# The SOUL



## tshadowchaser (Sep 30, 2006)

How do you define the SOUL.  Dose i have parameters? Is it only yours?
Dose t move through time?
Do animals. plants, etc. have souls,


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## tshadowchaser (Sep 30, 2006)

I'll even start this


I was once told hat the soul was the essence that put life in all being


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## xMarishltenx (Sep 30, 2006)

Has anyone ever thought of the possibility that the concept of soul is totally human-created? Humans are very advanced and have aspects that animals don't (such as sense of existance, reasoning, logic etc - although even this is debatable as there is evidence that most animals experience this to some extent), so because of this, what do we do? We attribute our special characteristics to SOUL. Characteristics such as unqiue personalities, apathy, sympathy, love, anger, jealousy. Of course these things (and many more) are complex emotions, but I think that's what SOUL could be. Nothing esle...there is no invisible spirit inside you that is your soul. 

I believe that animals do have a soul, for lack of a better word. No one's going to change my mind about that. As a erson who has had a bazillion different pets during her life, no one can tell me that they don't. As for plants ... do THEY have the above-mentioned characteristics? As far as we know, they don't.


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## heretic888 (Oct 1, 2006)

The word for "soul" used in the New Testament (and Greek versions of the Old Testament) is _psuche_. In English, this becomes _psyche_.

In popular vernacular, that is all the "soul" is. It is just the animal personality with a bunch of mystical hocus-pocus projected onto it to give people the illusion that it is "immortal" or "spiritual" in nature.

Unless we're discussing some mystical treatises (which tend to be specific in their epistemological terminology), I tend to treat the "soul" as synonymous with the ego or the personality. There is nothing magical or supernatural about it.

Laterz.


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## Jade Tigress (Oct 1, 2006)

I think of the soul as our life force. It's what makes us who we are. It goes beyond the beating of the heart, brain activity, breathing. We can have all those things yet be comatose, however, as long as we live the soul resides in our bodies. Without the soul we are nothing. I believe human souls are eternal and exist beyond the death of the body. 

As far as animals, I don't know. I like to think they have souls, but I don't know if they are eternal. Plants etc, I'd say no. 

Interesting topic.


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## Ram (Oct 1, 2006)

To me the soul is like a Chili/Cheese dog. A Chili/Cheese dog is made up out of many parts: the hot dog, bun, Chili, onions, Cheese. When these are combined they create a certain aroma and taste depending on many factors such as who made them and where they got the ingredients.
 The soul is a sum of our body:fluids, cells, micro-organisms etc... Our experiences: pain, pleasure, sorrow, fun, love, etc. Which makes our thought patterns behave in a certain way. When a person is changed by drugs, or if they are in a coma the "Soul" changes with them. The body and "soul" is always changing just like all things.


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## Jade Tigress (Oct 1, 2006)

Ram said:


> To me the soul is like a Chili/Cheese dog. A Chili/Cheese dog is made up out of many parts: the hot dog, bun, Chili, onions, Cheese. When these are combined they create a certain aroma and taste depending on many factors such as who made them and where they got the ingredients.
> The soul is a sum of our body:fluids, cells, micro-organisms etc... Our experiences: pain, pleasure, sorrow, fun, love, etc. Which makes our thought patterns behave in a certain way. When a person is changed by drugs, or if they are in a coma the "Soul" changes with them. The body and "soul" is always changing just like all things.



Interesting concept. My thought is just the opposite. I believe the soul is the one thing about us that doesn't change. It's our innate being.


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## Kacey (Oct 1, 2006)

Soul, in my opinion, is that part of a person - call it psyche if you want, or personality - that transcends the basics of existence, that which makes us more than the sum of our parts.  Whether it transcends this life/plane of existence or not is a different discussion, and one I haven't made my own decision on.


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## Ram (Oct 1, 2006)

> Interesting concept. My thought is just the opposite. I believe the soul is the one thing about us that doesn't change. It's our innate being.


 
I guess we will find out who is more on target eventually LoL:angel:


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## Jade Tigress (Oct 1, 2006)

Ram said:


> I guess we will find out who is more on target eventually LoL:angel:



lol! Yep, we most certainly will.


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## zDom (Oct 1, 2006)

I think "the soul" may be the part of us that was "created in God's image."

That part that makes us different than plants and animals.

So all living things may have spirit, but only Man (created in God's image) has a soul...

So maybe,

Earth = body, the physical world

Air = mind (ranging from lofty thoughts to "down to earth")

Fire = emotions (ranging from smoldering to raging infernos....)

Water = soul & spirit (ranging from shallow, on the surface, to deep)


....but I'm not sure.


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## terryl965 (Oct 1, 2006)

I believe all living things have some kind of a soul, the soul is the essence of a person or plant or animal, it cannot be alter and it is good in all account.


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## JBrainard (Oct 1, 2006)

Kacey said:


> Soul, in my opinion, is that part of a person - call it psyche if you want, or personality - that transcends the basics of existence, that which makes us more than the sum of our parts.


 
I get what you are saying and agree... kinda. I believe that we do have a soul as you describe, but I believe that it is quantifiable. We just haven't figured out how to observe it.

And we probably aren't meant to.


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## John Brewer (Oct 2, 2006)

zDom said:


> I think "the soul" may be the part of us that was "created in God's image."
> 
> That part that makes us different than plants and animals.
> 
> ...


Good Post!


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## CoryKS (Oct 2, 2006)

tshadowchaser said:


> How do you define the SOUL. Dose i have parameters? Is it only yours?
> Dose t move through time?
> Do animals. plants, etc. have souls,


 
Soul is one's ability to keep the beat and not bite yer bottom lip when you dance.


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## Jade Tigress (Oct 2, 2006)

CoryKS said:


> Soul is one's ability to keep the beat and not bite yer bottom lip when you dance.



LMAO..that's pretty funny. I got soul baby!


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## Ping898 (Oct 2, 2006)

I've always seen the soul as the essense or metaphysical part of me that makes me who I am.  I think the soul is innately good, but can be corrupted/turned bad by the actions we take on this world, but I think it is hard to do.  I also do not think that you can truely live without a soul.  I think it is the part of me that survives after leaving this physical world.  

I don't know if I believe that plants and trees have souls, but I do believe that animals have something along the lines of one even if it is not the same "type" of soul as found in humans.

I am also not entirely sure how I feel about cloning and if the cloned animals have souls or if souls only come to those born via "natural" methods....


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## someguy (Oct 2, 2006)

The soul is a term.  That is how I shall define...

Fine I guess I'll do more.  It is a term to express concepts of a thing that beings may or may not have.  Yup, I used thing and I really did mean something so vauge and general.  I have no clue what it is exactly.  I suppose it would be the imortal part of our existance.  As to what has a soul and what doesn't, no clue.  I hope I have one.  I hope I will exist after my ephimeral form of being know as living.  I don't know.


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## zDom (Oct 2, 2006)

CoryKS said:


> Soul is one's ability to keep the beat and not bite yer bottom lip when you dance.



Hehehehe... I was waiting for a James Brown joke to surface eventually, but this is even funnier


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## pstarr (Oct 3, 2006)

zDom said:


> I think "the soul" may be the part of us that was "created in God's image."
> 
> That part that makes us different than plants and animals.
> 
> ...


 

     I have to agree- that the soul is that part of us which is created in God's image...the true self.


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## heretic888 (Oct 3, 2006)

pstarr said:


> I have to agree- that the soul is that part of us which is created in God's image...the true self.


 
Of course, as the Buddhist perspective reminds us, the "true self" is ultimately an illusion.

Or, if you prefer the existentialist perspective, the "true self" is a construction that we make with our thoughts and actions.

Or, if you take a cue from developmental psychology (a la Jane Loevinger's research on ego development), the "true self" is constantly in flux and evolution, developing through a number of semi-discrete stages arranged in a hierarchical order.

Pretty much all amounts to the same thing, really.

Laterz.


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## jkd friend (Oct 3, 2006)

pstarr said:


> I have to agree- that the soul is that part of us which is created in God's image...the true self.


I would agree too but the deeper meaning of the soul would the mind the eternal part of it that was once had by a man (adam)which would give those a better understanding of the true self.


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