your body. Eternal life or the afterlife and all that, whether or not we have a soul or not, whether I know you're really there and knowing that if my brain crosses some wires or if I take some acid right now, I would probably see you standing next to me looking like a monster, it all comes down to one thing: there is more to what you see.

To give you an example: we can see colors right? We know how, why, and all the works with our eyes, the reflection of light, etc. A dog also has eyes and as far as we can tell, a dog sees the same things we all do. But dogs (again, as far as we can tell) wouldn't know color existed right? We do, but they don't. They are completely incapable of even getting any notion of color physically and mentally. Think about it. There is definetely something else there in front of our very eyes but for us, due to our human limitations, it doesn't exist. So does the soul exist? How can you know? You can't.

But you can believe....heck, you can do whatever you want! We only use so little of our brains.

The soul is a name for something which can't be summed up by 4 letters.

I totally believe in something and it must be a something because some people have it and some people don't.

[EphelDuath666]

nah, I don´t think so...it´s a nice idea but in my opinion, just a fantasy type of thing like the bible story or Lord of the rings. I guess humanity would freak out if someone would actually be able to prove that we don´t have a soul and that we´re just stupid walking and talking meat. On the one hand, it probably helps people to deal with the idea of dying, knowing or at least thinking that their soul will go to another place after death and that life will go on but at the same time this idea is pretty much used against people to control them. I for my part have nothing against dying someday and just being gone. So I don´t believe that we have a soul but though I´m not a bastard because of that. Ultimately I won´t find out anyways before I die so I usually don´t care about such subjects.

P.S.: Why can´t I write as*hole? If I write that, "very nice guy" shows up instead Damn moral police.

I'm basing this on events in my life where things have happend between people and myself. I also like to file all those pre-emptive dreams and thoughts with it. When you look at the sky sometimes things are a bit meaningless the more you realise this the better most things are meaningless. In a word i am bigger than most of the stupid crap thats going on around me. Feeling insignificant should be your motivation to do what you want and not get involved with some shit life that has been lived a thousand times by X amount of assholes. Feeling that way you would find it hard to believe that you are just another him/her.

This question has come up alot when im drinkin with my mates, i go into huge detail on what i believe...well i actually don't know if the human race does have souls or not. Im not a huge religous person so i don't believe we have actually souls, but some kind of aura around use.

It's like saying Aliens exist within our universe, well i believe that there is something out there but i dont know what. Maybe we will never find out this answer nor if we have souls, maybe we aren't supposed to know the answers to these questions.

Well that my two cents.

[Blazingmonga]

I dont find it a coincidence that this sort of question gets asked here from time to time. I think there is something that maybe more of us here can feel than maybe other people do.

Like Tren said, it is something you either have or you dont. I believe this is because it is something you have either felt or you havent. I believe in the things I do because they are things I have felt. The point isnt in the proof, or the denial, or the arguments for or against. The point is the feeling. Nobody can argue with you about that, that is yours and yours alone.

I have felt many things at many times, but the things that have given me the boldest feelings are things that I cannot explain. Why should I feel the way I do at these times? Its not rational, but these are the things that have changed my life the most.

If looking at the stars in the night sky makes you feel insignificant, then why does this feel so good? If everything is unreachable and impossible, if everything I want to touch is from another world, why does this give me a kind of hope?

There are some things we can never explain. I can spraff as much rubbish here as I like, but it is never going to make anybody here understand how I feel....

...but thats exactly the point.

PS: This is also why I believe the question you are asking 'Science Vs The Soul' is an irrelevant one and meaningless. To me anyway!

i always thought the soul was just you. What you think, you know... whatever is inside you (mentally) is your soul. The little voice that tells you somethings wrong that kind of thing, its your soul. The soul isn't a physical thing inside you...


post script: blazingmonga: whats the subliminal message in your avatar say?

[Blazingmonga]

DONT FUCK WITH ME!!!

...is what it says.

Really? lol I can kind of see it but it looks like more than that...

i think i'm going to put a message in mine... hmm

smooooooooooooooooooooooke.

Sure, souls might exist. It's the best excuse for consciousness anyway. If it was just the tiny electric currents in our brains, PCs would be sentient, and would be extremely unlikely to work the way they seem to.

I can't be sure.
I don't know. Sometimes I think that it exists, sometimes not.

Well i've had enough things happen to me in my life to know there is something more than what science can explain.
most scientific research is based on theory so it is really no different than believing in something like the soul.
I dont believe in it because it comforts me, to be honest, i wish that we just stopped existing when we die. but i have experienced enough to know that i am quite sure there is something after death.
hell, i've even been told about a past life which i once had and i would have laughed if it hadn't have made sense like it does. a bit of a mind-fuck but still. i think we should leave ourselves open to things and let our experiences guide us. to think that us as humans can know everything is completely stupid.
We may be more aware of ourselves than our ancestors but does that really make us any better?