A thread about souls

Originally posted by twhitehead
But what constitutes a 'living organism'? We are all made up of cells and those cells are perfectly capable of living independently of the whole. Plants and fungi demonstrate this ability so dramatically that any such concept would collapse completely. Are you saying that every event of sexual reproduction results in a new soul, or if I break the leaf of ...[text shortened]... continue to share a soul? If one twins soul commits sin, is the others soul equally punished?

every organism that can exist independently and can perform the functions required for a living organism (birth, reproduction, death etc) could have a soul. it would seem pointless for a soul to exist in a bacteria or even a cockroach, but where do we draw the line? maybe the polips that make the corals have an unknown (to us) level of intelligence, maybe even a civilization and self awareness.

we define intelligent life, life as a whole in fact, by some rules. what if we find life that is completely different? Si based lifeforms that to us would look like rocks. A sentient star. An intelligent fungus that stretches across the entire surface of a planet and. intelligent diseases that communicate through chemical reactions. where do we draw the line of where there is a soul and when there is not.


assuming a soul exists of course.

Originally posted by Zahlanzi
every organism that can exist independently and can perform the functions required for a living organism (birth, reproduction, death etc) could have a soul.

As I pointed out, every living cell fits that definition. We may not have the technology yet to grow a human being from a skin cell but there is no theoretical barrier. Cloning more or less proves it. As I pointed out it is more apparent with plants where there are many species of plant which you can break a branch off and plant it and it will grow. In some cases even a fraction of a leaf is all that is required and if you have the right environment even a single cell is sufficient.

It would seem pointless for a soul to exist in a bacteria or even a cockroach, but where do we draw the line?
Yes. Where do you draw the line? What about virus'? What about substructures of cell that reproduce? Does each strand of DNA or RNA have a soul? What about self reproducing chemicals? What about computer virus'?