simple question

[Catherineanne]

You didn't answer the question.

Yes I did. I just didn't answer it the way you wanted me to.

If you didn't have a bible and didn't have any knowledge of the Christian god, how could you tell you had a soul? Not everyone yearns for a god, nor does everyone yearn for a connection for a higher being. If you do not yearn, how can you know you have a soul?

A race with no knowledge of medicine might not have an awareness that they have a liver, but nonetheless their livers will continue to function just as ours do. Same with the soul. You don't need to know that it is there, or what it does, for it to do what it does.

Every single race on God's earth has sought for something other than, and greater than, themselves. How you can say that 'not everyone' yearns for a higher being, therefore, I do not know.

People in the west who do not have such a yearning have very often decided that their god is evidence based science instead. This does not mean that they have no such yearnings; they are simply sublimated into a yearning for 'Scientific truth' instead. It is the soul in the scientist which inspires him or her to pursue this truth. Which is also God's truth.

 

[Catherineanne]

As for our Souls being Dead or Alive.. they are neither.

I hope I can explain this... I am going to use an analogy.. here...

Imagine.. a soul has two states... Material..Spiritual...

If the soul is bound by the material.. it has no function.. it is but a shadow of it's host. It has not purpose of it's own, as it only waits for the oblivion of it's host. This is the Soul in it's material state, a dark shadow.

I do not think this is in line with mainstream Christian thinking. It is not possible to describe a soul as neither alive nor dead. There is no evidence that I know of for this dark shadow state of the soul. I would describe it as perhaps unawakened, but not as in any shadow state.

The soul of any living person is very much alive, and the souls of those who are no longer living do not die when the body does. The ideal of just about any faith (except those who deny a creator) is that our soul reunites in some way with the Creator or sustaining life force of our faith.

 

[Catherineanne]

What I mean is that people with unsound minds have a much harder time acting as God wants. And it isn't their fault. I do not think that God will damn someone because they were unable to comprehend what He wanted.

People who do not understand the difference between God's good and evil are in the same relation to God as Adam and Eve before the fall.

They are in a state of grace, and there is no judgement for them.

This does not apply to those who know the difference but choose to reject it, even if they have a mental condition. But the church has always taught that those who do not know, and cannot know, have an assured place in eternity. This is confirmed in Scripture.

 

[LadyNyx]

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Yes I did. I just didn't answer it the way you wanted me to.



A race with no knowledge of medicine might not have an awareness that they have a liver, but nonetheless their livers will continue to function just as ours do. Same with the soul. You don't need to know that it is there, or what it does, for it to do what it does.

Every single race on God's earth has sought for something other than, and greater than, themselves. How you can say that 'not everyone' yearns for a higher being, therefore, I do not know.

People in the west who do not have such a yearning have very often decided that their god is evidence based science instead. This does not mean that they have no such yearnings; they are simply sublimated into a yearning for 'Scientific truth' instead. It is the soul in the scientist which inspires him or her to pursue this truth. Which is also God's truth.

No, you can always cut open the body and find the liver. They may not know what it is, but they know that something is there. You can’t cut open a person’s body and find a soul.

The notion of the soul seems to arrive when the culture teaches us about souls. Take a child who has never heard of God, salvation or souls…does that child ever even wonder about souls or have an instinct to go searching for the meaning of life? No. It’s only when the child discovers, through the influence of culture, what a soul may or may not be.

 

[LadyNyx]

A mind or functioning brain does not beget a soul, any more then it can beget a limb. And where is it written that animals do not have souls?

God Bless

Key.

Every Christian I’ve met has said so. And think about it, if animals have souls, why aren’t you preaching to them, trying to save their souls? Oh, because “the fall” didn’t effect animals. Right. Only humans.

 

[Catherineanne]

No, you can always cut open the body and find the liver. They may not know what it is, but they know that something is there. You can’t cut open a person’s body and find a soul.

The notion of the soul seems to arrive when the culture teaches us about souls. Take a child who has never heard of God, salvation or souls…does that child ever even wonder about souls or have an instinct to go searching for the meaning of life? No. It’s only when the child discovers, through the influence of culture, what a soul may or may not be.

And your point is?

All cultures have this search for something other. For your thesis to be valid, there would have to be a race somewhere totally uninterested in any kind of religion, god or afterlife.

This simply does not happen in mankind.

You can ascribe it to culture if you wish, but it is not a variable; the outward expression is variable, but the yearning itself it is what is known as a 'cultural universal'; we all do it. Your suggestion that because this is not natural for a child it is therefore not natural for an adult is disingenuous. Lots of things become natural as adults which are challenging for children. Such as altruism.

Ergo it is perfectly valid to ascribe this yearning for God (or for a Creator or Life Force or meaning) to humankind as a whole, as a natural part of us. Christians describe this as deriving from our being made in the image of God. Other faiths would describe it differently, but it is in us all.

 

[Catherineanne]

Every Christian I’ve met has said so.

Here is one who is willing to say, we do not know whether animals have souls or not, but it would be a strange God who would create such diversity of animal life, and then not include them in his eternity.

This does not mean that I know that animals have souls, because I do not. But neither do I know that animals do not have souls. To me, there is not enough evidence either way.

I think it is a shame that Christians are so prejudiced against the animal world as a whole, though, because of this 'no soul' concept. I think it is far more compassionate to follow the Buddhist example of respect for all life, and to err on the side of caution (and respect) on this issue.