Philosophy Essay: Is there a soul?

For many centuries, preachers, scientists, church-goers and atheists have been
mesmerized by the existential dilemma of life and death. The concept of a soul still eludes our
modern society, and thus we have failed to prove its existence. In my essay, I strive to convince
my readers that the soul is rather a perception and state of mind held by believers than an actual
spiritual condition that is proven and immortalized through eternal existence of the individual. I
will advocate against the existence of the soul by using vast resources such as other more
plausible alternatives to it, and by means of reflections and critical thinking. For starters, I will
tackle why the Bible is more of an imposed reality, and I will shortly analyze some of its dubious
content. In addition, I will also disconfirm urban myths such as the theory of the 21 grams, and
give my reflections on the views of the soul from a philosophical point of view. In order to
clarify some technicalities, it has to be stated that we understand the soul as ''the spiritual nature
of humans, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness
or misery in a future state" (Farlex,Inc.,Soul).
It is common knowledge that during the middle Ages and until the arrival of the
Renaissance, God was considered to be the center of human nature. Many individuals, did not
dare to challenge the beliefs imposed upon them, since they had been instructed that God was all
powerful, and if some mishap occurred to them, such as the loss of an offspring or their property,
it was because God had dictated it that way, and his power and will were not be question under
any pretext. As a result, many people felt powerless by these ecclesiastic views. One could
speculate that the church did not possess the answers for why harm was present in people’s life,
therefore they decided that the idea of an all-powerful being could efficiently provide an answer
to all these unsolved queries of the common villager. One could even go as far as saying that the
church concocted the whole concept of a soul, heaven or hell just to instill fear in the heart of
their congregation, so that they would adopt a state of stupor and refrain from engaging in
wrongful actions. Most importantly, the church did not want a crowd of thinkers that would
question such dubious beliefs, and engage in a social revolution. The whole concept of the soul
was an efficient way to convey God’s love, and to prevent dangerous ideas from arising to the
surface. Alongside with the of the soul, the church is Christian church is known for the
production of the Bible; we understand the Bible as ''the sacred book of Christianity, a collection
of ancient writings including the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament'' (Farlex,
Inc.,
Bible). While Religion might have provided an anchor for many people’s life, it has to be stated
that the Bible is an interpretation made by very few individuals, and therefore might not be a
very
accurate depiction of the events of the time. In addition, many of these individual sought to
enlarge
and the deeds of the church, Jesus Christ and the holly apostle. Not to mention, that it is virtually
impossible that a collective of a few individuals is able to encapsulate the sentiments of the
general population, since many people differed on the views of such events. After acquainting
the reader with all this information, I will proceed to exemplify these thoughts in a biblical relate
that encapsulates the message trying to be conveyed. The story which is a quite popular one, is
that if Jesus and the multiplication of the loaves and fish: ''Then Jesus took the loaves, and when
he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as
they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over,
so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley
loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that
he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world'' (The
Bible in basic English, John 6:1-15). Jesus might have gone to the bakery that day and purchased
a gargantuan amount of bread, and further proceeded to conceal it unbeknownst the crowd to
later
distribute it. The point trying to be made is that it just does not ring true that an individual have
the capacities to multiply fish and bread out of thin air. Of course many will say that one has to
believe, and then all becomes possible, but it simply defies the laws of logic in many ways.

Though the Bible has vastly influenced humankind through their writing, philosophy has also
pontificated its views concerning this ongoing matter.
 Descartes –a prominent French philosopher- advocated the mind and body dualism. This
concept is understood as humans having both physical properties and neural properties. People
have mental properties, which we do not attribute to physical objects. ''These properties involve
consciousness (including perceptual experience, emotional experience and much else),
intentionally (including beliefs, desire, and much else), and they are possessed by
a subject or self'' (Robinson, dualism). Descartes argued that the nature of the mind is completely
different from the body, and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other. In my
opinion, the mind and body rely heavily upon each other, and it is nit that one can exist without
the other, but rather that both have to coexist in order to enhance human live. For instance, take
as
a case the nature of human impulses. Those impulses which seem apparently executed by the
body,
are in fact the result of intricate mind connections such as the prefrontal cortex in order to
mediate
the aforementioned impulses. Therefore, the mind does exert some control upon the body, but
that
mind is also dependent in functional limbs that are able to execute said processes. To exemplify
my case, I will use evidence from one of the readings of the course which concerns the figure of
Phineas Gage. Gage had a steel rod penetrate his brain. ''He survived the accident but had poor
impulse control over his action that had been part of his personality before the injury'' (Powell,
alcohol and impulse control). There is a causal relationship between the lesion in your physique
and the subsequent deterioration of the mind. It can then be concluded that the body is dependent
on the mind and vice versa. Reductionism is a ''philosophical discipline that holds that a complex
system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of
individual constituents'' (Polkinghorne, reductionism). For instance, if we determine that the soul
represents human intelligence, motivation, purpose, or emotions of human beings, all those
processes can be simplified and reduced until reaching the root for all these behaviours, which
mostly lies in cognitive processes. For example, serotonin in your brain accounts for your mood,
therefore undersupply of this neuron causes depression, so when individuals feel afflicted it is
not
because of an apparent sadness of the soul, but because of a low level of serotonin in the body.
Furthermore, the response to intelligence belies on your parents genes, and not in theistic
theories.

Another issue that has befuddled researchers regarding the soul is its possible localization
within the human being. If we understand-as most theistic laypeople do- that the soul is
immaterial then
we can determine that it does not have spatial existence within the body. The conclusion that this
fact arises is that if the soul does bit reside within the body, then it cannot possibly exit it at
moment
of death, and therefore cannot be immortalized through eternal life. This is reinforced by the
notion that immaterial things cannot have spatial extension, In addition, the soul requires spatial
extension to reside within the body. As a consequence the soul is not connected to the body, at
least not in a physical way (Foxhole, A brief argument against the soul).

In addition to philosophical views trying to discern the actual meaning of the soul, many other
less respectable urban and pop culture theories have arisen in our modern world. This is the case
of the already infamous 21 grams theory of the soul.

In brief terms, the experiment was conducted by Dr. MacDougall who intended to prove
the weight of the soul. ''The experiment was conducted on six dying patients who were placed on
specifically made Fairbanks weigh scales just prior to their deaths. Along with four other
physicians, he estimated the weight of the soul to be of 21 grams'' (Pigliucci, Does the soul
weigh
21 grams?). To start off this notion can be refuted by the immaterial quality of the soul, therefore
the soul has no weigh. ''MacDougall in addition failed to consider that the weight loss (assuming
its veracity) was due to evaporation caused by the sudden rise in body temperature that occurs
when the blood circulation stops and the blood can no longer be air-cooled by lungs''
(Heddlesten,
the 21 grams theory). Concluding, this experiment has been carried out by modern day scientists,
the results obtained boring no resemblance in any way with those of MacDougall.
Because of religious questionable theories and inaccuracies, reductivist and dualist
approaches, and the rejection of pop culture myths, I believe that the soul is rather a choice to be
taken upon the individual, based on his/her beliefs, but since no physical or spiritual evidence
points towards the existence of the soul, I hereby advocate that it is non-existent by the standards
in which I decide to emit a judgement regarding this particular matter.
 Works cited

 "A Brief Argument Against the Soul | Foxhole Atheism." Foxhole Atheism. N.p., 24 Aug.
2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. <http://foxholeatheism.com/a-brief-argument-against-the-
soul/>.
 Farlex,Inc.. "Bible - definition of Bible by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and
Encyclopedia.." Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary.
Houghton Mifflin Company, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bible>.
 Farlex,Inc.. "soul - definition of soul by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and
Encyclopedia.." Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary.
Houghton Mifflin Company, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/soul>.
 Heddlesten, Jim. "The 21 Grams Theory - Historic Mysteries." Historic Mysteries |
Unexplained and Paranormal Events. N.p., 27 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
<http://www.historicmysteries.com/the-21-gram-soul-theory/>.
 Hooke, S. H.. "John 6." The Bible in basic English. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1982. 1-15. Print.
 Pigliucci, Massimo. "Rationally Speaking: Does the soul weigh 21 grams?." Rationally
Speaking. N.p., 8 Mar. 2007. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
<http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com.es/2007/03/does-soul-weigh-21-grams.html>.
 Polkinghorne , John . "Reductionism | Inters.org." Inters.org |. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept.
2013. <http://www.inters.org/reductionism>.
 Powell, Elizabeth . "Alcohol and Impulse Control." Serendip Studio. N.p., 14 Apr. 2004.
Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
<http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro04/web2/epowell.html>.
 Robinson, Howard. "Dualism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 21 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism