There would be no way to describe what I experience without a soul that transcends the personality. There is something in us, which is more than my habits, limitations and combined past. According to Christianity and Islam we each have an immortal soul that may rot in hell if we don't behave. According to Hinduism we have a soul (atma) that will reincarnate till we grow enlightened (or awake) enough to not need to reincarnate any further. Buddhism agrees on the reincarnation, but some Buddhists believe that what reincarnates changes too much to be called a soul (anatma). Psychologists agree we have a personality, but don't know about what happens after we die. Yes, short answer, I truly believe we have a soul. No question about it.
I believe every living thing has an energy to it and when we die the energy does not fade or disappear. I do not believe in heaven or hell though, I don't think when we die we go to some never ending cocktail party located in either clouds or fire. I believe the energy in all of us is either recycled or used in ways we do not understand, but ultimately all for the continuation of life somehow. So there's my fantasy :)
I do not believe we have souls. I believe we are souls and we have bodies. Because I will survive my body, I am the soul (part of it anyway). When I join God (go to heaven), I will be joining the larger (source or majority of the) soul. Just as a cell, or even an organ (part of me), can be taken from me and be kept alive for a period of time, so can I (a part of the larger soul - God) be kept alive for a time, separately.
I see the spiritual world (heaven, God) as the larger, source of that part of the spiritual world I call “me.” I am separated for now (absent from Him, present in my body) and when I go to heaven, I will rejoin Him or be reintegrated in with Him (the spiritual realm, heaven).
Another way to explain this picture that lives in my mind is by using water as a metaphoric example. If you went to a lake, dipped out some water and poured that water into a jar, that would be like placing a soul into a physical or earthly body. The jar being the body and the water being the soul, a part of it anyway. Because we are all part of a bigger soul (water itself or the water table) …God, heaven, the spiritual world, whatever label most helps you make sense of the picture I see. I don’t get hung up on the labels one uses to understand things. I think the understanding is more important than the labeling. Anyway, because the water cannot be eliminated (like the soul, it is immortal), when the jar (the body, which can’t last forever - is mortal) can no longer hold the water (it breaks or the rubber gasket dries, stiffens and cracks and no longer forms an adequate seal), the water escapes, if only over time by evaporation, and will eventually make its way back into the water table (go to heaven, join the spiritual realm, join God). The water doesn’t attach at one end or to the side, it reintegrates with the rest of the water and it all becomes one.
This is how I see God, the spiritual realm and us …souls living in bodies while we are here on earth, temporarily separated from God (present in the body, absent from the Lord) till the time we leave these bodies which will die or cease to hold us back at which time we will make our way back to heaven and rejoin God (the spiritual table).
do humans have souls? I'd have to say that although humans are born with a soul, some lose sight of it while rare people keep sight of it and utilize it. These people are true heroes.
I would call it 'self' rather than 'soul. Everyone is born with the seed of Self, a bit from each parent and a tiny bit of someone else's. As the child grows, and becomes more aware of things, so does that bit. I don't think that it can be totally destroyed, but I do think it suffers damage during some actions. A large number of people think that having a fight, snatching an old woman's purse, or even killing someone will make them into a Somebody. That person's Self is damaged because of such activities. It's wrong and that person knows it. Such behavior degrades and weakens the Self. More of that kind of activitiy weakens it even further. Knowing that he's not on the level of Somebody, that his Self is weak, he keeps going. Some in the far north believe that the Self is released by death, it joins the others in the Northern Lights. Waiting until it's time to be that little extra that is added to the bit of the parents'. Those that were released by those who do ill all their lives are the last ones to leave.
In my personal view it is up to you and your own opinion and individual beliefs. Yes i do believe we have souls no matter who you are or what your chosen beliefs may be. For example some religions and individuals that we do not have souls however films such as ghost do show that we have souls which can linger round on earth if we have unfinished business or we could simply be vessels transporting a soul throughout life (sorry if this makes no sense) but in short yes i believe everyone has a soul even if they don't believe it themselves but there is also the science side but thats for science people (:
I doubt a soul is any measurable part of a human. To me it is much more a concept we use to explain the consciousness in such a way which doesn't implicate a pattern.
