If we remove all of the extras, which no-one seems capable of agreeing upon anyway, the answer boils down to 50/50. There either is or there isn't.
Is: That it is part of human existence. That every human community, including those that have been cut off from the rest of humanity, since very earliest times, have an awareness of the soul. It is entirely consistent, a single feature that occurs repeatedly in every system of belief that has emerged.
Isn't. Humans are deeply aware of their existence. Examinations of very young humans, seems to indicate that they are almost incapable of comprehending others as external from themselves. Even when mature, it is difficult for us to comprehend that the world can exist if we don't. So, we invent the notion of our own continuation beyond death.
- There are a number of groups and individuals who then seek to embellish their chosen option with dogma, invariably designed to suit their life experience.
- The sexually inhibited will design a belief system that incorporates levels of modesty that go beyond personal convenience. Most people cover themselves, but some groups say that nothing should be exposed, while others simply cover the genitals.
- Hierarchical societies generally have systems based upon regulations and restrictions according to social class.
- Many will incorporate rituals for allocating sex partners, even the act itself.
- Some claim to have superior intellectual or spiritual guidance. From time to time, people emerge claiming special communication with a higher being. Others claim to have backing of some system of rational thinking, science, metaphysics. The consistent element here is that these are ultimately unverifiable.
After death: Almost every group claims that penalties and rewards exist for those that correctly adheir to their dictates.
The 3 most common are,
Paradise, aptly defined by Nietzsche as a compensation in the next life for sacrifices in this one. (Or something to that effect).
- Hell, a sort afterlife entertainment for a god that presumably takes pleasure in seeing those it doesn't like, squirm.
- Waste of your time, most recently purported by those that are making a pitch for personal importance, claiming science is more than a tool to understand the tangible.
I have to say, that the most preposterous of the recent religious movements is the scientific atheism. Many of these people claim very high academic honours, yet apply the exact same deceptions that the religious types do.
That it can all be explained by science. It can't.
I recently watched a short TV program from Stephen Hawking where he claimed that the entire universe and everything in it has been proven, by science, to have been created out of nothing. That, sadly, for Mr Hawking, is not proof of the non-existence of the soul. Or for that matter, a god. He claimed that, since science has demonstrated that the universe has been created out of nothing, then there is no need for a god.
The question arises, is there a need for Stephen Hawking?
- Even if we do know, for absolute certainty, that this is how the universe was created and exists, that does not negate a god. Or a soul. Or, for that matter, the truth or otherwise of any specific belief system.
- That those that disagree don't understand the science. (Those that disagree with the authority of the Pope, don't understand the Bible, which we keep written, in an obscure, dead language so no-one can read it anyway. Then we burn to death any that try. sort of argument. Get's 'em every time). Hawking and his fellow scientific atheists are falling into the same trap that was so willingly occupied by other religion based tyrants. They, however, didn't have nuclear bombs!
