Libraries have thousands of
books on theology and doctrine arising therefrom,
there are thousands of books on Christology, there
are thousands of books on the Bible and the
characters depicted therein; the number of Bibles,
Korans and other 'sacred' books printed run into
countless millions and yet all theistic religions and
religions which propose life after death depend on
one proposition, viz. that there is a spirit world
distinct from the physical universe we know through
direct experience.
There are two aspects of this
conceived spirit world: a spirit god or gods (and a
-myriad of spirit creatures ranging from imps,
leprechauns, ghosts and fairies to genii, angels and
bunyips) and individual 'spirits' or 'souls'.
As any attempt to define the
'soul' effectively shows non-existence this aspect
will be ignored here and an examination will be made
of some of the practical difficulties associated with
their presumed existence. We are dealing here with
the religious definition of 'soul', not the loose
application of the term 'soul' or 'spirit' meaning
the personal physical and emotional characteristics
which obviously have no existence beyond physical
death.
Religious belief assumes that
an individual and specifically unique 'soul' is
conferred on each person at conception. In Christian
theology the 'soul' is provided by the god Yahweh so
with conception taking place at the rate of about 10
per second it looks like a full time job. There may
be many millions of 'earths' in the universe with a
species equivalent to humans so the enterprise is
truly daunting. If all souls were identical the job
would be much simpler. Yahweh could go in for mass
production and apportion the appropriate amount to
each fertilised ovum. Delivery of each soul at the
precise moment may conceivably be a real problem.
Perchance all space is
composed of living 'soul' and whenever a spermatozoon
penetrates the ovum a bit of soul slips in also.
Maybe the characteristics of the soul are determined
by its environment. However, this hypothesis is
flawed, for space is not confined and would be
present even in unfertilised ova.
According to theology, the
soul which is not properly nourished withers and
degenerates so one must ask what is the appropriate
food provided for the 'soul' pre and post
implantation.
As only about a third of all
fertilised ova develop to full term one must ask what
happens to all the 'souls' of the aborted ova and
foetuses both naturally occurring and induced. Have
they been stored in limbo for hundreds of thousands
of years (or even the 6000 years of the Creationists)
in a state of suspended animation? Will they have to
undergo further development before they are
resurrected?
At this point another problem
arises. When conception takes place theologians
confidently assert that the fertilised egg has now
been given a living individual 'soul'. From now on
everything is plain sailing? Not quite! A certain
proportion of fertilised ova divide into twins,
triplets and even up to sextets. So what happens
about the 'soul'? Does it also subdivide to meet the
changed circumstances or are new 'souls' provided at
each division? What say you learned theologians? As
the writers of the inspired books had no knowledge of
the biology of reproduction they are no help at all.
The concept of human evolution
was bitterly opposed by the advocates of religion
because it introduced another problem. With the
Genesis account of the origin of man the moment of
soul implantation was precise. With evolution how
could one determine when the soul-less animal had
developed into a human with a 'soul', particularly
when the process involved many thousands of years?
Most Christian denominations now accept evolution as
factual so they have to face defining the stage when
'souls' were first made available.
We come now to the effect of
the physical on the immaterial 'soul'. How do they
interact? Does the 'soul' determine the destiny of
the person or does the physical body, with its
multitude of differing functions, determine the fate
of the 'soul'? We do not know if 'souls' are
considered everlasting because the Bible, the
infallible text-book of many ages says both 'yes' and
'no'. Here again theologians disagree. Some think the
physical world cannot influence the spirit world,
some think the spirit world determines the physical
world and some think the influence is in both
directions.
Atheists and Freethinkers can
find no evidence of a spirit world but seek to learn
as much as possible about the physical universe.
Strangely when religious people testify to seeing
returning souls the apparitions are always clothed so
it follows that things which Atheists see as
materialistic and very physical have their
counterparts in immaterial material.
We come now to the growth of
'souls'. Do they grow and age or remain static? Is
the 'soul' of an aborted fertilised egg the same as
that of the person who dies after reaching old age?
What about disfigurements caused by accidents? The
disciples are reported as saying that Jesus still had
the scars of the crucifixion.
Where is the domicile of the
'soul'? Is it spread throughout the body or housed in
some specific spot? If throughout the body what
happens when limbs are lost?
Christians are convinced after
much weighing that 'souls' have no weight so there is
no body weight loss at death but Christians are not
sure where the 'soul' goes. Here again the Bible
gives several conflicting answers "absent
from the body, present with the Lord"; "the
trumpet shall sound and the dead shall arise";
'the soul that sinneth it shall die"; "the
smoke of their torments ascendeth for ever".
The idea of souls in spiritual
bodies being tormented for ever in spiritual flames
with spiritual smoke does stretch the imagination
somewhat! The idea of reincarnation of the soul in
some other physical body brings in another element It
almost makes it mandatory to kill as many of the most
horrid creatures as possible so that 'souls' are
liberated and hopefully enter higher life forms.
Finally, where is the blessed
abode of 'souls' - the mansion where they live for
evermore? Is it up there in the stratosphere, on this
earth, or in the infinite expanse of space at near
absolute zero temperature? Could it just be that a
large proportion of the human race is still being
conned by charlatans?
If humans have no 'soul' then
all the rigmarole associated with religion is silly
humbug and unworthy of humankind.
