I’ve been curious about why people, and apparently most people, want to believe humans have a soul. Even more interesting is the (large) subset of those who don’t believe animals have a soul. What’s the basis for this soul idea and the human/animal distinction? What draws the line? Complexity? Does the frozen embryo have a soul? Even if its just a few cells? That embryo is a lot less complicated structure than a mouse or a dog.
Is the basis perhaps genetic? Many primate’s are almost identical to us genetically. Some people accepting the existence of souls also believe it’s ok to torture and vivisect animals including non-human primates. They must believe other primates have no soul. Maybe there’s some genetic line where non-human primates are on one side and homo sapiens is on the other. Did then Neanderthals have a soul? They were likely very, very similar to humans. We may find out how much so soon. There’s some evidence they could interbreed with humans. What of the soulfulness of their offspring? I imagine the very idea of evolution muddies the waters for the soul enthusiast. How could you draw the line in the face of changing genotypes? At some later point I’ll talk about the idea I’ve heard of “kinds” as a way of managing genetic categories and avoiding evolution.
What if we created a human/animal chimera? Would it have a soul? Are the complications this raises the reason fundamentalists want to outlaw this sort of experiment? And what of separated human cells? Do kidney cells in a dish have a soul? If not, when did they lose it?
Perhaps this soul is mind based? That seems to exclude the embryo and humans who never had a mind, like hydroencephalics. What of people who once had a mind and lost it, like stroke victims, Alzheimer victims or perhaps Terry Schiavo? I suspect most believes assume their soul is intact and associated with their bodies until they die.. Does that exclude a mind based connection to souls? Otherwise when would the souls of these unfortunates be “released” from their body? When the self awareness goes? When their EEG is flat? When every cell that was once part of that body dies? Sentience or self awareness are criteria I’ve also heard used as the basis to get a soul, but to me these seem to just be a subset of “mind based”.
And there’s the old question about identical twins. When do they get their soul? At fertilization? Then they must share one soul. If not then, then when? And what of the “soul state” of embryo’s before that point?
If you believe all of the above have a soul, and that soul then goes to an afterlife, what’s the state of the individual in the afterlife? Does the Alzheimer’s victim have memory restored? What of those who never had a mind? Do they receive their first life in the afterlife? Or do they hum along as a happy mindless creature with their ticket to heaven punched by their DNA?
Me? I think my mind is based in the meat computer in my skull. When that meat ceases functioning, my mind ceases to exist. When my mind ceases to exist, there isn’t any meta mind to recreate my mind in some other plane of existence. I just blink out and go away. Emotionally I don’t understand why that’s so threatening to some people.
I think people who want to invest frozen embryo’s with humanity are avoiding understanding what they believe. And those who want to outlaw studies in human genetics are trying to keep this from getting more complicated. I dare say that few who want to believe in a soul would be able to put together a coherent and consistent set of answers to questions about one. The only consistent viewpoints I can imagine are “nothing has a soul” or “every living cell has a soul” (perhaps the Buddist skandha fits here). Many soul believers I’ve encountered revert to themselves as the final authority. What I think has a soul has a soul. Or they punt the question to God and refuse to think about whatever it is they believe.
Maybe this is one reason why the “Young Earth” people cling so tenaciously to their world view. It’s easier if Neanderthals didn’t exist. But I predict even without answers on the nature of the soul that many will be happy to attack anyone for having “soulless” world view.