The Soul Versus Emergent Consciousness
Does every living bacteria have a soul?
They are prokaryotes, so they do not have a ‘good’ cell wall like eukaryotes do …like you do.
They probably don’t have souls? Jainists go even further with life than that.
A ‘soul’ is the way that religion deals with life without and/or outside of a body. Hinduism calls it ‘atman’. If your atman enters a body, it is somewhat an avatar experience. Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu. Jesus is an avatar of God.
Is it? Well, that is the belief or theory of the soul.
A soul is an ‘absolute binary’ — on or off — ‘not’ or ‘is’ — ‘not alive’ versus ‘alive’.
When does a soul come into a being? At fertilization? Well, in a previous post I showed how 50 - 70% of those are never born — they spontaneously abort. Abortion is the natural ‘nature of life’.
Ensoulment versus reincarnation. The two grand theories of religious history. You decide. :)
The afterlife versus samsara (the cycle of rebirth and rebirth and rebirth and rebirth).
What about a prelife? India has Brahma (the ultimate supreme), atman, reincarnation, and moksha or nirvana (the ultimate end of life or existence OR the end of ‘afterlife’ samsara).
When the heaven/sky vanishes with the destroyed Earth, where will the souls go? When the sun dies by explosion, where will the souls go? When the universe stops making suns and goes forever dark, where will the souls go?
Even if you believe in the prelife, does it make any sense?
Can there be an afterlife without a prelife?
Can an afterlife exist if it isn’t forever?
If there is an afterlife (or a prelife), where is your spirit during that time? It is in a soul container?
Could the spirit just be all that ‘we’ are …like an atman? Spirits are like ephemeral ghosts. Spirit is what religion calls and how it understands consciousness. The soul gives the spirit more substance and more capacity for interaction in an afterlife? It makes an afterlife feel more like real life rather than just being a floaty ghost (a mental apparition) without much substance. Even Caper the Friendly Ghost needs an outer line.
But is there even a soul? If not, then your ‘self’ is an emergent consciousness.
Co-firing neurons in your brain create experiential memory networks that emerge into a self-aware consciousness. [Self Come to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain]
This emergence is not a binary, but is instead an arising state of existence that coincides with more experience. The longer you endure …the more you experience …the more your YOU or SELF emergences into existence.
When you die, that experiential emergent entity is extinguished and you are no more …or nirvana — “no wind.”
Your ‘warm’ is not. You breathe not. You ‘think’ not. You interact not. You are not.
Emergent consciousness is a mild mystery, but no soul needs to hold the spirit/self during life, before life, or after life.
A dead sun ‘dies’ and explodes. A planet is extinguished with its exploding sun. ”From dust to dust you shall return.”
Poof gone. Emergent no more.
An emergent sun pulls gases together with great gravity and forms in an orderly yet spontaneous way . A planet pulls together matter in a ‘sun orbit’ and forms in an orderly yet spontaneous way. Your brain cells create your self as neural networks forms in an orderly yet spontaneous way.
Should we kill bacteria? Should we kill the embryos of chickens? Should we kill chickens? Should we eat chickens? Should we eat dogs? Should we eat horses? Should we eat cows? Should we eat humans? Should we kill unborn fetuses? Should we kill murderous criminals? Should we kill enemy combatants who want to kill us?
What is life? What is a life? What is a human? When is a human?
How do and how will the answers to these questions emerge in your mind?