by Kevin Lamb

Created on: January 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 08, 2009

Many religions, as do certain parts of philosophy, believe the soul is "the immortal part of a person." It's also believed that your thoughts can be synonymous with your spirit or soul. Theology states that the soul lives on long after the body has passed. Some cultures even believe that inanimate objects also have a soul; animism. The belief of soul has been a subject which has stirred debates among the deepest thinkers for many centuries.

Francis M. Cornford quotes Pindar in saying, "the soul sleeps while the limbs are active, but when one is sleeping, the soul is active and reveals in many a dream." That would mean that the sub-conscious and the soul are connected; that's another story for another article. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all believed that the soul is "the essence of being."

Aristotle believed that the soul had four distinct parts: the calculative part, the scientific part, the desiderative part and the vegetative part. The first two parts are of the rational part of the soul, and the latter two are of the irrational parts of the soul.

Sometimes the term soul and spirit can be interchangeable. Many religions state their faith on the soul and the afterlife; as did the ancient Egyptians. Both the Egyptians and modern day religion have similar beliefs in the immortality of the soul. There was also a study done to determine the exact weight of the soul.

Dr. Duncan Mac Dougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts stated that the soul was material and had mass. He figured at the time of death the deceased would show a measurable drop in weight. Mac Dougall constructed a special bed which was built upon a "very delicately balanced platform beam scales; which was sensitive to two-tenths of an ounce."

After weighing six terminally ill patients on the bed; and counting in the amount of perspiration and sweat of the patients, the scale was balanced when he heard an audible stroke hit against the lower limiting bar at the time exact time of his patients death. The balancing bar dropped and never rebounded back. The exact loss of weight was three-fourths of an ounce; twenty one grams. All six patients showed this exact weight loss. There's also a movie of the same name which states this fact.

Everyone has a theory on the soul so here is mine. Our soul is what connects us to God. Our soul is the "God part" of us. We were created by God for God. The Supreme Being is a spirit form who has always been. However, being a spirit form God has no body and cannot experience

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>