Athiests that don't believe in God

[Vic Vega]

...

 

[SlitheryDee]

Soul is the word we use to describe the electrical impulses within our brains that we do not yet understand well enough to call another thing.

I like to call it the "mind". Basically the sum total of all the stuff going on in our head. One non-descriptive word is as good as another I suppose, but "soul" has so much metaphysical baggage attached to it. It's kind of like how physicists love using the word "God" and other religious terminology when they talk about the universe. They almost never mean it literally, but it has caused so many non-religious scientists to become fodder for religious quote mining. If they had just said what they meant all the time it would have simplified things for the rest of us.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I like to call it the "mind". Basically the sum total of all the stuff going on in our head. One non-descriptive word is as good as another I suppose, but "soul" has so much metaphysical baggage attached to it. It's kind of like how physicists love using the word "God" and other religious terminology when they talk about the universe. They almost never mean it literally, but it has caused so many non-religious scientists to become fodder for religious quote mining. If they had just said what they meant all the time it would have simplified things for the rest of us.

I don't prefer to use the word soul. However, using the word soul enough in real context may help to reduce the illogical "metaphysical" bullshit.

 

[Retro Rob]

The question is very valid!!
Atheist can post questions asking Christian to prove there is a God....

Then this question is very valid!!

It's sometimes hard to really get the feel, sometimes.

Just talking to some of them on this board, I've gotten:

"I don't believe in a god"
"I don't NOT believe, I have a lack of belief"
"I reject the God described in the Bible"
"We reject the premise god exists, though we can't prove it like we can't prove unicorns"
" We don't "dis-believe"".
"Is there a word for not believing in Unicorns".

 

[Broheim]

I agree with this.

Without the brain, there's nothing imho.

we can't know that for sure, we really don't understand the human consciousness and there are many hypotheses regarding quantum theory and the human mind. It is possible that which some would call a soul is a quantum phenomenon that could explain "free will" in an otherwise deterministic universe, that phenomenon could possibly outlast our physical consciousness and "live on" as our imprint on the world.

of course this is a highly philosophical discussion but it stands to reason to ask if quantum theory is efficacious to our cognitive or volitional brain functions and if it could outlast our biological form.

I'm an atheist and I don't believe in the magical skyfairy version of a soul.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Do you believe that a "soul" exists?

Atheists that don't believe in god as opposed to... Atheists that DO believe in god?

Fix it.

And no, since every single emotion is measurable electrochemical reactions in your brain, including love (loads of hormones there) i think we already have this one answered scientifically. There isn't a thought you ever had nor an emotion you ever felt that wasn't a result of electrochemical stimulation of parts of your brain.

Doesn't make it one bit less magical to hold my granddaughter though.

 

[Jeff7]

To answer the OP question: No.

You clearly don't now much about physics, the stuff you are saying is supported by science is ridiculous. People see lots of things or at least think they do. Your brain is stupid easy to trick, and memory isn't a video camera what you remember may be nothing like what happened. Even if you remember something happening correctly at first it's easy for that to change.

Incredibly easy to trick. Even if you tell someone, "I'm going to trick you," you can still succeed.

The human brain also hallucinates easily. Many of us can recall nightly hallucinations: Dreams.
Deprive yourself of various things: Food, water, sensory stimulation, sleep, or oxygen. Bam, the brain starts hallucinating. Stress it. You can experience mild hallucinations. A whole host of chemicals can be ingested and cause hallucinations. Or severe or chronic pain can also lead to hallucinations.

Your brain will conjure up odd junk at the slightest whim, and feed it to your main processor, flagged with "This is valid data. I'm completely serious. Just do what the voices tell you."


If a computer did this, we'd either tirelessly write or search for a software patch, or demand a refund or replacement.

I'm agnostic mostly, closer to an atheist in belief of a "god" but more toward agnostic in the belief of a "soul".

I think the latter has more evidence to back it up, and thus I am open to the idea that we have energy that will live on after we die. Which is actually irrefutable because energy is not destroyed, I would simply become part of something else. But I mean a certain kind of energy that may imprint on our reality our very existence even after we cease to physically exist is possible. But I still don't believe that energy imprint then goes to heaven or hell, its just a biometric imprint on reality.

Yup, you do contain energy. There's plenty of chemical energy, contained in the bonds between your constituent molecules. You've got some thermal energy, which is a result of your body's constant shuffling around of certain chemical bonds in order to produce usable energy, and heat as well. And you've got some electrical energy, also continuously produced, to do things like move muscles.

Upon death, the electrical energy goes away in a fairly short time, a result of the slow cessation of many chemical reactions, due to the lack of abundant oxygen. Your residual thermal energy dissipates into the environment through the usual means of conduction, convection, and radiation. The potential energy left in the chemical bonds within you may slowly be released as you decay. Your thoughts and memories, stored by connections between cells in your brain, are also slowly destroyed as your brain cells die, and then themselves decay.

That's about it though. There's no mystical ethereal "energy" about a person. You contain some basic, easily-explained forms of energy, and they can all be accounted for when you die.


When you turn off a computer, the contents of its RAM don't "imprint" into reality, or travel through a wormhole into a distant part of another Universe. (Though if they do...does PRISM also monitor other spacetime bubbles?) The data is stored in tiny capacitors in RAM, wherein charges are kept separate, and need to be refreshed constantly in order to retain the data. Cut the main power, and those charges neutralize due to leakage within the capacitors. It doesn't violate conservation of energy any more than a dying person does. Charges neutralize. Things seek a ground state. And the Universe goes on its merry way.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Do you believe that a "soul" exists?

No, I don't believe in any of that mystical stuff.

I've always wanted to ask christians that believe in god this question. What is heaven like? Is it a physical place where everyone that is good goes to when they die? So that would be billions of people I presume? Is it just like our world? Or does everyone have their own personal slice of heaven? If so, at what point do you get a cut off? So your own personal heaven contains your immediate family for example, but then what? Your wife has a sister, so does she come in? What about your wifes sisters husband who you hate. Does he come in to, it seems unfair to exclude him. But then he has three siblings you never even knew....

 

[sandorski]

Only in a metaphorical sense. Similar to Gut Feeling, in my Heart, or some kind of Emotional state about something usually felt intensely. These are all situations where the term Soul can be used.

An eternal Lifesource Soul? No.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Short answer: No

Long answer:

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNoooooooooooooooooooooo.........................

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

The question is very valid!!
Atheist can post questions asking Christian to prove there is a God....

Then this question is very valid!!

It's only valid if we can include Osama with you since you're both theists.

You know i love you man but seriously, think about what you're proposing.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

I don't consider myself an atheist, but this soul stuff sounds like a load of hooey. Just like ghosts or any of that other crap.

KT

Words have a meaning, do you believe in a god? If yes then you are a theist, if no then you are an atheist.

Are you sure you are right about whatever belief you hold, if yes you are a gnostic and if no you are an agnostic.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

To answer the OP question: No.



Incredibly easy to trick. Even if you tell someone, "I'm going to trick you," you can still succeed.

The human brain also hallucinates easily. Many of us can recall nightly hallucinations: Dreams.
Deprive yourself of various things: Food, water, sensory stimulation, sleep, or oxygen. Bam, the brain starts hallucinating. Stress it. You can experience mild hallucinations. A whole host of chemicals can be ingested and cause hallucinations. Or severe or chronic pain can also lead to hallucinations.

Your brain will conjure up odd junk at the slightest whim, and feed it to your main processor, flagged with "This is valid data. I'm completely serious. Just do what the voices tell you."


If a computer did this, we'd either tirelessly write or search for a software patch, or demand a refund or replacement.

Yup, whatever you want to believe that is what you will find evidence for.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Only in a metaphorical sense. Similar to Gut Feeling, in my Heart, or some kind of Emotional state about something usually felt intensely. These are all situations where the term Soul can be used.

An eternal Lifesource Soul? No.

To be... or not to be, you?

Because you know you are you, but what does it mean to be you? Are you the result of environment (epigenetics) and your genetics or do you have the balls to stand up and say ENOUGH and go out and murder a dozen people?

See whenever anyone thinks for themselves and i am sure all of you have, you want revenge, love or luxury.

People who pray to god don't do it for their gods sake, they do it for themselves.

 

[JackBurton]

Yup, whatever you want to believe that is what you will find evidence for.

I wanted to believe in God, but I could never find evidence for it. Sorry.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah who the hell does not want to believe in a god? Everlasting life anyone? However just because I want something doesn't make it true.