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Can the Soul Cease to Exist?


Alan McDougall

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Can the soul die or cease to exist? 
 

My question , is the soul eternal , has our awareness, mind or soul always existed for eternities past into eternities future?

Some Christians believe that God will simply annihilate the souls of the wicked bad and bring into heaven the only the good people that truly love him!

Another Christian belief is those not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever (Eternal hell)

I do not agree with these bleak views about the afterlife, I think it is we who define our status in the afterlife, God does not put anyone into the darker hell like Heavens , they put themselves there

Likewise, we enter the glorious Heavens of light colour joy bliss ecstasy by, our actions during earthly life

I cannot be all that bad, during my near death event I saw both hell like regions , but only because I requested to see them.

Mostly what I saw near death experiences were heavenly dimensions of love, beauty, peace and a sense of almost omnipotence power and wonder that simply beyond earthly description


 Alan Grant McDougall 2013

Edited by Alan McDougall
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Define 'soul'.

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3 hours ago, Alan McDougall said:

Can the soul die or cease to exist? 
 

My question , is the soul eternal , has our awareness, mind or soul always existed for eternities past into eternities future?

Some Christians believe that God will simply annihilate the souls of the wicked bad and bring into heaven the only the good people that truly love him!

Another Christian belief is those not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever (Eternal hell)

I do not agree with these bleak views about the afterlife, I think it is we who define our status in the afterlife, God does not put anyone into the darker hell like Heavens , they put themselves there

Likewise, we enter the glorious Heavens of light colour joy bliss ecstasy by, our actions during earthly life

I cannot be all that bad, during my near death event I saw both hell like regions , but only because I requested to see them.

Mostly what I saw near death experiences were heavenly dimensions of love, beauty, peace and a sense of almost omnipotence power and wonder that simply beyond earthly description


 Alan Grant McDougall 2013

I believe there comes a time when we make a 'choice' and become that for our eternal journey.  It is free and we won't be able to go back on it, nor would we want to.  Here in this realm we are in conflict, we choose, back off and begin again.  At death, a choice a final one is made.  We accept grace or we do not, we embrace infinite love or we do not.  Yet, I still don't know or understand much and I pray for the salvation of all of mankind.  The Our Father seems to imply that, for there is only 'Us' and 'We' in this sprayer.  For Catholics the Hail Mary is the same, a prayer for all especially at the hour of death.

Peace
Mark

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Since the "soul" can't even be defined then how can it "cease to exist"?

If the soul, assuming it is real, is "energy" (whatever that is supposed to mean) then it cannot just cease to be. It can be dissipated and transmuted but energy doesn't just stop existing.

Nothing lasts forever in its entirety...

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10 hours ago, Alan McDougall said:

Can the soul die or cease to exist? 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_heart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emptiness

My heart burns in flames of sorrow
Sparks and smoke rise turning to the sky
Within me the heart has taken fire like a candle
My body, whirling, is a lighthouse illuminated by your image.

220px-All_Saints_Catholic_Church_%28St._

A-boy-wears-a-silver-cruc-008.jpg?w=620&

(Personally, I do not accept anything religious)

Edited by Mystic Crusader
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You would have to prove a soul's existence before you determined whether one can cease to exist.

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I haven't seen anything that would indicate the soul is functionally different from the Theory of Mind.  That being the case, I would say that the "soul" ceases to exist when the brain ceases to function effectively.

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Some people who have been clinically dead have "near death experiences" and some don't. I don't think anyone really knows why that is. People might make assumptions about it, but they don't really know why. It would be interesting to poll people who have been clinically dead at some point to see what their belief systems are, and if there is some correlation to the experience. Correlation doesn't prove causation, but it would still be interesting. 

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On 7/27/2016 at 8:01 AM, markdohle said:

I believe there comes a time when we make a 'choice' and become that for our eternal journey.  It is free and we won't be able to go back on it, nor would we want to.  Here in this realm we are in conflict, we choose, back off and begin again.  At death, a choice a final one is made.  We accept grace or we do not, we embrace infinite love or we do not.  Yet, I still don't know or understand much and I pray for the salvation of all of mankind.  The Our Father seems to imply that, for there is only 'Us' and 'We' in this sprayer.  For Catholics the Hail Mary is the same, a prayer for all especially at the hour of death.

Peace
Mark

No one can believe until they experience something of spirit. 

My view is there are many types of souls or conscious beings with freedom of choice in our world.   Living souls are physical consciousness and choice but inside every living soul there is a seed to other dimensions of spirit inside and outside of our self. It can be quickened to another form of soul life before or after death. I think NDE quickens this seed in many and it grows. If one's spiritual seed is not grown before death, I would guess the living soul on earth returns to the elements of earth and is reprocessed to new living life forms. 

The quickening of a seed or egg is the new creation point from the powers of the source of all or what some people call God, or the alchemy stone, or  a sperm igniting the quickening to an ovum.

The source of life and death  to all is the quickening or the death of a new seed in the cycles of life. The source in nature shows it evolves all life to higher forms of consciousness beings through the cycles of time. 

The seed and the egg are both highly symbolic to the ways of life and souls, in Christian scriptures and other religions. The seed is a common anology used to make us aware of higher birth in spirit as well as generations of evolution on earth as living physical life.

 

Edited by White Unicorn
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The soul is the self, the "I" that inhabits the body and acts through it. Without the soul, the body is like a light bulb without electricity, a computer without the software, a space suit with no astronaut inside. With the introduction of the soul, the body acquires life, sight and hearing, thought and speech, intelligence and emotions, will and desire, personality and identity.

Read the rest here - http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3194/jewish/What-is-a-Soul.htm

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On 7/27/2016 at 1:01 AM, Alan McDougall said:

Can the soul die or cease to exist? 
 

"Hey, hey, hey, hey now, don't be mean; we don't have to be mean 'cause, remember, no matter where you go...there you are," a speech by Buckaroo Banzai in the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. It's also the rallying cry of "Awakening."  It makes sense while one is alive, but alas, it doesn't hold up in the afterlife, at lease from I have gathered.

Is your "awareness" (which is also one's consciousness in the afterlife) still you if your memory, your narrative, the entire story of your life, get completely deleted? My answer is no.

Of all ancient texts, only the NT talks about the "outer darkness," spot-on. Also, the "soul" is not automatically eternal in the Bible-side of Christianity. In my experience, the "outer darkness" is the reality where your "awareness" will die, eventually, a horrible death at that, especially if you have a creative/crafty state of consciousness, full of guilt, anger, and fear...unless a Being comes to your rescue and so on.

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On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 7:43 AM, Ryu said:

Since the "soul" can't even be defined then how can it "cease to exist"?

If the soul, assuming it is real, is "energy" (whatever that is supposed to mean) then it cannot just cease to be. It can be dissipated and transmuted but energy doesn't just stop existing.

Nothing lasts forever in its entirety...

true love cannot be destroyed.

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On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 11:17 AM, aquatus1 said:

I haven't seen anything that would indicate the soul is functionally different from the Theory of Mind.  That being the case, I would say that the "soul" ceases to exist when the brain ceases to function effectively.

the brain is the hard drive of the body, which has both rom and ram.  ie, you can stop you breathing but you can't stop your blood flow.  although some animals can slow it down.

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On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 3:01 AM, Alan McDougall said:

Can the soul die or cease to exist? 
 

My question , is the soul eternal , has our awareness, mind or soul always existed for eternities past into eternities future?

Some Christians believe that God will simply annihilate the souls of the wicked bad and bring into heaven the only the good people that truly love him!

Another Christian belief is those not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever (Eternal hell)

I do not agree with these bleak views about the afterlife, I think it is we who define our status in the afterlife, God does not put anyone into the darker hell like Heavens , they put themselves there

Likewise, we enter the glorious Heavens of light colour joy bliss ecstasy by, our actions during earthly life

I cannot be all that bad, during my near death event I saw both hell like regions , but only because I requested to see them.

Mostly what I saw near death experiences were heavenly dimensions of love, beauty, peace and a sense of almost omnipotence power and wonder that simply beyond earthly description


 Alan Grant McDougall 2013

according to Mormon teaching you are close in your believes.  most of us will go to heaven a few will go to outer darkness.  where eventually they will cease to exist.  outer darkness is a lack of god.

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8 minutes ago, danielost said:

true love cannot be destroyed.

It's not you he loves, but his reflection in you.

All the soul is, is personality.

the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.

Edited by Mystic Crusader
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Nw ... that is spirit , a persons spirit is what defines their personality X genetic info X development and environment . .

 

Man's soul ,  collectively and individually  , is that  dynamic of the faculty of the imagination which allows man to do what others animals cannot. 

- the imaginative soul. 

The problem seems to be with the atrociously simplistic words and concepts of western / Christian ' psychic anatomy '

Seriously  _ I have studied a LOT of religions and in the realm of this, Christianity is in kindergarten comparatively. 

Most Christians cant even distinguish between soul and spirit ,  they seem interchangeable to them  .  

Edited by back to earth
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Perhaps after-death is what you expect to happen, Heaven for the Christians and Muslims etc, reincarnation for the Buddhists and Hindi.... And dissipation for the Atheists.

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15 hours ago, danielost said:

the brain is the hard drive of the body, which has both rom and ram.  ie, you can stop you breathing but you can't stop your blood flow.  although some animals can slow it down.

**Stamps down IT degree**  "Dammit, you know what he meant!"

Nonetheless, when you die, your blood flow does indeed stop (just like when your CMOS battery dies, you lose all your settings).

But it isn't so much the biology (as it were), as much as the comparison.  Really, what functional difference is there between what people call a soul and the Theory of Mind?

4 hours ago, noppohn said:

everything has an end,only a sausage has two

That depends on whether you are a "sausage is half-beginning" or "sausage is half-ending" kind of guy.

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the difference between the soul and the theory of the mind is the soul is eternal.

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18 hours ago, Mystic Crusader said:

It's not you he loves, but his reflection in you.

All the soul is, is personality.

the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.

so you don't love your wife???

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2 minutes ago, danielost said:

so you don't love your wife???

??????????????????????????

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1 minute ago, Mystic Crusader said:

??????????????????????????

you said god doesn't love me but his reflection.  I want to know if that's true with your wife too.

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Just now, danielost said:

you said god doesn't love me but his reflection.  I want to know if that's true with your wife too.

I am not the Abrahamic God, nor would I want to be.  I live in a small city, and being a non-believer the choices of mate selection are rather slim, alas I am unmarried.  I sure in the heck wouldn't try to program a reflection of myself into a woman I chose to marry.

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1 hour ago, Mystic Crusader said:

I am not the Abrahamic God, nor would I want to be.  I live in a small city, and being a non-believer the choices of mate selection are rather slim, alas I am unmarried.  I sure in the heck wouldn't try to program a reflection of myself into a woman I chose to marry.

neither would god.  he wants you to be you and not him.  he does want you to be perfect as he is.  but, he also knows you can't be perfect.  note I did not say as he is.

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