LogFAQs > #934813655

Jakyl25 posted...

If you want a less sanctimonious response:

There is no evidence that a soul, spirit, or life force exists. If you want ethics to take those things into account, you need to make a logical case for their potential existence, which no one has.

Well if your position is based on a lack of evidence for the alternative position, that doesn't show a lot of confidence.

The vast majority of beings we all agree are living (i.e. humans) have believed for thousands of years in souls, spirits, life forces, etc. You would think they are in a strong position to know what makes themselves alive. Maybe that isn't definitive proof but it's enough to avoid the argument that the idea of souls is drawn from nothing.

That is, the soul hypothesis isn't something that could easily be discarded and replaced with an alternative, newly created, theory. It's a well established theory that's been a constant for thousands of years, across many different nations and cultures. No new theory invented for the sake of argument would have this kind of history and testimonial evidence in support of it.


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September 1, 2003; November 4, 2007; September 2, 2013
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