Biggest atheist mysteries

[flawedprefect]

I am interested in what other atheists think about the existence of the "soul".

If matter can neither be destroyed, nor created (II believe this is one of the fundamental principles behind Einstein's theory of relativity) does that mean that all matter is eternal? Can the soul be quantified as a unit of molecular, atomic, or sub-atomic substance?

While I do not believe in a Heaven or Hell as a suppository for the amalgamated collection of all human souls throughout history, I do have some thoughts on reincarnation, and the breaking down of the soul much like the breaking down of human tissue after death.

It is one of the mysteries that I ponder on as an Atheist, as I read much about how the entire make up of our bodies is renewed over time - we eat food; we digest food; it is broken down into molecules to help repair and replicate DNA strands and cells while older ones are shed and excreted. Yet we feel as though we see through the same set of eyes for a lifetime; keep a record of our memories; learn and basically feel contained by this body.

I sometimes wonder if our soul can be likened to the surface tension around a water drop - we know that drop is made of millions of molecules of water, but they are held inside a form adhering to the laws of the conservation of energy, until an outside force rends them apart... yet the molecules themselves exist forever, and then may reform later as another water drop - but not necessarily all the same molecules.

Am I getting a bit too Zen here? Well rub my belly and call me Buddha...

Interested if others here think about the soul, or if you're content to just say "we're dust, and that's it".

Of course, neither can be tested empirically.

[NH Baritone]

I am interested in what other atheists think about the existence of the "soul".

If matter can neither be destroyed, nor created (II believe this is one of the fundamental principles behind Einstein's theory of relativity) does that mean that all matter is eternal? Can the soul be quantified as a unit of molecular, atomic, or sub-atomic substance?

While I do not believe in a Heaven or Hell as a suppository for the amalgamated collection of all human souls throughout history, I do have some thoughts on reincarnation, and the breaking down of the soul much like the breaking down of human tissue after death.

It is one of the mysteries that I ponder on as an Atheist, as I read much about how the entire make up of our bodies is renewed over time - we eat food; we digest food; it is broken down into molecules to help repair and replicate DNA strands and cells while older ones are shed and excreted. Yet we feel as though we see through the same set of eyes for a lifetime; keep a record of our memories; learn and basically feel contained by this body.

I sometimes wonder if our soul can be likened to the surface tension around a water drop - we know that drop is made of millions of molecules of water, but they are held inside a form adhering to the laws of the conservation of energy, until an outside force rends them apart... yet the molecules themselves exist forever, and then may reform later as another water drop - but not necessarily all the same molecules.

Am I getting a bit too Zen here? Well rub my belly and call me Buddha...

Interested if others here think about the soul, or if you're content to just say "we're dust, and that's it".

Of course, neither can be tested empirically.

I honestly cannot understand why the concepts of the soul (and they are many and diverse) arose at all. The mind-body problem is, to me, no problem at all. Humans are our bodies, which are changing over time.

Your statement about the conservation of matter is true to a point. Einstein's theory of special relativity states that matter and energy are equivalent, so when matter appears to be destroyed, it simply turns into energy, or vice-versa. Thus, a burning log in my woodstove does not just disappear or lose mass. The mass that is stored chemically in its structure is turned into heat energy & light energy.

The idea that somehow some portion of conserved life-form exists separate from its bio-chemi-physical structure seems to defy logic and evidence, particularly when life itself seems entirely irrelevant to the wide universe. We just ain't that special. To assume life has a special place or precedes or follows physical form seems to me to cling to either self-importance or anxiety about death, or both. Such clinging it identifiably non-Zen.

Here is a more Zen approach: All existence is process, and life is no different. We perceive ourselves as consistent and unitary from birth to death, but that's the same thing as over time perceiving a river as the same river or a fire as the same fire. Rivers and Fires are not the same from moment to moment. Animals retain memories because our cells function to do so. But it has been shown that memories that we hold change over time, because each time we recall them, they are slightly modified and then refiled in the cerebral manila folder. If anything is an illusion, it is the perception that we are the same person we were at birth, or the same person we were on any day between then and now.

[spongebob]

NH couldn't be more right on than this. The soul concept is nothing but pure woo woo.

[flawedprefect]

...Except for the statement about the log in the fire. The constituent molecules and atoms are exactly the same amount before and after burning - the carbon is merely released from the wood in a chemical reaction, so that the log is no longer wood. Every particle of matter that existed before the log was a log still exists after.

Even during an atomic explosion, the energy released is the energy that bonds the sub-atomic particles together: there is no conversion of electrons to energy.

As far as I've read, every particle of matter which existed from the beginning is still here, it just gets transmuted into different elements and configurations. Decay, combustion, etc occurs on a macro level.

But I'm not gonna push you all to "believe" in a soul. If there was such a thing, I believe it to be part of the human body - not separate. And I brought it up because this thread was titled "biggest atheist mysteries" and that is one I wanted to chalk up. Was just wondering on your thoughts to that.

Pure woo woo. Man, I'm gonna be chanting that in night clubs, now...