I am in no way an expert but what I've experienced and heard and read is that most mentally challenged people are the sweetest, most loving souls on earth. I wonder about the people who are evil and downright mean in life. Are they the souls that become negative spirits or whatever?

Well being loving doesn't explain how their mental processes will be effected after the physical vessel is discarded. Most likely the evil people in this world become the evil spirits but someone who is evil can change and be good in the after life. If this was not the case then there would have to be some higher power regulating everything, keeping things in a strict, controlled environment. A much more controlled environment than we have here on the physical plane. As with out physical selves we are able to choose to be good or evil.

Yes, I understand. I heard that all physical ailments are "lifted" when you pass. I assume that means mental as well as physical. I just wonder about people who have evil souls; for example Charles Manson.

Most likely become some type of Poltergiest or demon.

I look at the stars and see a universe that doesn't look like it was put here for us. There's no evidence for the soul, and I think brain damage and lobotomies have shown that we are our mind and nothing else.

Thank you celtic, and no. The implications of this name do not go any farther, it was simply the silliest thing I could think of at the moment.

As for this quote, I've often considered that perhaps the soul is simply a fabrication of the human mind with the desparate and futile hope that this existence the only one that we are comfortable with and can cleanly understand is not the end. A sort of comfort to mitigate the frightening impact of the inevitable. But on the other end of this spectrum, look at the route that our technology has taken. We are studying purely the physical. I cannot see air but thanks to the technology that has developed, I can be certain that that is what sustains this body. On that note, our bodies are only equiped with 5 senses, because of this is it possible that our views on these matters are horriblry narrow and limited because we simply do not come equipped with senses that could tell us more? Is it possible that if technology had followed a different path, we would not have the answers to this physical but perhaps a different realm which is beyond our abilities to comprehend. The fact is that quite simply we don't know enough. ANYTHING that we do on this earth will be pure speculation because even if there is no physical proof of a soul, neither do I see air in front of me. Absence of evidence is NOT the evidence of absense. I could die now and wind up either in oblivion or in some jacked up place that no scientist nor theologist EVER expected. It's quite possible that the world we live in now is simply a part of a larger picture that our simple 5 senses limit us to seeing. The only summary that would do this justice are the words TOO BROAD.

As for mental impairments, if the brain is simply a machine that allows us to function properly in the physical then can it, like other machines not be damaged? Given there are operations that can change the way the mind functions and the emotions we display it is simply proof that if the soul exists at all then it does not effect personality, which is something I didn't believe in in the first place. It is even possible perhaps that the reason the "Mentally disabled" are the way they are because their malformed physical minds do not completely connect them with this world, perhaps they are somewhere inbetween. As said earlier, none of us will know because none of us have yet crossed the veil. Hell we still can't completley disprove U.F.O's. I heard about U.S Jet pilots chasing a light in the sky that was moving rediculously faster than they JET planes could keep up with. There were several witnesses on ground as well. I think it's safe to say that apart from the fields that scientists devote the most time, chemistry for example, we really don't know squat about anything else.

All of that being said, is it not odd that though our strongest instinct is self preservation that there are many everyday that give their lives for religion, causes, love of families? Why then is emotion neccesary, as most of them, including extreme stress, anger, belief to the point of fanatisism are self destructive emotions that in essense destroy us more than anything else? Perhaps it is a divine joke that we are here, never able to prove or disprove the worth of this life.

This being said, which would you prefer, a world in which there are wars of religion, where some at least attempt to live with the love of others in mind. Or a world where lives are only statistics, scientific, cold, and proven pointless. Though i'm sure aethests have positive goals in mind, would it not create a world in which, more crime is rampant. Where people completely disregard the lives of others, rape, kill and destroy with solid knowledge that this is indeed a final hoorah. Where there is blatant injustice because there is no force, man or divine that would deal out punshment to the wicked. Which is better destructive knowledge, or a divine lie. Which is which but the perceptions in the mind of the holder? We Will Never Know

i believe our soul comes from our parents, a part of each of them. they have a part of their parents and so on. so if you ever have the feeling of dejavu it could be because of that, being created from so many generations, a lot of experiences would have been passed down, even if a small amount from each. so in other words, i'm not so sure about reincarnation.

Yea I would think this to be true...Cause mentally challenge dpeople, wouldn't care about things normal people crae about, like looks and race and stuff...They aren't biast...They just wanna be nice to everyone...I have a good sense of psychic empathy, and every time I'm around a mentallly retarted person, I get a huge wave of happiness, and joy...It's sad that normal people cna't even radiate that much....

Ah this old chestnut, "does the soul exist and can you prove it".

The easy answer would be no, but the absence of proof is not proof of absence. To start with how do you prove something that can't easily be defined? Certainly our current level of knowledge is insufficient in understanding the nature of what the soul is and where it might be located, of course this doesn't stop people from saying that they have the answer (some will even tell for a price). Some will say and have, that consciousness is proof that we have a soul yet we are still trying to determine what makes us conscious in the first place.

If the soul is made of some form of energy then it could exist only on a quantum level which would be why we have so much trouble trying to find it. Someday in the future we may develop the technology to detect subtle energy fields in the body which may then prove the existence the soul once and for all. Of course with definitive proof comes the inevitable theological arguments for which religion is the right one (well no change there then ).

Simply stated we have a long way to go in our understanding, so it is up to each individual to determine if they posses a soul or not and what it means to them.

And how can you be so sure that 'humans' posses a soul and 'animals' do not. Newsflash: Humans ARE animals. But using your distinctions - look for the big differences between humans and animals - you mean like the fact that animals only kill what they can eat whereas man will kill and kill and kill to the point of annihilating entire animals species for their hides while leaving their bodies to rot - don't know about you but I have never seen an animal do that. Or how about mans need to consume and consume more and more and more to the point of cheating, killing and maiming eachother but yet a squirrel for instance will gather until the have enough to get them through the winter and they stop. Or how man is the only animal who will harbor insults and rage and wait for the chance to get their revenge, 'animals' don't do that. The ugly business or rape, murder, torture, revenge, venegence and WAR are exclusive to the human race. Man is the only animal who has burnt people at the stake, disembowled their fellow man, cut their prisoners(man is the only animal who takes prisoners) hands off for stealing bread to feed their family - man is the only animal who is capable of conscious cruely for the sheer pleasure of doing it. The cat who plays with a mouse can claim instinct and even her ignorance regarding the mouses fear and she will toy with it and scare it and then she will kill it quickly with a swift bite to the neck - she does not gouge its eyeballs out, flay it alive, stick shards under its nails, sodomize it and then eat it. No, man is the only animals capable of doing something like that. A cat kills a mouse because the cat is acting off of instinct. Man cannot claim that excuse because if one looks at our nearest ancestors they do not murder, maime, eat until they are obese, collect more provisions than they need, discriminate because of color, destroy the very habitat they live in. These actions in man are not instinctual. People will argue man does good things too that animals do not like build big buildings(only to make room for the prospect of making more money), humans create charities to help feed the starving people in Africa(only in that position because of the actions of man), etc. I am sure I could find exceptions but it seems most of mans actions on a holistic skill are based around either gaining more resources and money or trying to repair the massive damage we have caused to the planet, to eachother, and especially to the exotic, native and wild animals on this planet.
I could go on and on and on but I won't. You get the idea.
So, your arguement of look at the differences between 'animals' and 'humans' is a poor one. I guess your point is because humans punish other humans for their acts of cruelty or because one person might choose not to do what the other person would because of our morality. Look how far our morality has gotten us. People are starving to death by the tens of thousands, there have been and are genocides where millions of people have been murdered, one in every one-hundred American is behind bars, the planet is in the deepest peril. Man is a foolish animal.
Animals were here long before we were but somehow humans like to think that we are different and special and have authority over nature and that will be the undoing of the human race. Unfortunately we will take out a lot innocent species with us.