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Is There A Soul?

First off, what is a soul? According to many religions the soul is where our consciousness, memories, personality, and thoughts reside. In short, it is who we are. It is believed that we are separate from our bodies and once our body dies we as souls leave it behind then live on in an afterlife. Christians believe that after a person dies in this lifetime the Christian god Yahweh will judge us in our bodiless soul forms. If we have repented our sins and accepted Jesus Christ as our personal lord and savior then we will inherit eternal life in Heaven. If not, we will go to Hell where we, as souls, will suffer eternal torment and separation from Yahweh.

Can Souls Die?
According to the Bible, souls die, they are not eternal. Ezekiel 18:20 says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" and Revelation 16:3 mentions "Every living soul died in the sea." This clearly states that our souls can die and 1 Timothy 6:15-16 tells us that only God is and can be immortal, not man.
 

From Air to Consciousness

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." - Genesis 2:7
Before evolving into a superstitious explanation for consciousness it originated as a superstitious explanation for breathing. The word soul has its origin in a word that meant 'breath' or 'wind' or 'air'. The word spirit, generally a synonym for soul, comes from the Latin word spiritus, which means 'breath' . Spiritual and respiratory both derive from the same root. In the King James Version of the Bible the Hebrew word neshamah (literally meaning 'breath') is translated twice as 'spirit' and once as 'soul'. The Hebrew-Aramaic word ruach (literally meaning 'wind') is translated 240 times as 'spirit'. The word nephesh (literally meaning 'breath') is translated 428 times as 'soul', two times as 'ghost', 119 times as 'life' and 292 times as 'spirit'.   Quite literally 'Holly spirit' really means 'sacred air'. One's spirit or soul is literally nothing more than just air. When the scriptures were written humans didn't understand how we were breathing. They really thought some sacred air was breathed into us and that is what gave us life and caused our lungs to raise and fall. When a person dies that air stops flowing through them, as that air leaves our bodies so does life. Hence why the two were believed to be the same. The concept of an afterlife has been around before modern humans (neanderthals were the first to imagine up an afterlife) but it was not until this misunderstanding of breathing that "souls" became the vessel thought to carry us into the next life.
Lilith
Anubis leaning over a mummy with the winged "soul" of the deceased hovering above. In Egypt Anubis is the guardian of the Otherworld and guides the departed to the Hall of Osiris.
And the answer is... No
The concept of a soul was based strictly on superstition and a lack of knowledge but that does not rule out the possibility of it coincidentally being true. However replacing that lack of knowledge with a vast amount of knowledge does rule out the claim of a soul. We now have a far more in depth understanding of the human brain and now know that what was once credited to the soul by ancient man is actually all controlled by the brain. Emotions, personality, thought, memories and consciousness are 100% dependent on the physical structure of the brain, nothing credited to the soul can be sustained without it.
 
Related links: Heaven & Hell • Animals in Heaven? • The Human Brain
   
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CONTEXT: All Bible references on this site are within their context and based upon the most accurate translations.