The Soul 🦋

The following was included in a comment made by “rautakyy”  (a regular visitor to this blog)  related to a discussion about “the soul” on Mak’s blog. I found his perspective closely aligned with my own feelings. What about you?

I do not know how it would feel like, if I had a soul, and I bet people who think they have one, have no idea what it would be like if they had none. Yet, what they feel about this issue seems best evidence they can put up in defence of this phenomena. There is no way we can verify any of us has one, let alone, that all had it. It can be seen as a poetic term for self, but otherwise it is just superstition and the thought of an afterlife is hardly anything but wishfull thinking. Either to avoid the thought of one’s own mortality, or the hope for some universal justice. However, the concepts of this universal justice are fairly skewed in religions. Hinduism offers future lives as insects = animals that do not have the brainpower to know their existance is some sort of punishment – a conclusion hardly any animal apart from us hominids has ever reached. Christianity offers hell, that can be avoided by joining the club, but non-members will suffer for an eternity. How is that supposed to be just on any level?

I was tickled by the remark about Hindus possibly being reincarnated as insects! I wonder if any individual who believes in reincarnation has considered this possibility?

In any event, what do you think? Do humans have souls? And is there any way/method to tell if we did?

Death

Shakespeare shared this about death (via the words of Macbeth):

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays, have lighted fools
The way to dust death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

“To the last syllable of recorded time …” Poetic, to be sure.

Death is viewed in multiple ways. As Wikipedia puts it: There are many scientific approaches and various interpretations of the concept. (I would add there are many spiritual approaches and interpretations as well.)

Many who adhere to Christian beliefs feel death is not the end — that there is an event in which some superior entity decides whether a person has lived a “good” or “bad” life. Depending on the entity’s determination, that person will “move on” to one of two final destinations, one of which is considered to be quite pleasant. The other? Not so much.

However, even those who have no religious ties of any kind often believe/suggest there is an undefined “something more.”

Some see death as simply a transformation into another living form, i.e., reincarnation (which could include a return as a god, a human, an animal, or even a denizen of Hell).

Still others believe in a type of “spiritual evolution” in that after death, spirits progress to new spheres of existence and, as these spirits evolve, they eventually become enlightened beings.

Still others contend that after death, the human entity returns to its source, i.e., the stars — “We are all star stuff.” (Read more about what it means to be “star stuff” here.)

Death is, by its very nature, an unwelcome event. And while there are many who are convinced it is nothing more than a cessation of this life and that there’s “more to come” — until someone “reports back,” all any of us can do is speculate. 

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Photo by Mike from Pexels