Topic: The eternal validity of the soul
PrintsCharming's photo
Thu 04/25/13 12:13 AM
I just wanted to post & hear thoughts about the soul.

PrintsCharming's photo
Thu 04/25/13 12:14 AM
A soul is not something you have,
it's something you are.

PrintsCharming's photo
Thu 04/25/13 09:09 AM
No matter where I roam,
every single soul is a poem.

Traumer's photo
Thu 04/25/13 11:27 AM
I have wondered at times if God produces new souls for those who are born or are their souls being re-born into new bodies. If it is the latter, then most Western religions have got it all wrong from what they inherited from all the past and ancient religions that had seen very little change in their core belief systems in thousands of years and being adopted and adapted to by many peoples around this world...
I've had some long and very interesting talks with various monks and priests and by far the best were with Jesuits but in the end nothing was theologically ascertained; not even from the Suma Theologica from St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest writer on theology.

no photo
Thu 04/25/13 06:50 PM
how can u be sure there is any such thing?

PrintsCharming's photo
Sat 04/27/13 04:03 PM
Laughter is the language of the soul. - Pablo Neruda

TawtStrat's photo
Sat 04/27/13 04:28 PM
As Hume observed, when we look within ourselves, all that we ever find is just a bundle of perceptions. Even if you do want to reduce personal identity to psychological states, they are not constant and nothing constant really underpins them, so there is really no good reason to believe in it at all.

no photo
Sat 04/27/13 05:13 PM
The mere fact that you can contemplate whether or not we have a soul or not indicates and validates the existence of such. Let me explain. Renee Descartes said.." I think therefore I am". So the soul must exist before the thought process. Further Aristotle contended that the only way we can know true "forms" is because the soul exists on the same plane as intangible intelligibility..

TawtStrat's photo
Sun 04/28/13 11:25 AM

The mere fact that you can contemplate whether or not we have a soul or not indicates and validates the existence of such. Let me explain. Renee Descartes said.." I think therefore I am". So the soul must exist before the thought process. Further Aristotle contended that the only way we can know true "forms" is because ..


"There is thinking. Therefore there is something that thinks". That is all that Descartes' cogito amounts to andd the concept "substance" is a philisophical fiction that he inherited from Aristotle.

Also, talking about "intangible intelligibility" is just nonsense. Aristotle's "true forms" are particulars and Plato's are universals. There's nothing transcendental or other worldly in Aristotle and you are talking about a philosopher that said that even plants have souls.

The "soul" or mind is prior to nothing and it is an error to posit a worldless subject as Descartes did, rather than getting rid of dualism altogether and just saying that "Being" is being in a world with other beings.

Kahurangi's photo
Sun 04/28/13 02:30 PM

I have wondered at times if God produces new souls for those who are born or are their souls being re-born into new bodies. If it is the latter, then most Western religions have got it all wrong from what they inherited from all the past and ancient religions that had seen very little change in their core belief systems in thousands of years and being adopted and adapted to by many peoples around this world...
I've had some long and very interesting talks with various monks and priests and by far the best were with Jesuits but in the end nothing was theologically ascertained; not even from the Suma Theologica from St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest writer on theology.


Tis easier for people to look for an argument to what you suggest than to accept or believe in souls being reborn into mortal form. I believe the soul to be eternal, and we come back to learn lessons to enable us to reach a higher level of consciousness. We make pacts with other souls to help us attain that level of consciousness prior to taking on an earthly form. Hence, the term 'soul mates'. Unfortunately, we get too caught up with living to remember the pacts made and in doing so...become disconnected from the purpose of being and as a result...become blind to the signs that are clearly put in our path as 'reminders'

How can we be sure our souls are eternal?...how can we be sure that our souls are not?

FearandLoathing's photo
Sun 04/28/13 02:45 PM
I don't think souls exist.

TawtStrat's photo
Sun 04/28/13 05:25 PM


I have wondered at times if God produces new souls for those who are born or are their souls being re-born into new bodies. If it is the latter, then most Western religions have got it all wrong from what they inherited from all the past and ancient religions that had seen very little change in their core belief systems in thousands of years and being adopted and adapted to by many peoples around this world...
I've had some long and very interesting talks with various monks and priests and by far the best were with Jesuits but in the end nothing was theologically ascertained; not even from the Suma Theologica from St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest writer on theology.


Tis easier for people to look for an argument to what you suggest than to accept or believe in souls being reborn into mortal form. I believe the soul to be eternal, and we come back to learn lessons to enable us to reach a higher level of consciousness. We make pacts with other souls to help us attain that level of consciousness prior to taking on an earthly form. Hence, the term 'soul mates'. Unfortunately, we get too caught up with living to remember the pacts made and in doing so...become disconnected from the purpose of being and as a result...become blind to the signs that are clearly put in our path as 'reminders'

How can we be sure our souls are eternal?...how can we be sure that our souls are not?


Yeah, who needs cogent arguments when there are those clear signs.

How can we be sure that there are no goblins or pixies? Because it sounds like a load of daft nonsense believed in only by gullible supersticious people I suppose.