Do the Living possess a SOUL? And if so, is it only humans that have a SOUL or every living thing?
459249
I believe (as a Christian) that God made us humans in his own likeness, and everything else was not specifically in his image. He also breathed life into humans himself. He gave us and only us souls. That's what I think. It's up to you to decide for yourself.\nThanks,\n~Me
1167269
:) Okay. From a strictly scientific standpoint. What does your brain operate on? Electrical energy. We have a scientific law which states; Energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. It can only be altered in form. Okay, the energy in our brains cannot be destroyed, upon the death of our physical bodies. Then what happens to it??? I think there's your Ghosts. Who we are changes form, but is not destroyed. We still exist. I guess maybe it's a science based definition of a soul?
223380
Souls?\n\nThat's a h*ll of an assumption!
656273
Souls have not been scientifically proven to exist. Therefore, no one knows, since souls are theoretical only.
192521
The Soul According to the Bible:\n\nThe Hebrew word translated “soul” is ne´phesh, and it occurs 754 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. What does ne´phesh mean? According to The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, it “usually refers to the entire living being, to the whole individual.” This is borne out by the Bible’s description of the soul at Genesis 2:7: “Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” Note that the first man “came to be” a soul. That is to say, Adam did not have a soul; he was a soul—just as someone who becomes a doctor is a doctor. The word “soul,” then, here describes the whole person.\n\nThe word translated “soul” (psy·khe´) appears more than a hundred times in the Christian Greek Scriptures. Like ne´phesh this word often refers to the whole person. For example, consider the following statements: “My soul is troubled.” (John 12:27) “Fear began to fall upon every soul.” (Acts 2:43) “Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities.” (Romans 13:1) “Speak consolingly to the depressed souls.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14) “A few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” (1 Peter 3:20) Clearly, psy·khe´, like ne´phesh, refers to the whole person. According to scholar Nigel Turner, this word “signifies what is characteristically human, the self, the material body having God’s rûah [spirit] breathed into it. . . . The emphasis is on the whole self.”\n\nin the Bible the word “soul” applies not only to humans but also to animals. For example, in describing the creation of sea creatures, Genesis 1:20 says that God commanded: “Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls.” And on the next creative day, God said: “Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.”—Genesis 1:24; compare Numbers 31:28.\n\n, the word “soul” as used in the Bible refers to a person or an animal or to the life that a person or an animal enjoys. (See box above.) The Bible’s definition of the soul is simple, consistent, and unencumbered by the complicated philosophies and superstitions of men. That being the case, the urgent question that must be asked is, According to the Bible, what happens to the soul at death?\n\nThe Dead Are Unconscious:\n\nThe condition of the dead is made clear at Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10, where we read: “The dead know nothing . . . There is no pursuit, no plan, no knowledge or intelligence, within the grave.” (Moffatt) Death, therefore, is a state of nonexistence. The psalmist wrote that when a person dies, “he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish.” (Psalm 146:4) The dead are unconscious, inactive.\n\n When pronouncing sentence upon Adam, God stated: “Dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19) Before God formed him from the dust of the ground and gave him life, Adam did not exist. When he died, he returned to that state. His punishment was death—not a transfer to another realm. What, then, happened to his soul? Since in the Bible the word “soul” often simply refers to a person, when we say that Adam died, we are saying that the soul named Adam died. This might sound unusual to a person who believes in the immortality of the soul. However, the Bible states: “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.” (Ezekiel 18:4) Leviticus 21:1 speaks of “a deceased soul” (a “corpse,” The Jerusalem Bible). And Nazirites were told not to come near “any dead soul” (“a dead body,” Lamsa).—Numbers
238801
well many souls(living entities) are still on the earth tied to something in the natural world.  or atleast thats the popular belief of many
1093327
A soul is an intangible, spiritual being.  I too believe that our pets have souls, but how can a soul weigh something if it is your deepest emotions and values?
103195
Your "soul" does not enter the body at conception. You are a being of light before you become a human being, therefore evolutioning with time, thru every life pattern or experienced existence in the physical body.\nWhich means that your "soul" is already in existence  before physical conception.....
680846
there is no scientific proof as far as i know that soul really does exist.but many philosophers have plausible arguments in support of the existence of the soul.as far as our energy is concerned it simply changes form and gets converted to heat energy,chemical energy etc.
535018
As far as anyone can tell, there is no such thing as a soul.  When you die, you cease to exist.  End of story.\n\nADDENDUM:  To anyone who answers this question from the perspective that souls exist, you ought to justify your assertions with verifiable evidence or valid argument, not just make unsupported claims, otherwise your response is essentially worthless.  Oh, and quoting from the Bible or the Qur'an constitutes neither evidence nor argument...  :-)\n\nIt is a fundamental principle of rational thought that if you claim something exists, and you want people to believe you, then the onus is on you to provide argument or evidence to support your claim, not on other people to refute it.  The default position is non-belief, in other words.
1174759
No. In order to be deemed "living" it must meet the following criteria:\n\n1) Require energy\n2) Made of cells\n3) Reproduce\n4) Display hereditary\n5) Respond to the environment\n6) Maintain homeostasis\n7) Evolve & Adapt
1000862
i don't believe that we take anything from our earthly bodies with us. our soul leaves our earthbound bodies to go where ever it goes and our clothes are left behind. the clothes lay in the ground with the decaying body. i'd like to believe that our souls become beautiful light and we won't need clothes in Heaven.
107074
The "soul" is definitely NOT eternal. Look back in Genesis 2:7 at the creation of Adam. Note closely what it said: "....and he became a living soul." It doesn't say God GAVE him a soul, it said Adam WAS the soul. Later on in the scriptures (Ezekiel 18:4) it says "the soul that is sinning, it itself will die." \n\nThe very notion of humans having some mysterious and separate soul that goes off somewhere at death is absurd, and completely against the Bible. Thank goodness we have God's word the Bible to clear up such gross misconceptions and wrong beliefs.
164883
The Human Soul. Precisely the same Hebrew phrase used of the animal creation, namely, ne´phesh chai·yah´ (living soul), is applied to Adam, when, after God formed man out of dust from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, “the man came to be a living soul.” (Ge 2:7) Man was distinct from the animal creation, but that distinction was not because he was a ne´phesh (soul) and they were not. Rather, the record shows that it was because man alone was created “in God’s image.” (Ge 1:26, 27)\n\n He was created with moral qualities like those of God, with power and wisdom far superior to the animals; hence he could have in subjection all the lower forms of creature life. (Ge 1:26, 28) Man’s organism was more complex, as well as more versatile, than that of the animals. (Compare 1Co 15:39.) Likewise, Adam had, but lost, the prospect of eternal life; this is never stated with regard to the creatures lower than man.—Ge 2:15-17; 3:22-24.\n\nSoul—A Living Creature. As stated, man “came to be a living soul”; hence man was a soul, he did not have a soul as something immaterial, invisible, and intangible residing inside him. The apostle Paul shows that the Christian teaching did not differ from the earlier Hebrew teaching, for he quotes Genesis 2:7 in saying: “It is even so written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul [psy·khen´ zo´san].’ . . . The first man is out of the earth and made of dust.”—1Co 15:45-47.\n\nSince the term ne´phesh refers to the creature itself, we should expect to find the normal physical functions or characteristics of fleshly creatures attributed to it. \nThis is exactly the case. Ne´phesh (soul) is spoken of as eating flesh, fat, blood, or similar material things (Le 7:18, 20, 25, 27; 17:10, 12, 15; De 23:24); being hungry for or craving food and drink (De 12:15, 20, 21; Ps 107:9; Pr 19:15; 27:7; Isa 29:8; 32:6; Mic 7:1); being made fat (Pr 11:25); fasting (Ps 35:13); touching unclean things, such as a dead body (Le 5:2; 7:21; 17:15; 22:6; Nu 19:13); being ‘seized as a pledge’ or being ‘kidnapped’ (De 24:6, 7); doing work (Le 23:30); being refreshed by cold water when tired (Pr 25:25); being purchased (Le 22:11; Eze 27:13); being given as a vow offering (Le 27:2); being put in irons (Ps 105:18); being sleepless (Ps 119:28); and struggling for breath (Jer 15:9).\n\n Genesis, as well as many other portions of the Scriptures, shows that man does not have a soul as something immaterial residing in him. Rather, he is a soul. At death man passes into nonexistence, awaiting a resurrection. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15; Revelation 20:12, 13) The Bible likens death to a sleep from which one can be awakened in the resurrection.—John 11:11, 43, 44.
655621
Yes, I do. I believe people have souls. Life is too beautiful for everything to just be scientific. Besides, Quantum Physics states that mind is matter, so what you think to be true, is.\n\nTo Getta: Pick up a Biology Textbook. Humans are animals.
126611
I like to think that you can still interact with other souls in the afterlife, if there is one... but I also wonder if our souls are just energy, and we just dissipate into nothingness when we die... but that can't be true, right? Otherwise this life would make no sense.
843860
Philosophers have been asking these questions for thousand of years. Modern science has not helped explain our beliefs, but you could be asking yourself, "if the soul can't be perceived, and no residence has been found, does it actually exist?". Really, a ghost in the machine? It just can't stand up to logic.