Cloudy, you have soul and you have a soul.
Why is it that when person a) has something that gives them joy, peace and happiness, persons b) and c) have to come along and attempt to tear that down. Do we like making people miserable here? I thought friends built each other up, even if they disagree.
It upsets me to see Cloudy upset. She was not arguing that say, Dramnek had a soul, yet Dramnek tried telling her she did not have a soul. Man, if you don't think you have soul or have a soul, fine, just don't try and tell everyone else they don't have one. There is the possibility that some humans have souls and others don't you know.
No world religion seems to entertain that fact and everyone one seems convinced of absolutes that cover everyone, but what if that were a possibility? What if Dramnek does not have a soul and Cloudy does. Who is Dramnek to say she doesn't?
I think it more likely that we all do, but that some aren't aware of that fact. There are precedents. Some people cannot smell milk slightly gone off that to others is revolting and untouchable. Other people feel hot or cold more acutely than others. I hear sounds I never used to hear before being a musician. I became more attuned to sound, just as a winemaker becomes more attuned to smell, and someone with religious faith becomes more attuned to both God, spirituality and their soul.
Focus.
For someone who says that they feel or know something to be contradicted by another
merely because the second person hasn't sensed it is quite dangerous. It is presuming that ones own experience is the limit of reality, and blinding oneself to learning from anothers experience. That is how we learn quickly. Another sharing their perspective so we don't necessarily have to go through it or see it firsthand. Science, medicine and history for example are all built on accumulated knowledge rather than mere experiencial knowledge.
Remember that the only thing one can ever proove is that they exist as an awareness. No-one can prove that even the earth exists because it could be a mental construct. You could be the only person alive in this total fabrication.
I doubt that however. If anything I am the only person alive
I actually had a fierce debate in person with my good mate about this. He argued we couldn't even proove that! He was trying to proove he might not exist!
Yes he is a Christian, and we have many a rollicking discussion as he'll often take an extreme line to find the middle ground or explore an idea fully. He played Saxophone on and co-wrote "Groove Sound" for those that are interested.
Anyway, self awareness is an interesting thing. Is self awareness/abstract thought/artistic creation things that are of the soul, or totally resultant from the physical brain? Other animals have arguably greater mental faculties than humans - the Dolphin for example. The Dolphin, using sonar can identify a hidden object on colour alone, using sonar sending and reception. Almost telepathic. Are dolphins self aware? Do they create art? Do they hypothesise alternate scenarios?
Elephants memories are legendary. Pigs know on the morning of their slaughter that they will die and scream. Dogs hear sounds that we will never hear, and possess a much greater sense of smell. Sound and smell are both interpreted in the brain.
I have seen "art" a Gorilla drew on a show that attempted to humanise Gorillas. The "art" was inferior to that of a very small childs.
What makes us different from the animal kingdom if we do not have a soul? Why is a cat born with instict and a human not? Why do we love and hate if not of the soul? Love/hate. Some try and limit it to chemical reaction, but that explains the infutuative part, not the all encompassing love that lasts years. Hate surpasses fear and survival defences and even logic
And what of the thirst for knowledge? Cats are curious. Many animals are curious. But how many animals climb the highest mountain in the world just "because it's there"? How many animals have inhabited every climactic extreme, delved to the depths of the ocean and shot themselves into space? Do ants go and travel to another anthill to see "how the other half live"?
Why are we going to Mars? Everything we need for survival is here. Mars is barren, lifeless, ugly by comparison to the myriad colours smells and scenes of Terra. I hope we go though
What is it that drives the search in us if it is not soul related. If you are a pantheist you'd believe your fragment of the great soul is compelled to experience all it can to take the knowledge back to the Universal Soul. If you are a Christian you'd perhaps believe it is God given intrigue so that we explore the creation and come to know the creator through the artwork. God given thirst to discover him.
Reagardless show me a consistent alternative theory for the depth and variety in humanity - in a single individual let alone the Race - that explores the above before dismissing offhand the notion that humans have souls.
When I see Cloudy, I see a woman with soul, a woman with a soul. If anyone else cannot see it, it is their loss. Declaring the contrary actually risks highlighting ones limits in perception.
(ouch!
)
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I am the walrus!.... er, no hang on....
A fair dinkum laughing Hyena!