by Shelly Barclay

Created on: September 18, 2009

When pondering whether or not an atheist can have a soul mate, you have to take into account that atheists do not believe that such a thing as a soul exists. This not only applies to them, but to everyone; atheists do not think that a single person has ever had a soul in the traditional sense. So if you take the term literally, then no, an atheist cannot have a soul mate and, according to their beliefs, or lack thereof, neither can anyone else. On the other hand, you may find that an atheist, or anyone else, is capable of having a lover that can be equated with the mythical soul mate if you can equate the soul with something more substantial to an atheist, the brain.

What is a soul to those that believe in them? Well, it could be understood as the thing that makes you, you. It is the battery that powers the body and tells you who you are. It is the thing that will live on after you die. The human brain is all of these things to an atheist. Your brain is what makes you, you. Your brain powers your body and tells you who you are. And, in a way, your brain is what will live on when you die. Now, this is a figurative statement; your brain will die when you die, but the product of your brain will live on, if only for a short time. It will live on in the things that you have created and left behind and the conversations that people can remember having with you. This, of course, will not last forever. Which brings us to what the core of belief in the soul is. It is the belief that a remnant of you will live forever in Heaven or Hell, with god or the devil. This is the hard part if you want to argue that atheists can have something equal to a soul mate.

Atheists do not believe in god, the devil or the afterlife. In fact, in their eyes we are all going to be worm food or ashes in the wind, nothing more. So, in that respect, our brains cannot be equated with a soul. However, does a soul mate have anything to do with the afterlife or is it just a meeting of two equal souls on Earth that are perfect or near-perfect for each other? Well, assuming that Heaven is a place where you would spend your time worshiping god forever, then a soul mate will have no use in the after life. This is certainly comparable to the length of an atheist's relationship with a life mate. Once one of them is dead, it is over. So, it may be safe to assume that the only thing that we need to take into account here is the connection with a mate during life.

Atheists are perfectly capable of caring for their loved ones in the exact same way that a religious person is. The only difference is that they do not live in fear for their loved one's soul. Atheists are capable of loyalty, trust, and devotion and they are certainly capable of loving a person for their entire life. These emotions and actions are what makes up a fulfilling lifelong relationship, regardless of your beliefs. For religious people this is the unseen soul connecting with the soul of their loved one. For an atheist this is a meeting of the minds, a series of chemical synapses and a lucky similarity or understanding of behaviors and interests.

So, in effect, atheists can have soul mates, but in the literal sense, they cannot. Now, it can be supposed that if you believe in a soul then you believe that even atheists have them and can therefore have a soul mate in the literal sense. However, this article is written from the atheist's perspective and the argument would certainly be different from a religious perspective.

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