Are new souls created for new humans? Or are old souls reincarnated?
At what point does the soul enter a human body? At birth? In the womb after some months of pregnancy? The fertilized egg? Birth does not occur in an instant. When is the soul born?
At what point does the soul leave a human body? Sleep? Unconsciousness? Stopping the heart beat? Lack of oxygen to the brain? Death does not occur in an instant. When does the soul die?
How does the soul affect your body? What physical matter is it associated with? Obviously the soul is not associated with the entire body. Your skin is constantly falling off and being replaced, so your soul isn't in those cells. Your arms and legs can be blown to bits and you'll still have your full soul, right? What if your head is chopped off? You are still alive. The brain can still function for a few seconds. (If you don't believe it, you can instead think of having an operation to neatly remove your head. You can imagine "body transplant" operations in the future.)
What role does the soul play? It's probably not responsible for your life functions. Your body can stay alive by utilizing the laws of physics. So can other organisms, and probably not all of them have souls. The soul probably is not responsible for your rational thinking. You have areas of the brain designed for that. Plus, computers can do it, and they don't have souls, right? The soul probably isn't responsible for your emotions. Emotions are a well-documented function of the brain, present in many other animals. Plus, any neurosurgeon knows that there is a direct link between your emotions and the physical state of regions in the brain.
Do other organisms have souls? If so, which ones? Do bacteria have souls? If not, why do only humans have souls? At what point in the evolution of the human species did the soul appear?
According to this well-known poll about what Americans believe, 84% of adults believe that the soul survives after death. So at least that many must believe that there is such a thing as a soul. But I don't. Please post your thoughts, and address my questions, by posting a comment.
6 comments:
Bravo
I see the date of your post and wonder if you will even get this response from me 6 years later. I trust that you do.
I read your questions and they all tell me that you are searching for truth. I will give you the answers that I believe are true.
First, I know that souls exist and in fact are more significant than any of the other components of our make-up (mental, physical, emotional). Because we rely so heavily on our 5 senses, the physical seems to take precedent. However, I'm sure if you were to speak with anyone who has lost one or more of those 5 senses, they would tell you amazing things about how their soul takes over for those missing physical senses.
Stevie Wonder for example...blind and yet has this un-natural ability to play the piano. I believe that's his soul making connections that his eyes are unable to make. I'm a piano teacher so I know the challenges of playing the music he plays WITH your sight. Can't begin to explain what he does any other way.
I believe the first question you must answer for yourself is, do you believe that God exists. If you do not, then my answers will only stir up a debate that neither of us will ever win. If you do, then I can easily answer your questions by getting out my Bible and going to verses that give direct answers to your questions.
I'm going to take a chance and trust that by now, 6 years after posting these questions, you have found truth in the God who created the universe and are now ready to accept these answers from His Word as truth.
"Are new souls created for humans?"
The answer is no. All of our souls were formed by God, individually, uniquely, before the beginning of time. God does not need to re-cycle. He doesn't have limits like we do in this physical world. Zechariah 12:1 says "This message is the word of the Lord to Israel. This is what the Lord says, who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth, and put the human spirit within...". Also, Psalm 139 (my favorite chapter) says "You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother's body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well. You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother's body. When I was put together there, you saw my body as it was formed. All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old." I believe this passage of Scripture answers the next several questions you asked. (see next entry)
I'm intrigued by the questions you ask about when the soul leaves the body. I believe there have been many people who have had an "out of body" experience where their soul did leave their body briefly but returned. Most recently, if you read the book "Heaven is for Real", you will get a child's perspective of Heaven and what he experienced when he was pronounced "clinically dead". He tells of things a child would not know unless he saw for himself. Other people have had similar experiences. So how much more proof do we need to believe that Heaven and God and souls DO exist?
Of course there are many examples from the Bible... Micaiah, I Kings 22:19/II Chronicles 18:18 "But Micaiah said, "Hear the message from the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with his heavenly army standing near him on his right and on his left." (great story, read the whole chapter) and Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1 "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a very high throne. His long robe filled the Temple." John, Revelation 4:2 "And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it."
To answer your question about when the soul dies...the soul never dies. We were created in the image of God, Genesis 1:27 "So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.", and so we are eternal just like Him, but we have two options...eternal life
or eternal death. Acts 20:26 "I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.", Romans 5:21 "So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."How does the soul affect your body?
The answer here is huge. We have a daily battle to please our flesh (needs, desires, cravings of our physical body) or focus on Christ and what He wants to do for us and through us, by way of our souls. You'll have to read Romans 8, whole chapter, but here is verse 5 "Those who live following their sinful selves think only about things that their sinful selves want. But those who live following the Spirit are thinking about the things the Spirit wants them to do."
I'd also recommend you get some books by Caroline Leaf who has her PHD in Communication Pathology. I heard her speak once, amazing! She specializes in the area of connections between our mental & spiritual condition and our physical condition. Go to her website www.drleaf.com.
I believe God gave me this opportunity to answer some of your questions. I woke up from a deep sleep at 2:30 am and got online to look up something else. Came across your blog instead.
I'll be praying for you.
Hey Val,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Unfortunately, I require this thing called "Bayesian evidence" in order to actually change my beliefs.
I appreciate that you'll be praying for me. I give it a positive expected value and would be happy to pay 10 cents per hour for the service.
-Liron
Great questions. I will add few more:
1) If bacteria and Virus also have soul then being multicellular organism how many souls should we have?
2) Out of body experiences are product of hallucinations, and scientist have found part of brain responsible for it.
3) What is the relevance of the Soul, if it is there?
Anybody that quotes religious scripture is automatically disqualified from being taken seriously!
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