Soul?

[thumontico]

I am curious to know the standings of atheists and agnostics on the issue of the possession a 'soul' or some external non physical manifestation that is repsonsible for your personality and your 'essence'. I suppose potentially coinciding, if your soul survives physical death, does it live on? Or perhaps a merging into a great collection of souls?

[thumontico]

Buddhists are atheist, no? The term and concept of soul is not exclusive to theism.

[FreakyJoeMan]

Your soul is the collection of genetic traits, mutations, personal experiances, an all the other shit that makes you you. Yer sould is yer core being.

[thumontico]

What you describe is your brain and DNA. Is it apart from your body? Assumingly on a different plane of existence seeing how there is no evidence to support its existence in this reality.

[FreakyJoeMan]

What you describe is your brain and DNA. Is it apart from your body? Assumingly on a different plane of existence seeing how there is no evidence to support its existence in this reality.
No, it's directly connected to yer phisical self. If yer body goes, yer soul goes. An I guess that's what freaks people out so much, that there's no lasting portion of themselves. Unless you count the energy that yer body's made out of. If you really wanna get into semantics, since energy can't disappear, it can only change, the energy that yer body's made out of just turns into a different form.

[thumontico]

Buddhists do not believe in a God, they are atheists, meh pretty sure.

What makes you think you have a soul joe? And if you don't live on because of its existence, what purpose does it serve?

[BlackGuardXIII]

Buddhists do not believe in a God, they are atheists, meh pretty sure.

What makes you think you have a soul joe? And if you don't live on because of its existence, what purpose does it serve?
I have read that when students asked the Buddha to tell them about God, he replied, " God is unknowable, beyond our minds comprehension, so we can never understand or define God. Therefore, do not spend time on it, just try to go out and help your fellow man. "

This leads me to believe they are theists, or at least Buddha was.

[thumontico]

I didn't know that, blackguard, (I am not surprised I didn't know that) but more to the point of theism is a worshiping aspect.

[BlackGuardXIII]

I didn't know that, blackguard, (I am not surprised I didn't know that) but more to the point of theism is a worshiping aspect.
I could have read a quote attributed to Buddha, which was not really his, who knows?
The soul is your main concern on this thread, though, anyway.

I believe we have souls, and I think some of us are split off of the same soul. I realize how crazy this sounds, but I have reasons for believing this. My current love relationship being the main one.

I do not know with any certainty, anything to do with souls, or life after death. These are just my beliefs.

[SingflowerCat]

No, it's directly connected to yer phisical self. If yer body goes, yer soul goes. An I guess that's what freaks people out so much, that there's no lasting portion of themselves. Unless you count the energy that yer body's made out of. If you really wanna get into semantics, since energy can't disappear, it can only change, the energy that yer body's made out of just turns into a different form.
I think that we very possibly may have "souls" and that these souls are made of their own sort of energy that we just don't know how to define/analize yet. At the time of death in much the same way the physical body's energy is transformed and goes back into the earth cycle as matter, the soul is transformed but not destroyed... My final answer (beyond my own musings of what may or may not be) is that there is no real way to KNOW now what is true in matters of god/soul and that each person must find what to them seems most true according to experience and logic.

[thumontico]

But what leads you to believe you have a soul?

[thumontico]

Okay, well what makes you believe that? Seriously what do you form your beliefs upon?