What about the soul...hormones and brainstructure defines who you are?

Are we really who we think we are?

Over the years I learned from tv-programs/docu's that the personallity and behaviour of a person is defined by upbringing...life experiance but also by brainstructure and all kinds of hormones and chemicals in the bloodstream.

Then there is the soul.....isn't the soul the essence of who you are? Your true identity so to speak? Isn't your soul what you take with you where ever you go ?(meaning different lives)

I am a believer of life after dead and reincarnation. So,..will you not be another person with an other personallity when you enter the next world? After all you are not bound to the "drugs" in your blood or the condition of your brain.

Or does the homone balance and brainstructure in your body adapt to the person/identity you are and is it not the product of who your parents are or were you come from?

So...in the life you live now....is it really you?.....or are you really someone else and will the true you surface when you are dead?

I hope you guys understand what I am trying to figure out here....

reply to post by zatara


I will be curious to see some of the replies to this, as well, thank you for your post! (S & F)

As a person of faith, I too see a soul as being the part of me that makes me who I am -- my memories, retained emotions, beliefs and values. In a sense, a symbiotic relationship between the material body and the spiritual soul combine to make a person fit for this reality.

When one considers what we are, barring this spiritual, supernatural aspect, it seems like we lose a lot of what we think makes us unique. If I love my wife, for example, in the scientific view, this emotion is nothing more than learned behaviour, existent in chemical and electrical reactions, so it can be said I don't really love my wife, I'm just currently wired that way.

Which begs the question as to whether I can be rewired, by myself or someone else, to no longer love her, but love someone else, simply by changing the chemical or electrical process.

reply to post by zatara


I believe in nothing (or try not to).

I don't believe in some god-figure who sits in heaven and so forth. I do not believe we have souls that incarnate. I do not believe in astrology as it is presented.

But indeed we are (at the specific moment) the result of our past. Our character is defined by our experiences, our "soul" is only our basic nature, very much affected by our heritage and upraising.

Yet we are in constant movement and can exert some will to affect our destiny (no I don't believe in fixed destiny either). I'd like to imagine us as a ship on the sea. We can steer it, we have to in order to avoid shallows and reach the destination of our intentions, but we cannot really affect the winds and tides, but instead have to learn how to "behave" in order to reach our goals.

In this sense, we are Kybernetes, which translates as steersman. We have some freedom on choices, but not free will that we can exert to the environment.

-v

I believe in science. I also believe that science in it's present state isn't advanced enough to detect or explain many things about life.
I used to be a churchgoing person, but the more I dug into it, the more bizzare it became. It eventually came to the point where I was told to stop asking questions and just believe. Regardless of the denomination.

I have spent many hours in thought about how life came into existence, why it is the way it is, and even why it is here at all. Evolution was a big kicker for me, on how insects from millions of years ago are the same as the ones today - yet other organisms evolved. If life was all about propagating the species, insects would have evolved long life spans, would they not? How does a flipper on a fish become a leg? There has to be more to it than just dragging it around on the ground. Waving a limb in the air won't make it produce feathers for flight. Children of manual laborers aren't born with calloused hands. It's my belief that there is something behind it, which sees the need as the need arises, and recodes the dna to slowly allow it in. Sometimes not so slowly.
I've come to the conclusion that life is all about the evolution of mind in matter. For what purpose, I don't know.
A great website with more information on this is eternism.com - it's a compelling argument for the consciousness of the universe.
I really don't think that our brains are "us". I think the brains are something that "we" are using, just as our arms, legs, heart...
When we die, it is possible that our consciousness is reborn into another living thing - yet...I do not believe that we would be aware of it no more than we are aware at this moment of any of our past lives. Nothing more than a suspicion at best. If there is an "in-between" state - at that moment we may have memories of the lives we have lived, but all of this is pure speculation. The clencher is that you have to die to find out. Another though on that, is at the atomic level, there is no difference between a living person or a dead one. Most of the molecules in your body have long since died out anyway, been replaced by others.
In my study of this - it has always seemed as if it were a complicated equation in which several parts were missing. Whether these missing parts have to do with our mental capabilities, our culture, or even our sex - it's hard to determine how much of what we believe is factual or just part of our environment that has been "assumed" for so long that we no longer question it.

Let's just say souls/spirits do exist, then I do agree with you, in that once we die, and are freed from this realm that imprisons us with bodies, then, and only then, will we have True Freewill. We'll be able to return to our natural selves that we may have forgotten about, or were forced to hide for various reasons in this present life.

Maybe we will get that youthful, kid-like feeling again, and there will be no more worries of work and tax paying, because life would be purely existence and exploration, rather than slaving for scraps of bacon.

Do you have a soul, or does a soul have you?
What is the soul, shall I tell you?

Death will bring the greatest joy and freedom, freedom from yourself!
And all your silly speculations will fall away!

reply to post by midicon


That is much what Leira7 has in mind......isn't it?

second line

reply to post by zatara


Nothing like it I’m afraid.

Nothing like it at all, thank God!

reply to post by zatara


I've just started reading this. It's not the easiest read (for me anyway) but I find some of his thoughts 'on the soul' to be quite intriguing. Just thought I'd share.

On the Soul by Aristotle

This may give you some insight:


4:00 (There is no 'they')

Obviously I could not think without a brain, and obviously my brain would be worthless without a heart and nervous system, but one thing I constantly reject over and over again is genetics. If you assume that you won't be successful because of genetics, that will hold you down, kind of like if you think something is impossible, it is impossible, but if you think it is possible, it is possible. I see genetics as the new-age fate, in other words, hundreds of years ago people thought it was destiny they would be rich or poor, now adays, people think it is genetics to be gay or depressed. It all comes down to will power, which I believe is part physical, part spiritual. If you have a strong enough will, you can accomplish anything. Even if you can't achieve your desired results, the effort alone may convince you that you don't really need the thing in question but that you are better off without it. So it is a combination of will power and intelligence, and intelligence is simply the ability to make yourself happy. I could have a strong will but if I will myself towards something bad, that would hurt me, but if I will myself towards what makes me happy, then that is possible, especially if what makes me happy is moderation. This may not make a whole lot of sense, but think of a monk who needs no possessions, he uses his will power to reject material gain, while using his philosophy/intelligence/principles to guide his will power towards his desired object, which may in fact be no object at all but simply a limiting or moderation of his desires.