soul

[lauralh]

I don't believe in a soul, as in, a part of a person that will keep on existing after a person dies, because it flies against the face of all reason. The only justification of it is that people are afraid of annihilation. I mean, I am too, but even people who believe that death is only the death of the body are afraid of that.

I was sick once and watching Jesus of Montreal, which has a really sad part in which an actor playing Jesus has an abcess or something weird - anyway he's dying and preaching in the subway, and everyone thinks he's crazy. Meanwhile I'm high on cold medicine and start having an epiphany of what death really, truly means, in this rationalistic system of belief I hold. Of course like most things you experience when you're high, I lost the actual meaning later, but the memory of it is still fucking scary.

Anyway. We can realize and comprehend things that don't actually exist, like love, beauty, justice, mercy. And these are still relative, but who is going to argue that this is ugly and this is beautiful. Sure it's culturally influenced, but not completely. When I say "soul" I refer to, obviously, the brain, but the right brain, the part concerned with these things instead of rules and order.

When I attended church the only thing I really enjoyed was singing in choir. Eventually I convinced myself about the other stuff, so it's not like I don't know what religious ecstasy or peace or spirituality is like. For those who don't, it's like reality with fewer words, a lot more abstract I mean. Sexual metaphors work best, I suppose, if you want to think of it that way, but with far less of a direct observable cause/effect action.

So, discount sex, money, and eating, and we have pretty much everything else that affects us emotionally. If nothing does, well, sorry. If something does, please tell me!

[Poll #484686]

edit: um, in case it wasn't clear, I just wanted to know what moves you on a spiritual as opposed to a physical level. change answers please

Comments

[chris.livejournal.com]

you know, i'd like to think there's some magical wheel that turns around and deeds we've done in this life affect the next one, and the soul gets passed on and reincarnated over and over in different forms until we finally reach enlightenment and ascend to the afterlife, but I just dont, beceause I really cant buy it.

Like you said, its just a metaphor that people have come up with, because there's obviously something fundamentally different about a living body than a dead one, and everyone wonders what it is. if there's anything that is a soul, its the complex and chaotic thought processes we have that make us different than machines. its why we make art, and sometimes do things that dont make sense. but its nothing tangible, and when you die, it dies too.