Results for: Soul

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What is a soul?

Dictionary ~ a dictionary definition is an archive of the most used interpretations, but are not necessarily consistent with other definitions and is therefore d…ependent upon perspective Soul the principle of life, feeling, thought, and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part.the spiritual part of humans regarded in its moral aspect, or as believed to survive death and be subject to happiness or misery in a life to come: arguing the immortality of the soul. Soul (science) The Universe as God's Works; Science is the study of God's Works Goggle Search: how the soul works entanglement Actual 15 year Princeton University physics experiment tending to show a connection between all peoples http://global-mind.org/ http://guidepost.us/soul-afterlife/ Soul (spiritual) Soul is referred to in many religions and cults; and in science as a potential physics area of study. Soul (theological) Yes soul or energy do exists but they cannot be seen with our normal physical human sensors. Kirlian Photography has been able to verify there are indeed energy field surrounding our physical body, called it the Etheric Body. Kirlian Photography has also been able to verify that that energy field is merely an electrostatic field created by all living things including plants. The Bible, written in the word of GOD, who is never wrong, said only humans had souls.Yes, the soul has energy attributes, but it is not defined by what we can currently detect.Writing was to arrogant (arrogant means "loathing of others")A soul is a made-up thing by religions in order to lure and frighten you into that religion. Either the promise of an 'after-life' or the scare of 'an eternity in hell' will do the trick for most. But trust me, when you die there's nothing left, not even a soul :)..................I know you must think you are clever, do not ever think that way or else you will not discover anything which is a millimeter beyond superficial. At the moment any information on the soul is just speculation, and strong belief about anything like this would be to do with ones faith (this type of 'faith' would also be required to believe strongly in your opinion about the soul not existing). Also like myself and I'm sure thousands if not millions of other people, you do not need to be religious in the conventional sense you talk about in order to think the soul could or does exist. You think you are clever but talk about such a globally questioned possibility in such a narrow way and use such narrow conventions and attempt to make it appear as though you are right. What the Bible reads: Gen. 2:7: "God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be A living soul." (Notice that this does not say that man was given a soul but that he became a soul, a living person.) (The part of the Hebrew word here rendered "soul" is ne′phesh. KJ, AS, and Dy agree with that rendering. RS, JB, NAB read "being." NE says "creature." Kx reads "person.") Gen. 9:5: "Besides that, your blood of your souls [or, "lives"; Hebrew, from ne′phesh] shall I ask back." (Here the soul is said to have blood.) Josh. 11:11: "They went striking every soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh] that was in it with the edge of the sword." (The soul is here shown to be something that can be touched by the sword, so these souls could not have been spirits.) Ezek. 18:4: "Look! All the souls-to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son-to me they belong. The soul* that is sinning-it itself will die." (*Hebrew reads "the ne′phesh." KJ, AS, RS, NE, and Dy render it "the soul." Some translations say "the man" or "the person.") The philosophy of an eternal force within the body which supposedly departs you after death was developed by Plato in the 4th century. The idea of an eternal soul within the body was not a teaching of the 1st century disciples nor by Jesus. So what do you think?... do we have something inside us that departs our body after death? Supplementary Answer Yes, we do have something inside us that departs the body at death; it is the human spirit. (Job 34:14-15, Psalm 146:4, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Luke 8:40-56, James 4:5) The spirit of a breathing creature is the invisible and essential element that provides both the root of its organic life (its breath) and its conscious life (its soul). This applies as much to people as it does to other living and breathing creatures (Ecclesiastes 3:19-21). So the life of any person, as perceived by their Creator, is in their spirit. (Proverbs 2:18, Psalm 88:10, Isaiah 14:9, Isaiah 26:14, Malachi 2:15, Matthew 27:50, Luke 8:55, Acts 7:59, 1 Corinthians 5:5, Hebrews 12:9, Hebrews 12:23, James 2:26) But that same life as perceived or experienced by human observers, is referred to as the soul. The soul is the earthly (bodily) expression of the life in the human spirit. While we cannot immediately view the spirit of a person, we are well aware of the ongoing expression of its life through the palpable activity and behaviors of the physical body. So, we can and do apprehend a person's soul (1 Peter 3:1-4), even though our physical senses can give us no direct access to their spirit. As we cannot identify or look straight into another person's spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11), their inner life thus remains private to all except God (Proverbs 20:27). Our inner life, also, can be understood, in part, as our soul life because it is dependent to a great degree on sensory inputs and the processes associated with thought and emotion as they are moderated in the physical systems of our body. The machinations, for instance, of the endocrine system or the nervous system (which includes the brain) are physical phenomena that are ultimately accessible to human exploration and inspection - they are thus aspects of our corporeal life (the soul) as opposed to our incorporeal life (the spirit). Might it be the soul - as 'opposed' to the spirit - that survives death? In a real sense, it does, because the human spirit was never a fixed entity, it was tender and malleable (Isaiah 29:24; Luke 1:80). The human spirit develops its own character and matures as we pass through life's ups and downs. " In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered" (Hebrews 2:10). If the soul of Jesus Christ could humanly unfold and fully mature as a result of his life's experiences - both the good and the bad, then so can yours and mine (John 1:12-13, Ephesians 4:13). A life-worn soul mirrors the developments in the character of a person's spirit, whether positive or negative; hopefully, it reflects positive growth of, and strength in, the human spirit. In effect, our souls are returning to God in the form of our, now, unwrapped, developed and seasoned spirits. That is the sense in which the soul may survive - as a blueprint carried in the spirit. When you die your spirit/soul may carry within it a seal and guarantee of eternal life. This depends upon the matter of whether or not you have already accepted this gift from your Creator (John 5:24, John 11:25-26, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Ephesians 1:13-14). All the references here were taken from the default (NIV) Bible version at BibleGateway.com. (MORE)

Fowl1

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Do you have a soul?

Yes, you do. Unless you are some evil undead creature (jk), you will always have a soul. So yes, you have a soul. Answer: According to the Bible,… (MORE)

Kunth

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In Death and Dying

What is the soul?

A: Religion says that the soul is that part of us that will live after the physical body dies. It was once thought to have been the source of intelligence and our ab…ility to think and have emotions, but science has replaced that. Since the soul can not be detected, it is regarded by believers as a spirit. Non-believers regard the soul as an imaginary construct that allows us to believe that death is not permanent. B: If you want a valid and useful definition of soul then you need to decide what is meant by the word life and thus what is meant by the word death. With science and technology flourishing, it is evidently becoming harder, rather than easier, to distinguish life from death. This is because from the point of view of scientific materialism (not science itself), the universe is only material; and that means that defining life has now become a major technical problem. The nature of death has always been a central concern of the world's religious traditions. It has long remained a major challenge to philosophical inquiry. Even now, nothing has changed. Currently the main challenge in scientifically defining death is in distinguishing it from life. Death either refers to the moment that life ends, or to the moment of onset of the state that follows life. Determining when death has occurred therefore depends upon having precise conceptual boundaries that will discriminate the states of life and death. But this is problematic because there is little consensus over how life might be defined. (see related link below). We cannot see or detect that which sustains the ongoing life in a human being or that which gives us consciousness; so science can only describe physical conditions that may lead to death through the disruption or cessation of organic processes. Of itself, science simply cannot tell us what life is; scientists can only analyse or measure whatever it is they can detect. They cannot therefore give us any more than sophisticated descriptions of the material structures of, and the physiological processes taking place in, living things. From a purely 'scientific' (actually, scientific materialist) point of view, life is just a mix of physical and chemical activity. From the point of view of someone who has just lost a friend or a family member, death is recognizable by the loss of humanity, the departure of the human spirit. So the answer to this question hangs on what you consider to be giving you life and consciousness. Is it the invisible and inaccessible, innermost you - your human spirit, or is it just the combined chemical constituents of a material body? If it's the latter, you clearly do not need a soul because, while an android/humanoid does need the semblance of an organic body, it does not require a spirit (instead it requires digital circuitry and a power source). If it's the former, you do have a soul. The soul is the ongoing expression of the life in a creature's spirit through the means of its material body. While some may regard such terms as "old-fashioned" they are as vital and relevant as ever; since nothing has replaced them. Your soul is the outworking of your spirit/life through the means of your material body - it is the living you as observed and experienced by others. See related link below: The spirit does depart the body at death, but it cannot be inferred from this that the spirit/soul is immortal. The biblical position is that your eternal future (everlasting life/death) depends on the nature of your relationship with God. (MORE)

Kunth

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What is a 'soul'?

In general terms it can be said that "soul" in Scripture is conceived to be an immaterial principle created by God, which is usually united to a body and gives it life; … However, the soul is said to continue or to exist after death in human beings. The term soul is rarely used with precise definition in philosophy or religion. It is generally regarded as an entity related to but distinguishable from the body,the spiritual part of human beings that animates their physical existence and survives death. Christian theology and worship have adhered firmly to the conviction of the soul. A personal survival after death, rooted in the love of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Supplementary Answer: The true meaning of 'soul' can only be appreciated when the terms body and spirit have been clearly understood. An organic body, living or dead, is the physical structure and material substance of an animal or plant. The Scriptures and secular science both state that a body is formed entirely from the natural matter of the earth. From this, it appears that a body and a soul are two different things (Micah 6:7, Matthew 10:28 - all references here are made using The Bible, the NIV version at BibleGateway.com) The organic (physical) life of a body may be observed as a combination of all the active physiological processes necessary to its continued integrity and functioning. These are processes that are carried on without the creature needing to be aware of them. In contrast, the sentient and self-aware side of an animal's life includes, for instance - perception, deliberate muscular action, planning, creativity, problem solving, fellowship and emotional responsiveness (all easily identifiable in dogs, horses and dolphins). This is the consciously active side of its life, referred to as the 'soul' of the animal. The word 'soul' is not used very frequently. In the case of men and women, we are inclined to call ourselves persons rather than souls. In the same way, we tend to call any canine, a dog, rather than a soul. Although the word is not used much, we may occasionally use it in a sympathetic expression such as, "You poor soul!", or in an appreciative expression like, "What a brave soul!" Soul is used to refer to the conscious, willing-acting-thinking-and-feeling individual rather than to his or her physical body (Job 24:12, Psalm 103:1, Psalm 119:28, Proverbs 2:10, Ezekiel 27:31, Matthew 10:28, John 12:27). However, the soul requires the physical body as its vehicle and instrument of expression. Occasionally, the word soul is used in place of the word life (a person's life). (See, for example, Psalm 26:9, Matthew 10:28 and Matthew 16:26) The organic life of the body, and the conscious life of the soul, interact with one and other (Proverbs 16:24, Psalm 31:9, Psalm 84:2, Job 21:25, Job 33:20). It is well known to medical and alternative health professionals that spiritual/mental states can affect organic/physical states, and vice versa. Since organic life is represented by a combination of the physical processes that maintain the integrity and functionality of the body, then, exactly where does the soul - the conscious and self-aware life - come from? This conscious life is given in the spirit of the creature. (Job 32:8, Psalm 77:6, Malachi 2:15, Zechariah 12:1, 1 Corinthians 2:11) The word spirit is not only used to mean a mood or an attitude; nor does it merely refer to an imaginary force of nature (such as a sprite, a 'life'-force, a god or a fairy). The spirit of a breathing creature is the invisible and essential element that provides both the root of its organic life (breath) and its conscious life (soul). (Genesis 2:7, Job 34:14-15, Ecclesiastes 3:21, Luke 8:40-56) Needless to say, the body purely of itself, whether organically alive or not, cannot be classed as the soul. The soul is the expression of the ongoing conscious life of the creature. The body is the physical and material means through which that inner life is expressed. The life itself flows from the spirit. Consider the case of a woman who has become irrevocably comatose. She is still breathing, but with assistance; life-support is in place. By these means, her organs continue to work and her body remains warm. The body thus may seem to remain 'alive' in that sense, yet at the same time it is noticed that there is no soul - no personal presence. As soon as the life-support is removed her organs will cease to work and decay will set in. If the spirit is gone, then the life is gone. The body without the spirit is dead (Psalm 146:4, Job 34:14-15, Ecclesiastes 12:7, James 2:26). God is a living and personal being. You are a material entity with a life-giving inner being made in the image of God. God is a Spirit, and we men and women are made in his likeness (Genesis 1:26, John 4:24). We each have a human spirit which expresses its life through a physical body; all of us are souls who directly mirror the Soul of our Creator. A soul is a conscious and self-aware being having a continuous, live presence. The soul is the ongoing expression of the life in a creature's spirit through the means of its physical body. The very significant difference between human beings and all other breathing animals is that men and women are made in the likeness of their Creator. And our Creator has a very good reason for doing this; he wants to share his own (eternal) kind life and being with us! (John 1:9-13, Romans 8:19, 1 Corinthians 15:53, 2 Timothy 1:10) All references here are made using the NIV version of The Bible at BibleGateway.com (MORE)

Maugustine72

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In Christianity

Do you have souls?

The "soul" is a human concept, referring to consciousness. Scientifically, we do not have souls, everything that makes you you happens in your brain and dies with it. Yes… (MORE)

Roynat67

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In Religion & Spirituality

What can you get for your soul?

Definition: In the Bible, "soul" is translated from the Hebrew ne´phesh and the Greek psy·khe´. Bible usage shows the soul to be a person or an animal or the li… (MORE)

John Gensamer

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I focus my studies on the Bible and it's relationship with history and science. I have formed a deep love for the wisdom contained there-in.

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In Relationships

What is soul?

From a biblical standpoint: The soul is the person's or creature's whole being. Both the Hebrew nephesh and the Greek psyche are the words translated soul in most bibles. … (MORE)

Kunth

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In Christianity

Who has a soul?

Answer EVERYONE! Every man boy and girl. Everyone but animals. Answer Animals could have souls. Nobody knows for certain whether or not they do…. Nobody even knows for certain whether or not souls exist. Only the dead know what happens after you die. Answer: Nowhere in the Bible does it say that anyone or anything "HAS" a "soul." It says that Adam BECAME a living one - Gen.2:7. The word the translators translated "soul" throughout the Old Testament is "nephesh"... which they translated: "creature" in Gen.1:20. But, besides soul, "nephesh" is also translated throughout the KJV Bible: "any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, they, thing." A "soul" is merely a mortal creature that lives by breathing, as Adam began to do in Genesis 2:7. Dogs, cats, skunks and rats are all "souls." Fish, birds, snakes and men are all "souls." No one "HAS" one. Another answer: Ezekiel 18:4 - Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die. Mark 8:36, 37 - For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? It should be understood that the Bible presents teachings on the soul from two very different points of view: the physical and the spiritual. From the purely physical point of view, man "has" a soul - as indicated by Jesus' use of the possessive "his soul" in Mark 8. From the spiritual point of view, the opposite is the case: every human being IS a soul that "has" a body (2 Corinthians 5)...and both soul and body truly "belong" only to God. This is by no means a contradiction. Jesus was speaking to an unenlightened crowd in terms that they could grasp (Mark 8:34), while Paul was writing to Christians who had gained a spiritual understanding that Jesus' audience lacked. By showing both points of view, scripture indicates that it doesn't matter which way you look at it as much as it matters what needs to be done about it, which is the same from either viewpoint. The Bible reveals that the soul of man is an eternal essence that continues on when the physical body dies (Matthew 10:28). Throughout scripture, references to the soul pertain only to mankind, clearly indicating that the soul is unique to humanity by at least one of the multiple definitions of the original words used in both the Old and New Testaments. By its most common usage, the soul is that essence that makes man in God's "image" and "likeness," setting us apart from the rest of creation; indeed, giving us "dominion" over it (Genesis 1:26). It is because of the eternal nature of the soul that mankind need concern itself with the curse of sin. (Animals know nothing of sin, thus are not "souls" by the predominant biblical usage of the term.) Whether man is a body in possession of a soul or a soul in passing habitation of a body is a matter of perspective rather than doctrine. It is, however, a mark of maturity to see scriptural matters from the spiritual perspective rather than the physical. Both viewpoints have their value as long as this teaching is clear: the spiritual (the soul) is eternal, making it of far greater concern than the physical (the body), which is temporary. 2 Corinthians 4:18 - while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. [Quotes from NKJV] Supplementary Answer To understand who has a soul we could consider the nature of our Creator and see how that throws light on the way he generates living beings. God is spirit, and he is life (John 4:24, John 5:26, John 6:63). He has his own soul, his own self-aware being with its own private thoughts (1 Corinthians 2:11). Our Creator has personal attributes like self-awareness, intelligence, sentience, creativity, freedom, autonomy and power. And, we are made in that likeness! We, too, are persons (Genesis 1:27). In creating man, God breathed a spirit into the inert (dead) body that he had prepared. It then immediately became a living soul or person (Genesis 2:7). The human spirit is thus the life in a man or a woman (Job 33:4, Job 34:14-15, Psalm 146:4, James 2:26). So you are both at once, a spirit and a body (Malachi 2:15, 1 Peter 4:6). Another way to put that is to say that you are a soul - one conscious, living being (Psalm 26:9, Mark 8:36). This can be further explained with reference to the Bible. My resource: BibleGateway.com If you were, purely and only, your organic body you would simply rot away to dust. An organic body, dead or alive, is the physical structure and material substance of an animal or plant. That is truly all a body consists of - just so much material substance (Genesis 3:19, Psalm 103:14). The scriptures and secular science both state that the human body is formed only from the raw matter of the earth. But, of course, life is not found in material stuff. First and foremost, therefore, you are a spirit (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The spirit is the invisible source of the life of a breathing animal. The spirit is both its organic life (the unconscious functioning of its body systems) and its soul life (the side that is conscious, alert and self-aware). The body - while it remains viable - is the vehicle and instrument of the spirit. The soul is the ongoing expression, through the organic body, of the conscious life that is in the animal's spirit. The same applies to human beings (Ecclesiastes 3:19-21). Your soul is the expression of the conscious life in your human spirit, through the means of your physical body. One aspect of your soul is the inner, self-aware, mentally active you. The other aspect of your soul is your live personhood as it is apprehended and experienced by the rest of the world. God does not need to try to work out who you are by studying the way you present to the world; he is in the privileged position of being able to see directly into your spirit (Proverbs 20:27). Please do not fret, though; no one else can do that! (1 Corinthians 2:11). In the outward sense you are a soul - a live person. And, in the inward sense, you are a soul - you are your own private, conscious and self-aware mentality. Is there any spiritual difference between the soul of a human being and the soul of any other type of animal? - Yes, there is; God created man (ultimately) for close fellowship with himself (Leviticus 26:12, Ezekiel 37:27, Romans 8:18-21, Hebrews 2:10-11, Hebrews 12:9, James 4:5, Revelation 21:3). So he deliberately made us men and women in his own likeness (Genesis 5:1). The human spirit is therefore very different (Job 32:8), reflecting the personal attributes of our Creator - like self-awareness, intelligence, sentience, creativity, freedom, autonomy and power. We all have spirits and souls, and they reflect the attributes of God's own Spirit and Soul. Our spirits are limited in power and are largely constrained to find expression through our bodies. (But they can also reach out to God in prayer or to others in consolation or support.) Our powers and freedoms are also limited by the fact that our bodies are of this physical/material universe and are therefore finite. However, what we absolutely lack in the natural is the utterly good and holy nature of God's own Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23) God's life is eternal life, and the quality of that life is holy and glorious. He very graciously offers his life to us through Jesus. "And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man." (1 Corinthians 15:35-54) Another View: In Genesis, the Hebrew term 'nephesh' is most often used for the English term 'soul.' It simply means 'a breathing creature' according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance. In this sense only then, mankind is said to be a 'living soul' (see Genesis 2:7) which is the word 'nephesh.' When describing the creatures of the sea (Genesis 1:21 for 'creature') and the birds (verse 30) and all "creeping" creatures like insects and reptiles (see verse 24) this same term is used in the Hebrew. Therefore, it is correct to say all air-breathing creatures are commonly translated from the Hebrew 'nephesh' to the English 'soul' and are the same in this sense of the word. Man, however, is unique in God's creation as he is created in the 'image and likeness' of the God-kind (see Genesis 1:26). We are the pinnacle of God's creation with a future promise to become spiritual children of God - just like Him. No animal or angel for that matter was ever given such an honor. One last point, many improperly interchange the usage of the word 'spirit' from the term 'ruach' with soul. This has let to many false ideas in particular the Greek philosophical one of an 'eternal soul.' All souls die and at the final Judgment, God will destroy the incorrigibly wicked who refuse to repent - its called the 2nd death from Christ in the Lake of Fire (see Revelation 21:8) - it is God who destroys fully the body and soul (see Matthew 10:28). When a human dies, their body returns to the ground it was originally formed from, while the Spirit in Man (see Job 32:8; 1 Corinthians 2:11, etals) returns to God in Heaven awaiting the Judgment: Ecclesiastes 12:7 New King James Version (NKJV) 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. (MORE)

Ebrach

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You have a soul?

In fact humans are souls. We do not have a soul. Rather we are souls. This is in accord with the Bible. Genesis 2:7 says: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the gr… (MORE)

Larry Pritchard

5 Contributions

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In Religion & Spirituality

How do you get a soul?

Probably the easiest way to describe the soul is that the soul is not something you possess, the soul is who you are. The soul is the essence of your being, It is the real you…, and is infinite, eternal, and it transcends mind, body, and personality. To the soul- the real you- these are attributes that are created and tried on, experienced, and learned from. They may come and go, depending upon their purpose, but the soul-you- is eternal, infinite, and divine. Some spiritual systems may refer to the soul as one' s "higher self", meaning the completed, omniscient, perfect, and actualized version of us, having reached a state of complete self awareness and awareness of the spiritual unity of all existence. This state may be roughly what is meant by terms such as "Nirvana", "Heaven", or "Enlightenment" . Some belief systems may refer to this self actualized state as "Buddha Mind" , "Christ Consciousness" , etc. Depending on what spiritual ideas you maintain or those embodied in the doctrines of your spiritual or religious practice, your soul can be something that may be created or destroyed, damned or redeemed, bought or sold. In fact, it is this less exalted, flawed, and imperfect spirit- prone to sinfulness or wrong thinking, that is the general concept of soul held by most major world religions. It is what we might refer to as personality, granted an allotment of time to experience physical existence while associated with the body. It is what one does with one's time on Earth, how one thinks, believes, and behaves that will help determine the eternal disposition of one's existence: salvation or perdition, soul death, or nonexistence, union with or separation from the deity, etc. This concept of the soul is the human spirit, that supernatural, trans-physical personality that continues after the body dies. It is this concept of the soul that may created by God, lost to the damnation of hellfire, redeemed by the blood of Christ, etc. According to the beliefs of the Abrahamic traditions, the soul is the eternal self, the spirit part of one's earthbound personality or ego. It is the part of us that continues after physical death, and that may be lost or saved. From Christianity for example, Jesus asks, " For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It is thought of as a metaphysical commodity, a ghostly possession, hardly divine. The higher self, concept as described above- the real you- perfect, omniscient and one with God and All That Is, comes from sources as diverse as Native American spirituality, Eastern religions, The New Age movement, and New Thought Christianity. The soul isn't something you own, the soul isn't something you "get", it is you - the real you. (MORE)