The Soul and the body
For much of recorded history over the past 2000 years, the average human has been preoccupied in life with what happens to their body, and what happens to their soul. Of course people are concerned with their physical well being for most of their lifetime because we are all trying to live the healthiest and longest lives that we can. However, throughout time people's character and moral value has, for the most part, been judged on their soul and the good or bad ways that we as humans lead our lives. Though our bodies are critical to our life here on Earth, the soul of a person and its quality caries more value than anything else a person can possess.
Non believers in a soul will try to argue the existence or relevance of this integral thing that we all carry, but the idea of soul is more about helping and influencing us to make good decisions and to serve as a guiding compass for all of us throughout life to help us be the best people that we can be. What those who do not adhere to this belief fail to grasp is that, belief in the existence of a soul or not, the world would not be nearly as good or welcoming of a place, relatively speaking, without the idea of a soul that is affected by our decisions and character. The idea of an afterlife and the concept of a soul affected by your decisions is the number one reason for all the good that people do in the world. Without this underlying, ethereal, compass that is a soul, their would be no reason to make good decisions and the world would be lost to anarchy.
It is harsh to say, but without a soul to burn, what would be the harm of violence, and destruction, and death? The human race would run rampant doing whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted because there would be no form of moral conscience or fear of damnation that a soul provides us with. Fear of God or an eternity in hell may be dark ways of arguing for the necessity of the moral guidance that a soul provides, but without these fears, what would stop any of us from doing whatever we wanted to?
Non believers in a soul will try to argue the existence or relevance of this integral thing that we all carry, but the idea of soul is more about helping and influencing us to make good decisions and to serve as a guiding compass for all of us throughout life to help us be the best people that we can be. What those who do not adhere to this belief fail to grasp is that, belief in the existence of a soul or not, the world would not be nearly as good or welcoming of a place, relatively speaking, without the idea of a soul that is affected by our decisions and character. The idea of an afterlife and the concept of a soul affected by your decisions is the number one reason for all the good that people do in the world. Without this underlying, ethereal, compass that is a soul, their would be no reason to make good decisions and the world would be lost to anarchy.
It is harsh to say, but without a soul to burn, what would be the harm of violence, and destruction, and death? The human race would run rampant doing whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted because there would be no form of moral conscience or fear of damnation that a soul provides us with. Fear of God or an eternity in hell may be dark ways of arguing for the necessity of the moral guidance that a soul provides, but without these fears, what would stop any of us from doing whatever we wanted to?
I disagree with the idea that human beings are innately brutish and need religion to make them better people, For instance, Saudi Arabia exists;a country full of people who believe in the afterlife but are still noted for their abysmal human rights record. Although, I am not of those people who derided people of faith because every religion has it own share of saints and people who make other look bad. I personally noticed that people use religion to justify their actions whether is giving alms to the poor or waging war.
ReplyDelete"The idea of an afterlife and the concept of a soul affected by your decisions is the number one reason for all the good that people do in the world. Without this underlying, ethereal, compass that is a soul, their would be no reason to make good decisions and the world would be lost to anarchy."
ReplyDeleteThis is a very bold assertion. However, perhaps humans evolved this sort of ubiquitous belief in a soul, and it furthers our survival through facilitating cooperation and peace, as you say. Another part of the 'collective unconscious,' if you will, however, is our desire to do as we are now, to philosophize. That is, we seek essential truths that transcend the physical and the tangible and even the logical. Passionate philosophers have faith in logic, and this is an alternative facilitator of cooperation and source of a sense of investment in mortal life and the sanctity of other human life, contradicting the assertion that "Without this underlying, ethereal, compass that is a soul, their would be no reason to make good decisions and the world would be lost to anarchy." I am not convinced of the existence of a soul in the religious, metaphysical sense, yet I am still invested in society. It helps that I enjoy philosophy and seek meaning in life through logic, a process which never yields concrete, irrefutable results in that respect of the search for meaning yet I have faith in it anyway, just like religion yields no concrete, irrefutable results in that respect of the search for meaning yet people maintain their faith. Another contradiction to the claim that belief in a soul is somehow necessary for human survival is that one can conceive also of a completely non-religious individual being invested in mortal life and the sanctity of other human life simply because, logically, social cooperation is a great way to get the things that you desire without the unpleasantness of the difficulty of doing everything with no help, of hostility in confrontations, etc.