Is There a Soul - Assignment Example

Is there a soul? What is it? Why you believe there is a soul and that it is the kind of thing you say it is, and why should others believe that? The question as to whether there is a soul has emerged as one of the most complex and even highly controversial topic. This is because; while the proponents of the existence of the soul holds that the soul is the essence that separates every single living thing from the none living things, the opponents holds that the concept of the existence of the soul is too abstract to be tacitly and evidentially defined (McGraw, 2004). Nevertheless, there is sufficient reason to believe that there is a soul. Firstly, other than the physical matter that differentiates one individual from the other or one living thing from the other, what exactly differentiates one individual from everyone else, or one living things from all the other living thins of the same species? Secondly, what exactly feels the pain, sorrow and sadness on the event of the loss of a loved one through death? The attempt to answer these two questions simply points to the existence of a distinct non-physical matter component of the living things that makes the living things distinct from the other members of their species, and which experiences the pain of loss through death (Bishop, 2000). Further, if two individuals are born as identical twins and brought up in the same environment, observing the same behavior and mannerisms, there will still exist some aspects that make each of the two identical twins distinct from each other. Thus, the distinct non-physical and non-matter element of humans and other living things, which gives each individual living thing the “I-factor”, makes it unique from all the rest. This individual element of consciousness that makes an individual distinct from all the rest is essentially defined as the soul (Klemp, 2009). In this respect, the soul represents the irreducible element of consciousness, which makes it impossible for scientists to make any form of life in the laboratory through mixing any of the non-living matter. The simple fact that life stems from life and never from the non-living matter, is a clear demonstration of the fact that there is some aspect of the non-physical matter that holds the essence of life, which in itself is the soul. It therefore follows that soul is synonymous with consciousness, which in turn refers to the self-awareness aspect of human beings. The reality that every human being has a distinct self-awareness that exists in the form of distinct thought and sensations simply means that each human being has a distinct soul. The soul is the life component that makes life special, due to the fact that no human creation is capable of creating consciousness. No matter how sophisticated the computers and the robots have been developed, they cannot exhibit any aspect of emotions and sensations, due to the fact that such human creations do not have the consciousness, which is the essence of life (Freidjung, 2003). Soul is the element of life that is beyond the scope of matter. This makes it impossible for ordinary science to study conscience and its symptoms. There is no doubt the brain is the part of body through which we think and feel (Bishop, 2000). However, there is a part of thinking and feeling that is not part of the body, for example under situations of loneliness, sadness, sorrow and pain of mourning the death of a loved one, which is a form of pain that an individual feels, but not physically. Additionally, there are certain conscious functions of the human beings that occur outside of the body, which effectively points to the existence of another conscious part of human life, which is not physical. For example, imagination is the ability of the human beings to focus on the likely future events that they would desire or like to avoid in a conscious manner, yet without the involvement of the body, since the body has not yet encountered such experiences (McGraw, 2004). Similarly, the ability of the human beings to have an experience of events and occurrences that the body encountered long in the past has to do with the existence of a conscious part of life that is outside the human body. This is because, experiencing past memories is a conscious occurrence of life that does not involve the body, considering that such experiences only occurred to the body long in the past, and not in the present. In this respect, the ability of human beings to reflect on the past occurrences, by itself, points to the existence of the non-physical part of life within the body, which is the soul (Klemp, 2009). The other proof of the existence of soul is the concept of identity (Freidjung, 2003). The human individual identity is practically separate from the individual’s body. This is because, if an individual known to us dies, it would be difficult for us to accept the reappearance of the same individual alive, even when the body and the memory of the reappearing individual are perfectly the same as those of the person who died. Thus, the existence of a clone or replica of a living human being does not qualify that replica as the original individual, because the clone or replica of the person does not share in the original person’s soul. Thus, while the body and the memory of a human being can be preserved to represent the same life, it is not possible to preserve the soul of that body, since each life has a distinct soul of its own (Bishop, 2000). The thought and emotional capacities of an individual human being are not physical parts of the body, but rather components of the non-physical matter within the body that is the soul. This explains the reason why inflicting the same physical pain on two different individuals will definitely result in varied emotional pain experiences. Considering the fact that the souls of the two individuals are distinct, the individuals will experience the emotional pains differently, despite even having the same body capacity to withstand the pain(McGraw, 2004). In conclusion therefore, the soul is the non-physical part of the body that gives each individual living human being a distinct identity from all the rest. References Bishop, P. (2000). Synchronicity and Intellectual Intuition in Kant, Swedenborg, and Jung. USA: The Edwin Mellen Press. Freidjung, M. (2003). Putting Soul into Science. New York: Iuniverse Inc. Klemp, H. (2009). The call of soul. Minneapolis, MN: Eckankar. McGraw, J. (2004). Brain & Belief: An Exploration of the Human Soul, Aegis Press. Read More