To All Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Gnostics, Whatever, Everybody

[Solomon]

You don't have to have a soul if you don't want one.

Furthermore, if you want a soul, you will have to create it. You don't just get one free for having beliefs.

[Tux]

1. I believe in souls

Only a transcendent personality.

[7th_Sephiroth]

2. one time, while working in my yard

i came upon a snake, i raised my machete and went to swing when my heart started to pound, my body froze up, and thought to myself "this is wrong, i can not kill this snake" and i put my machete away.

Few months later....after she died... i was in the same situation, and i slaughteres the snake mercilessly, so, i HAD a soul, but lost it

[autorank]

3. How about listening to "I'm a soul man" backwards?

[Solomon]

4. LOL!

[Kire]

5. I have to create it?

But, that sounds like so much work! Is there anyone I can pay to create it for me?

:wtf:

[Solomon]

13. No. Each person has to find there own way. The only reason that it

seems like a lot of work, and it is, is we have to find a way around the egos we build up inside as a buffer against the contradictions of the world.

[autorank]

6. OK, I think I get it.

Victor Frankl said Americans think they can find happiness but the truth is that you have to create the conditions for happiness. Am I right or am I right, I humbly beseech thee?

[Solomon]

7. That's one way of putting it, as there are many ways.

[applegrove]

8. Everyone except for psychopaths have souls. When you unfortunately

find out about a one of those monsters (get set up & targeted) you know what a souless human is ... and it isn't pretty.

[aneerkoinos]

9. Souls

I got two or three of them, maybe more. I didn't create them.

[H2O Man]

10. Hmmm .....

you DO have three souls, you know .....and I'm not sure I would use the word "create," as in the OP, as much as cultivate. Does one continue to cultivate the soul of a grub, or let it go and cultivate the soul of the butterfly? That would seem, at least to me, to be the more important question, and one that can be f equal value to the atheist and the theist alike.

[aneerkoinos]

15. Hmmm .......

Please expand on the three souls ... :)

My understanding and knowledge is very limited, but I found this article quite illuminating: http://www.deoxy.org/soulbody.htm#1

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. I respect you beliefs, but have a question

Do you think that there are no souls because you haven't seen/heard/felt one? That one has not been scientifically found?

I ask because I think you will agree that 100 years ago, there were many people who didn't believe in the atom, and didn't believe in sub-atomic particles. After all, there was no way of showing them, and atomic theory was, at one time, merely a theory. And then electron microscopes were invented.

All I'm saying is that just because something hasn't been proven by science to exist doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist or is merely a figment of imagination/belief.

[Solomon]

12. Thanks for the question. Look at H20 Man's post above yours.

He hit the nail on the head and is more precise. We are born with the potential to develop a soul, or three souls as he puts it.

I believe you can lose this potential by not developing it. If you don't believe you have a soul then you won't. But you can, to be more precise, cultivate a soul.

Whether this cultivated soul lives beyond mortal death is the fun question. I for one believe I have nothing to lose in cultivating a soul. On the other hand, I have no chance if I don't.


H20Man uncannily also touched upon the whole point of the post, which is the vast common ground for athiests and non-athiests alike.

Further, as to H20's point that we have three souls, (I didn't want to get too deep Patrick) but he is right except I see it as three aspects or three components to the soul. Actually these three aspects correspond in a lot of ways with the idea of the trinity. Three in one. It results from having three brains. (Now see Patrick, you've opened the door to making me look like a lunatic).

Anyway, I was hoping to show some common ground for everybody no matter what their beliefs or non-beliefs.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

17. common ground is important

for understanding of others.

I understand what you are saying now, after having read all the posts. Having read mystical texts for decades, I do believe we create our own reality.

[H2O Man]

18. " ... looking like a lunatic"

If that is the case, then we indeed are sharing "common ground"! Because I think that it is fair to say that I have been considered a lunatic by my family and friends for many years! And I won't say what other people who are less fond of me think!

The trinity is inside us, as a seed.And at the same time, it is surrounding us. I have quoted Gandhi before, from when he points out that a drop of water in the ocean partakes in the greatness of its parent; yet if that drop tries to separate from the ocean, to gain an individual identity as a drop, it dries up.

We have that drop, that seed, that soul .... it is within and without. And I fully agree that when we talk about these things, we run the risk of sounding like a lunatic.

*** I posted a thread about the Onondaga Land Claims on GD; should anyone be interested, I would appreciate any imput. Thank you!

[Modem Butterfly]

14. I've sold mine several times

It's beyond me how people can believe in something intangible that can also be sold.

[aneerkoinos]

16. For how much?

Hope you got a good price each time! :)

Do you believe in tangible things, then, if I may ask?

BTW selling one's soul can be very powerfull thing, but better metaphor is surrendering it to something, mammon, religion, ideology, etc., choose wisely.

I've sold my soul to family life, no regrets. Now I'm (very slowly) getting ready to give it free for nothing ... ;)

[Modem Butterfly]

20. Once for $20, once for a good cup of coffee...

And the rest I don't really remember all that well. If the subject comes up, I'll say I don't believe in the soul, and usually someone will offer me money or an exchange of goods and services for mine. I always offer to take them up, but most people get pretty freaked out by that. Which is silly, because if there were such thing as a soul, then how would you be able to sell it?

[JVS]

19. Do you have any proof of your claim?

It looks like you are just making stuff up

[More Than A Feeling]

21. If a person doesn't have a soul, are they still a person?

if not, is it justifiable to treat someone as less than human because they don't have a soul?

A lot of people regard having a soul as essential to being a person, and saying that people don't automatically have one is a very slippery slope.