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Poll: Do we have souls?

December 19, 2010 By 14 Comments

spiritIn 1907, Dr. Duncan McDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts, attempted to prove the existence of the human soul by measuring post-mortem weight loss. His research was criticized by the scientific community at the time, but his legacy of the soul weighing "21 grams" continues on.

For purposes of this poll, we'll use Merriam-Webster's definition of the soul as "the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life."

Due to the holidays, the poll will be open until Monday, December 27.

All responses are anonymous; however, IPs are recorded to prevent double voting.

Please take a second and let us know what you think! Your vote is immediately recorded and the results will display immediately upon voting.

Do we have souls?

  • No. (46%, 21 Votes)
  • Yes. (39%, 18 Votes)
  • I don't know. (11%, 5 Votes)
  • Other (please comment below). (4%, 2 Votes)

Total Voters: 46

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  • LadyFriend

    Other: please define soul ;)

    Otherwise, I vote no

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      Hi Lady,

      As we said, we're using the Merriam-Webster definition.

      Deborah

      • LadyFriend

        Wow….fail!!
        I change my vote to no, lol.

  • COinMS

    Genesis 2:7 –"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."

    Here we are told that we do not have souls, but we ARE souls. It's the same as the old saying: '100 souls went down with the ship'.

    Body + breath of life = soul; i.e., sentient being.

    IMHO

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      LOL! I'll be pondering that one for days! :)

      Deborah

  • themanofearth

    There seem to be a few people who didn't read the criteria for the poll.
    LadyFriend was the first and CoinMS was the second. The use of the word "soul" is not meant as a metaphorical essence of a person's being.
    I would also point out/argue that the word "soul" used in the context of this site's title and mission statement (being that this is a site called God Discussion where people discuss religion), implies that a soul lives on after someone dies; preserving their thoughts, deeds, and moral standing with whatever power/superior being that one happens to believe in and (at the very least) helping to determine where they end up spending eternity when they die.

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      Exactly. However, I think COinMS is pointing out that from a biblical sense, the bible contradicts itself. :)

      You're right on about the definition.

      …d

      • http://starkvillebiblestudents.blogspot.com COinMS

        Actually, I was just giving the biblical definition of a soul, that is, a sentient being. Animals are souls, fish are souls, etc. because they are sentient beings.
        So to answer the poll question directly, I say no, we do not have souls.

        • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

          Thanks for your clarification, COinMS. This is the same explanation that I heard in the religion that I grew up in. But that changed for me big time with a near death experience I had when I was 11 … but that's not to say that NDEs prove or disprove souls that survive the physical. NDEs have been replicated with "the God helmet."

          Our next God Discussion show will have a Christian pastor talking about NDEs and I have a feeling it's going to be an intriguing discussion.

          Back to the bible, though, Matthew 10 makes a distinction:

          10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

          So it seems to me there is contradiction, at least in the way the bible is currently translated.

          Deborah

          • http://starkvillebiblestudents.blogspot.com COinMS

            Deborah,
            I'm guessing you were raised as a JW or possibly Adventist? Not sure, but thanks for bringing up Matt. 10:28.
            My take on it is: fear not them (men) that can kill your physical body, but cannot take away (kill) the promised resurrection of your soul (being) and your (new) physical body. Only God can ultimately deny a resurrection of both soul (being) and the physical body in the Second Death (Hell).

            In popular belief, the body stays in the grave and only the 'soul' goes to Hell. Therefore, destroying both body and soul in Hell is symbolic and amounts to no resurrection for that individual. IMHO.

    • LadyFriend

      First of all…I don't think I read carefully enough or notice the definition…fail.
      Regardless, I'm a philosophy junkie and I'm sure you are aware of the many different senses of dualism, etc. that a discussion of soul entails. It sounds to me as if you are referring to a Cartesian-esque soul. My main point was just that the nuance behind the world soul is enormous and is difficult to address with a M-W definition. I'm not sure that this was the point of the poll, however. I am probably just being difficult.

      • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

        You're not difficult at all, Lady Friend! And actually, you're right about the various definitions … but we tend to keep the polls as simple as possible. Explanations like yours help out.

        Deborah

  • http://www.joyreplicas.com/watches/breitling/avenger-seawolf/ Toby Aletha

    Yes, I believe we are three part beings. We are spirits living in flesh and we have souls — which are our will and our emotions. So our souls are actually our personalities within our spirits and bodies. And your actions affect you to be bad or good, God will judge you when your time is up, heaven or hell, where will you end up. Believeing jesus will save you as long as you follow and believe with all your heart you trust and love jesus our saviour and do what the bible says.

  • http://www.crop-production.org Sefi

    This is an extremely interesting topic, do we actually have souls, difficult to answer that! This poll shows this very objectively, not much difference between yes and no, but one can pose the question, why?
    I guess the answer lies in our actual mood and perhaps the fact that we don't think always the same about a topic, let alone something very controversial like this. What I mean here is that yes, I do believe that we have souls on a normal day of mine, also if I feel a little bit sensitive, then this is even a more valid statement.
    But try to ask the same question on a bad day, I will be shouting out loud that the world was built upon human selfishness and we are not far from our animal ancestors, the world should sink in its volcanic grave, etc, etc. In short on a bad day I don't think we have souls, in fact I can become very materialistic…
    Still, it is a very good article, thank you for this.
    Regards
    Sefi