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What Exactly Is It?
In traditional or let?s say mainstream religions of the world, the soul
is a non-material substance which is able to assume powers and attributes
not open to it while trapped within the confines of a material cage we call
the body. Based on this definition can we even try to appreciate what it
actually is and how it may interact with the physical world as we would
ordinarily recognise it? The answer to this question must ultimately rely on
what we know of the physical world.
I think that most of us agree on the definition of the generic human
body. Loosely speaking it is nothing more than a collection of bones, tissue,
fluids, internal organs and flesh arranged to work in such a way as to
sustain our everyday existence. As such, it is quite vulnerable to disease
and will eventually stop working altogether as it heads towards the day of
its demise. But what about the soul? Is there such a thing? Other than just
blind faith or solemn wishful thinking, do we have anything that we could
turn to or point at in order to bring even a trace of credibility to this
idea?
Having listened to countless people who try to give their own personal
views on the subject, many are content to approach it with a fair helping of
derision and contempt and take the atheistic route of denying everything not
within the grasp of mainstream science. But this should not come as a
surprise to anyone. If the scientific world were to give credence to the
existence of the soul they?d have to study it, dissect it, understand it,
measure it, explain it and various other things that scientists do. The very
fact that we can?t actually see a soul as we can a tree, the very fact that
we can?t interact with it as we can with animals and humans, the very fact
that it is not made of any substance with which we are familiar means we
can?t apply rigour. And there are countless other human beliefs and
superstitions in very much the same situation. For example science cannot
apply its methods to palmistry, tea-leaf-reading, astrology, numerology,
witchcraft, telepathy, telekinesis, ESP and such like because these things
do not easily lend themselves to the rules of scientific scrutiny.
What we have then is a mixed bag of subjects all clumped under a single
heading that is often referred to as mysticism. In this bag you will
also find many ideas put forward by different faiths including the idea of a
soul and life after death. But where does that leave those who wish to
believe in an existence beyond physical death? I think that the sheer size
of the number of people with these beliefs makes it very difficult to ignore
and neither will it do to simply brush it aside as mysticism.
So we can conclude I think that it is not possible to approach these
things from a scientific point of view. Is there another way? |