Souls - What, where & when?

[Ectezus]

I hear a lot about souls but I honestly have no idea what a soul actually is. For those who believe humans have souls I'd like to ask a couple of questions:


1. What is the soul according to you? How do you define it?

2. Where does the soul reside?

3. When does the soul 'enter' our body? (Conception? 10 cells? 20 cells? Once a brain/heart/... is developed in an embrio? Birth?)

4. What happens with your soul when you're in a coma for 20 years and kept alive with machines?

5. At what age do you tell your children about them having a soul and possibly eternal punishment? And do you consider this moral?

6. How does the concept of a soul work with twins? Is it split in half? Is the soul getting copied?

- Ectezus

 

[drich0150]

1. What is the soul according to you? How do you define it?

A soul is the spiritual representation of your Essence or being.

2. Where does the soul reside?

somewhere between the skin on the bottom of your feet, and your scalp.. Poetically it would be found in your heart.

3. When does the soul 'enter' our body? (Conception? 10 cells? 20 cells? Once a brain/heart/... is developed in an embrio? Birth?)

Scripture says: 13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb. Some take this to mean at the start of conception and others later on.. Me I don't know for sure, but I do know it is somewhere in that time period between conception and birth.

4. What happens with your soul when you're in a coma for 20 years and kept alive with machines?

The Bible doesn't say, I'd like to think that that's what a body looks like without a soul.. A soul is the driving source that triggers or enacts non instinctual behavior from the mind and body.. (It what drives Brain activity)

5. At what age do you tell your children about them having a soul and possibly eternal punishment? And do you consider this moral?

At the age of accountability (When that specific child can tell right from wrong.) If you are using the word moral as a perfect standard set forth by God then, Yes it would be immoral not to tell your children at the age of accountability, but if your morality is based on popular belief and political correctness then I can see an issue with those standards.

6. How does the concept of a soul work with twins? Is it split in half? Is the soul getting copied?

Just because two people look the same doesn't mean they are. One soul per person. If you have ever know twins you'd note that even though they may share similarities often time they are two very different people.

 

[ebia]

Originally Posted by Ectezus

I hear a lot about souls but I honestly have no idea what a soul actually is. For those who believe humans have souls I'd like to ask a couple of questions:


1. What is the soul according to you? How do you define it?
​

Personality/personhood.

5. At what age do you tell your children about them having a soul
​

At what age do you tell your children about them having a personality or being a person?

and possibly eternal punishment?
​

when they ask, because it's not part of my view of things.

And do you consider this moral?
​

Yes

6. How does the concept of a soul work with twins? Is it split in half? Is the soul getting copied?
​

How does personality work with twins?

The idea of a soul as a descrete 'thing' implanted in but separate from one's physical body is not scriptural. Since your questions seems to be aimed at that view, they don't answer very well.

 

[DrBubbaLove]

1) What ever it is, it is what makes me alive and me me. Make another body "alive" with this soul and that is me in another body.

2)I do not think it is proper to think of a soul being here or there. Those are characteristics of the material world. A soul "resides" in the spiritual realm. Being somehow united with this body is what makes me alive as opposed to dead. Every part of my body could be seen a "full" of my spirit, but I do not think that equates to part of my spirit here, part there or even my spirit "occupying" my body as again that is a reference to space which does not apply to the spiritual world.

3) I don't know, but certainly before birth. As there seems to be some form of awareness involved with my soul being "me" and "my thoughts" am not sure it is fitting for such a being to united with a single or even small mass of cells. Such a physical form seems beneath the dignity of what it means to be a human, yet we must acknowledge once the soul enters that is exactly what it is, a human. So drawing an arbitrary line when we do not know when that occurs or know the future (will it live) in order to say, ask if it is ok to end that life is wrong.

4. I don't know. But if I was in a coma I would hope that would be a happy place. Sort of like being in the "bosum of Abraham".

5. When I think the child is ready to hear it, but I suspect those would be things they hear about first, do not understand and so ask about it. I do not think it is appropriate to scare anyone, especially children, in regards to the reality of Hell in order to attempt to correct their behavior or get them to change. While perhaps well intended, i think doing that is immoral - but not a grave sin.

6. Twins each have their own soul, that is why while even identical in appearance they are two different people. While united with the body, splitting that body while the soul was present would not split the soul. In fact probably for reasons associated with that thinking, the soul must not be in the picture yet when cells divide in a way to form twins. As I recall that point is very early on in the cycle (weeks or less???) before most people realize there is a pregnancy.

 

[Van]

Hi Ectezus, the word "soul" is a translation of the Hebrew word transliterated as "nephesh", as in Deuteronomy 4:29, ...search for God with all your heart and with all your soul. This say Hebrew word is most often translated "life" and so the idea of our life force seems appropriate. Similarly, the Greek word translated as "soul" is "psyche" as in Matthew 10:28, can kill the body but not the "soul." This word too is most often translated "life" and so again "life force" seems to capture the idea. This is consistent with the idea that when the spirit departs, the body dies.

And so to answer your questions, the life force is formed during conception, within the conceptus or fertilized egg. If this egg subsequently separates into two individuals, I would guess, for the Bible does not say, two life forces are created at the point of separation, one in each individual.

Where does our human spirit reside? With our physical being as long as we are alive, for the body dies when the spirit leaves. Once our spirit leaves, it either goes to heaven, "to be absent from the body is to be with Christ" or to "Hades" a place of torment and regret.

What happens in a coma? If a person recovers, wakes up if you will, it would seem the spirit did not depart. If when you pull the plug, the body just stops all function, the safe assumption would be the spirit remains within the "partially alive body", for when it departs, the body dies.

At what point do you tell your children you believe in God and the afterlife? In phases, for little kids can learn to pray and say, now I lay me down to sleep....

 

[salida]

1) The soul is the real you. Your heart, mind, will and emotions. It is eternal.
2) Its in your physical body.
3) At conception.
4) Its trapped in your physical body unfortunately.
5) Yes, tell children or it would be immoral.
6) Each twin has a soul. Identical twins are separate individuals - they are never exactly alike.

 

[ebia]

4) Its trapped in your physical body unfortunately.

[emphasis mine] that sounds horribly gnostic.

6) Each twin has a soul. Identical twins are separate individuals - they are never exactly alike.

So in the very earliest moments of life there are two souls in one body?

 

[freeport]

I hear a lot about souls but I honestly have no idea what a soul actually is. For those who believe humans have souls I'd like to ask a couple of questions:


1. What is the soul according to you? How do you define it?

2. Where does the soul reside?

3. When does the soul 'enter' our body? (Conception? 10 cells? 20 cells? Once a brain/heart/... is developed in an embrio? Birth?)

4. What happens with your soul when you're in a coma for 20 years and kept alive with machines?

5. At what age do you tell your children about them having a soul and possibly eternal punishment? And do you consider this moral?

6. How does the concept of a soul work with twins? Is it split in half? Is the soul getting copied?

- Ectezus

Soul means Self... same word...

Do you have a Self, you have a soul.


Twins, each have their own self.


Eternal punishment: always an option. That is you can lose your soul if and when you do not have it. Do you remember when you have a self, or have you given it all into fleshly desires?