Lately, I've been thinking about this. As it's been proven that all people come from one zygote, completely chemically/biologically, do people really have souls/spirits? I believe that God created the Earth and Adam/Eve, and gained the conclusion that they definitely had souls as God directly created them. And if they were the only ones with a soul, does that mean they were the only ones truly able to communicate with God? Another thing to add might be 'What is a soul, exactly?' or 'Do you believe that life is just more than chemicals?'
That you can, but I'm wasting 18 or so years under the rule that children must obey their parents. And well, why aren't more people out enjoying life rather than spending it in an office?
I mean, why waste our time if we only have one life?
You shouldn't waste time. You only get one life, make it what you want it to be. This life has great value and meaning BECAUSE it's the only one we have.
What value does life have if it's just a very short test prior to eternity? None. None at all. What do your relationships, feelings, accomplishments mean, if you only get them for a few years, then spend an eternity doing something else entirely? That's what I find most depressing about the 'Big Three' religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. They say that this life is just a very very short test, and that real life truly doesn't start until we die.
And by that logic, why live at all? Why not just commit suicide, afterall then you get to go to eternity. Why waste your time here? Simple. You KNOW there isn't eternity, you grieve for your lost ones when they die, instead of rejoicing that they finally passed the test. You may say you believe in an afterlife, but your emotional and rational responses say different. So love the life you have while you have it. Live it to the fullest, do the most good you can, and when you die you can die knowing you had a good run at it.
And since when did you HAVE to obey your parents? They aren't perfect and what they say isn't written in stone and passed into law. Live your life to it's full and do what YOU want to do.
Or do what I do. Get a door lock, fridge, and computer and you never have to leave your room!
To add to the motivational speeches of the others, make your life worth something! Do something that will leave a lasting effect on the world, such as being a politician, soldier, doctor, scientist, engineer, or even just a kind person and "live on" in memory.
I think that the word soul is just another name for personality. Everyone has a soul, and if not for personality we'd all be gray lifeless husks. The soul is still important. It makes us, well, us.
well...actually a few scientist created the first living bacteria with chemicals. And some day we will be able to create humans with machines BUHAHAHHAHAH. lol
The soul is nothing more or less than our desire to exist and to make our existence into something meaningful. It is the drive and passion within us. I believe we have souls and they are our emotions.
It's another word for conscience, in my opinion. Some people have one, some people don't.
It's idiotic to believe a little ghosty come out of you when you die. Although I have met people who have seen such when people die. Most notably, my family.
It would seem dumb to think that absolutely nothing will happen after you die
In what way? Absolutely nothing happened when you were born, why do you think deign will be any different?
And of course, of all eternity, the chance that you will be remembered is a an entire 'zip'. 'zilch'. 'nadda'. (nothing.)
Unless, of course, you do something in your life. How long do you think people will remember Einstein? Galileo? We even remember the Greek philosophers!
Since there would be absolutely no reason for us on earth, then, there must be something of meaning that will exist after we die for all eternity.
There is no reason for you to be on earth. You are using a flawed chain of logic to state that meaning must exist. There is no meaning. Before your born, when your alive, and after your dead, there still is no meaning. Feel free to make one for yourself, though.
The fact that you think, or hope, that there is a meaning doesn't mean there actually is one. I personally prefer the fact that there is none, because that allows me to decide myself what meaning I am giving to my life. I also think that everything just happens. There is no purpose, and in the end nothing will remain. It is hard to cope with that, and if your way of coping consists in letting an imaginary god decide for yourself what is your purpose, then go ahead.
Then you admit it would be much better if we were dead, considering the amount of bad things that happen every day?
I never said anything resembling that. No, good things are worth the bad in this case. Stubbing your toe is worth having fun for an hour, then skinning your knee. Accidentally hitting your head while laying down is worth the pleasure of watching T.V for a few hours. The good outnumbers the bad.
So you're saying that there is no meaning, shouldn't we have no free will? We can decide, think conquer, outwit, destroy, create, THINK, perform, submit, live, die, murder and kill, let live, complete, organize, write, imagine, even have machines write on a piece of paper what absolute amazing thing we saw, and say that there is no meaning? Abraham Lincoln said:
I dind't say anything like that: when you are not fitting into a deities plan you have far more free will. How would you have free will if everything you will do is decided before hand?
The meaning of all those things is to survive. That is why humans invented them, use them, and will use them.
Abraham will be remembered for a long time, but do you remember that little boy in Illinois who died at the age of seven of Pompe? There have been billions of people on earth, and we have only remembered about a thousand of them in all of the few thousand years that have been recorded.
You know the difference? Abe did something memorable.
By the way, Good old Abe was an atheist as a child and hated organized religion as an adult. My turn to quote him!
"It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to Infidelity." Manford's Magazine, quoted from The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents by Franklin Steiner, p. 144.
