Davian said:
Saying that something is not scientific simply begs the question, by what methodology do you know that?
History, people talked of consciousness long before the culture of science developed. Youre not going to argue we discovered consciousness when we discovered the brain are you?
I do not see why. A "soul" may be seen as as a synonymous term for "mind", as an emergent property of a healthy brain. That still does not make it a mystical, indestructible, entropy-defying platform on which to build religious beliefs.
Of course the soul may not exist, thats not the point.
One of the reasons I posted is because of the gothic attitude, "as far as I am concerned I can go to hell" - and the implicit anti moralism of the tone of argument. This sems to be reactionary but a non sequitir., philosophically. Whether you like black eye liner or not.
Maybe there is no soul, good. But the web of beliefs and cultural practices surrounding soul-belief (sometimes anyway) are actually worth caring about. For instance the Roman catholic works of mercy - feeding the poor, caring to the sick, educating the ignorant etc.
And peoles self esteem, sense of dignity, reasoning about purpose in life too.
Although there may be actually no soul and no God, that doesnt mean the "saints" were not worthy of some due respect, even from a secular perspective. Because such behaviors are related to soul belief, then attacking the soul, especially in a calous and trivialising manner, is to implicitally attack those practices too. This need not be intended, just as you may not intend to thing of Pavlovs dog if I say "bell".
Souls do matter, just as do peoples God concepts - they motivate a lot of personal and cultural acticvity, and are sometimes
extremely consequentail.
Things matter if they are important, and are important if they are significantly consequential in peoples lives. IMO at least. The fact that when I was homeless, when I was sick religious people clothed and fed me, saw "christ" in me etc, may be based on a flawed ontology... but it still means a lot to me to have been treated so danm well.
Maybe I ought to have said "soul concepts matter" but its too late now. They matter in a sense other than being "ontologically errornous" too.