| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 11:23:32 AM | I recently talked to the person who believes soul dies too when you die.
At first, I thought it's really stupid idea 'cause I've never doubt about the existence of soul after death in a second for my whole life. But how can I explain or prove my soul is still somewhere even after my current physical form of body doesn't exist? | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 11:35:40 AM | First of all, you would have to describe the soul. Second of all, you would have to have a theoretical model on which to be able to say how a soul exists and from which to develop an experiment to observe a soul, in the process of life, in the process of death and then continuing after death of the body. You would also have to be able to verify that experiment, preferably by someone other than yourself doing a similar experiment and coming up with the same results.
Then and only then would you be able to conclusively state that a soul does, indeed, exist independent of the body and collect your million dollars at the Hague. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 1:20:33 PM | There is no scientific proof that a soul exists that is accepted by mainstream science.
I think that knowledge of the soul comes from within a person's consciousness, and is part of awareness. In philosophical terms, it is called "Gnosis." Which means "knowing." Which is exactly what you describe as how you feel about your own soul. You can try to describe what you know to be true for you, but it is very difficult to convey a feeling. It is like trying to describe what it feels like to ride a bike. Once you learn, you just know, and as far as I can tell, you will "always know" how to ride a bike, even if it has been many years since you last rode one. It seems to be the same kind of experience.
So, in your friend's case, for them, when they die, their soul in effect, doesn't exist because he/she has never experienced the awareness of it. So, in my opinion, given this person's awareness, their soul will die when they die. Their soul, if they have one, will go on, but that individual person will not exist as before...because from then on, they will be aware of having only a soul, where as before they were only aware of being alive in a body....which is two very different "people" (or entities,) in my opinion.
To describe to them something they have not experienced might only give them an idea of some possibility, but because we have free will, they can choose to only perceive it as an intellectual exercise, or a fantasy, and in that case it would be like reading a book about traveling to another country...not the same as being there, and not the same as "knowing."
I can't imagine anyone getting through life never having at least heard of the concept of a "soul," so don't feel you are responsible to try to save them by introducing them to this concept. However, your version of what it means to have a soul; your philosophy, your ethics, that might be something to discuss, as each person has a slightly different set of beliefs that may or may not be helpful to someone else. I would be sure not to be dogmatic or condescending about it when you discuss your beliefs with them. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 4:33:33 PM |
At first, I thought it's really stupid idea 'cause I've never doubt about the existence of soul after death in a second for my whole life. But how can I explain or prove my soul is still somewhere even after my current physical form of body doesn't exist? It's a trick question.
To prove the soul exists after death, you'd need to die and come back. I know that people's heart and other organs have stopped and returned to life after a length of time, which makes sense to me to be a reasonable definition of that. But the ONLY attitude I've ever seen expressed by the modern scientific Western view, is that if you do die, and you're dead for seconds, weeks, months, or years, and then you do come back to life, that you HAD to have been alive all along. So it seems to me that our society's view is that it's impossible for someone to die and come back, and if really happens, then it must be an illusion. So no matter what the evidence, for or against, the hypothesis that souls don't exist after death is NOT falsifiable, and that means you can't prove it's not, and you can't prove it is.
However, oddly enough, I just watched an interview of Carl Jung from 1959. The interviewer decided to ask him about the soul. I seem to recall that he did believe that the soul exists after death. Sure, that doesn't mean you have to agree with him. Take of it what you will. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 6:08:23 PM |
that can be a hardone to answer but i will answer it in one word
faith
Faith is fine for some. Some of us, it takes a bit more than that.
Hey, no one likes the idea of "life after death" more than me. Makes that whole "death" thing a little less scary. But, the fact is, no one is going to know for sure until after that last beep on the heart monitor. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 6:55:56 PM |
But how can I explain or prove my soul is still somewhere even after my current physical form of body doesn't exist?
You cannot, just like you cannot disprove it. More specifically, there is no logical proof for or against the continuation of the soul after death.
There have been several attempted proofs, more noticeably some by Socrates/Plato in his work the Pheado and towards the end of the Gorgias, but as far I know, all such proofs have been debunked in the sense that there is a counter proof as good as the proof. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 7:29:34 PM | You could promise your friend to contact him or her after your own death with some information that only the two of you would know.
The caveat to this is that there seems to be a limited amount of things that a disembodied soul can do in this world. So you might want to contact a person who contacts dead people on a regular basis -- before -- you are dead to get some advice about what kind of signals come through the best from the "other side."
For instance, people report a sense of coldness in a spot where "apparitions" seem to display. And most "communication" is more associational/relational and symbolic than with concrete words.
The other caveat is that you would have to die first....
The only other "proof" is for your friend to experiment themselves with things that might lead to an awareness of their soul or other's souls. For instance, to live, for a while, "as if" the soul existed, and see if that changes things for him/her. The evidence is in their own personal experience, but they then would not be able to "prove it" to anyone else, either, leaving you both in the same boat of not having any consistent, scientific, "proof" to offer to others. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 7:47:51 PM | | hi.. there is faith, there are witnesses, there is a Written Account and there is Living Truth, proof beyond proof.... I do not have even one speck of doubt that the soul ceases to exist in death ..when Jesus comes in the skies He raises the souls of the saints to Eternal Life ... when He comes back to earth the 3rd time He raises the evil souls for Eternal death.... blessings for Truth | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 9:01:36 PM | Well, I do know of one way to prove to yourself if souls do exist, you won't be able to tell anyone, but you'll finally know for sure.
You kill yourself. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/28/2009 10:18:20 PM |
hi.. there is faith, there are witnesses, there is a Written Account and there is Living Truth, proof beyond proof.... I do not have even one speck of doubt that the soul ceases to exist in death ..when Jesus comes in the skies He raises the souls of the saints to Eternal Life ... when He comes back to earth the 3rd time He raises the evil souls for Eternal death
and then a giant pink unicorn will fly through the air, showering Big Macs on us while we bathe in gigantic tubs of peach yogurt......i have not even one speck of doubt about this.... | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 5:21:21 AM |
How can you prove soul exists after death?
How can you prove the soul exists BEFORE death?
Like God, a soul has to have a consistent definition before any questions about it can even be asked.
For instance, if a soul is breath, the question becomes "How can you prove breathing continues after death?" | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 6:27:26 AM |
and then a giant pink unicorn will fly through the air, showering Big Macs on us while we bathe in gigantic tubs of peach yogurt......i have not even one speck of doubt about this....
Halle-freakin'-lujah!! | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 6:44:46 AM | | im going to regret this.... there is a natrual build up of electicity in the body so when you die that lives on. its like every drop of water on this planet has been here since the world was created. so that little spark goes somewhere wheather its to get your electric car just that little bit further or run your tooth brush, its always and forever going to be somewhere so whach out! | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 10:40:59 AM | There is no proof, and if someone wants to believe that their soul goes on forever and it helps them deal with their eventual death, what is wrong with that?? If believeing that pick unicorns..etc, if it helps them get through life with a smile on their face..great.
A person has to decide for themselves their values and beliefs, and whatever they are..what does it matter with others believe?? | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 10:57:36 AM | Yes, sun, you're right. But I think the OP's point is that he wants to find a way to prove that souls do exist which, at our present level of understanding and science, simply cannot do.
I'm not a fan of definitive statements - not that I'm not guilty of 'em from time to time - so saying something "doesn't" exist is as tricky as saying something does exist. However, the greater burden of proof is on the person who says something does exist, so it boils down to the steps I outlined. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 1:58:11 PM | Well ... if you hang out with some mediums or ghost busters long enough to believe that you can communicate and interact with the spirit world .... then .... there is all the proof you will ever get.
Houdini said he would come back and make contact if it was possible.
He never did. ... or at least hasn't so far.
After you die though you no longer deal with time the way we deal with time so that creates a big wrench in the spokes of proving anything to the living. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 2:47:57 PM | There is no such thing as a soul--there's no ghost in the machine, so to speak.
When one's brain is starved of oxygen or nutrients, or if it beomes seriously damaged, the person's a goner, and that's all there is to it. | |
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| How can you prove soul exists after death?
Posted: 10/29/2009 5:38:45 PM | "and then a giant pink unicorn will fly through the air, showering Big Macs on us while we bathe in gigantic tubs of peach yogurt......i have not even one speck of doubt about this...."
.. if you really believe this with every part of your being like I believe in God and Jesus then I would counsel you to see someone, a few people, about that... Jesus came back after 3 days and there were many people who witnessed His Life and death... if I did not want to believe in Nero or Henry The Eighth I would not inspite of what was witnessed or written.. I did not personally meet them while they walked the earth either but I am open to those who did.... blessings | |
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