DAR
I believe that I do not have a soul. I believe that "spirit" is
practically indefinable but you could try defining it in an
intelligible way I would probably say that I don't believe I have
one of those either. See reason below.
IRVIN
And what is the basis for your answer?
DAR
No reason, lack of evidence for believing, that I or other
animals have a soul and/or whatever a "spirit" is.
Do you think animals, cats and dogs, have a soul/spirit? Do
bugs? What is the basis for you answer?
I used to be fascinated with the idea of souls and spirits. I had
dozens of books on astral travel etc. If there was a soul I can
think of many ways that it could be verified. But no one has ever
done this. I used wonder why but I no longer do.
cheers,
Darrel
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Probably the main reason why some people invented the
notion of a "soul". Read this:
"....Man can contemplate his own mortality and finds the
thought intolerable. Any animal will struggle to protect itself
from a threat of death. Faced with a predator, it flees, hides,
fights or employs some other defensive mechanism, such as
death-feigning or the emission of stinking fluids. There are
many self-protection mechanisms, but they all occur as a
response to an immediate danger. When man contemplates
his future death, it is as if, by thinking of it, he renders it
immediate. His defense is to deny it. He cannot deny that his
body will die and rot--the evidence is too strong for that; so he
solves the problem by the invention of an immortal soul--a
soul which is more 'him' than even his physical body is 'him.'
If this soul can survive in an afterlife, then he has successfully
defended himself against the threatened attack on his life. This
gives the agents of the gods a powerful area of support. All
they need to do is to remind their followers constantly of their
mortality and to convince them that the afterlife itself is under
the personal management of the particular gods they are
promoting. The self-protective urges of their worshippers will
do the rest." [Desmond Morris, "Religious Displays,"
_Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior, 1977,
Abrams, New York, p. 149-51.]