Does "Ross Macintosh" have a soul?

[geminiguy]

Think about it this way:
- the body is a hardware;
- the soul is a software runing on this hardware.

It's a pity there's no external storage for software backups though.

Darn it... I think my install is corrupt.

[morphonius_821]

Biblical souls are not unchangeable by means of it's behavioral characteristics. For example, the soul of the new born and the same adult person is the same soul but it's characteristics are much different. The same stands true for the psychical disorder caused by physical damage. The soul changes by learning and forgetting, by acquiring reflexes and developing opinions, finally it changes by moods and feelings all the time.

I guess it depends on the level of sophistication/detail the particular system your considering goes into...
The word soul is quite a blanket term and doesn't seem to be too definitive when different systems use the same term with their own license.
And with Christianity generally I personally feel stymied by the lack of "scientific" detail.

If say for example you were talking in the context Theosophy at least this system (and others like it) attempt to put forward a type "spiritual science" associated with the higher realms which is an extension of nature and does lend it a certain appeal (weather or not you prescribe to it or not) as it paints a picture of the universe which can be examined in great detail and does not simply sweep most things spiritual into the same generic unknowable basket...

Anyway...

I think the soul being eternal exists beyond time and space and is already perfect. A good metaphor i guess would be the sun... its light is always there weather or not your having a rainy day or not... and if you get locked away in a deep dark dungeon you may have almost completely lost access to its light but the possibility always exists that you could find your way back to it and would obviously seek to do so...dungeon not so much fun....

So i guess what im trying to say in relation to your comment is that what ever part was changing would be just an aspect of a "man's" spiritual apparatus but obviously not the pinnacle, core, unchangeable "spark" of the divine which represents the individual...and the essence of which is the one... unity...

i.e. so then instead of there just being the "soul" there is a host of "bodies" or extensions of the self into multiple dimensions going into ever higher and more rarefied states of "matter" (not simply referring to atomic matter.). Touching on ever higher aspects of a man's make up with each octave.
Really quite interesting....anyway

[covoxer]

The word soul is quite a blanket term and doesn't seem to be too definitive in the broader scheme of things as different systems no doubt have different bents.

There's no clear and common definition of course. That's why I propose to look at commonly accepted facts about it:

1. It is definitely non material.
2. It is individual for every human being.
3. All psychological activity is a function of the soul.

These three facts are common for most uses of this word.
Such a thing definitely exists even if someone may be reluctant to call it a "soul".
All mythical capabilities of this thing are parts of the religion and beliefs.
But it's existence is evident.

I think the soul being eternal exists beyond time and space and is already perfect.

Everything that is non material exists beyond time and space. As to perfection.... this term is even less definitive than the soul.

[morphonius_821]

There's no clear and common definition of course. That's why I propose to look at commonly accepted facts about it:

1. It is definitely non material.
2. It is individual for every human being.
3. All psychological activity is a function of the soul.

These three facts are common for most uses of this word.
Such a thing definitely exists even if someone may be reluctant to call it a "soul".
All mythical capabilities of this thing are parts of the religion and beliefs.
But it's existence is evident.
Everything that is non material exists beyond time and space. As to perfection.... this term is even less definitive than the soul.

I would not agree that everything non material is beyond time and space...
The way i understand it (theory I have read with respect to this) is that there are dimensions associated with "octaves" of "matter" immediately neighboring this one (that we associate with atomic matter) which correspond to the processes of our emotional and mental existences which are progressively less bound by time and space but that none the less have limited (perhaps negligible by our standards) temporal and spacial qualities and each of these realms could be thought of as dimensions with a more rarefied order of "matter" then this one...
But which do occupy the same "space" to a certain degree.
I.e like a radio wave.... it sure does exist in space but it does not obey the same "rules" as a solid projectile and will more loosely interact with solid objects in that it will pass through most things but will not be totally unaffected by this.

And to think about it: space and time are what separates one object/event from another and if these did not exist at all (on any level/realm) then there would be no form possible for any individual "objects" or interacting processes to exist.
Like a singularity...
This is what I mean by perfect...in that at a soul level (the highest of the high) everything is one,
And everything that has, will or could possibly happen or exist in any possible circumstance simply is...i.e infinite potential...the formless essence of everything,... everything that is infinitely possible is all contained in one....

like a blackhole outside of which nothing exists.

So perfection becomes a way to describe such a situation as there is no other state for such a thing but unity as there is nothing outside of it at this level...
its quite an abstract concept really...i don't know if i have my head totally wrapped around it...

- - - - -
Am i boring you?............................ Shit sorry...
There's a perfectly log-ic-al reason and you needn't worry.
My priest installed a soulware patch,
in the right port? I instructed...

Now there's a firmware glitch and I'm serially busted...

So I scolded him... "It's My soul and your entrusted!"
But he just winked at me and left my hard drive rusted.
I said "now see here" and it was then he interjected,
"This is the body of Christ, and your system is infected!"

Right about then it was his Control I alt Delete,
shut the process down and hoofed to the street.
Not daring to look back running for the door,
I made it just in time to do a system restore...

[remi]

It's obvious, that you have too much free time on your hands...

[handrawn]

"when the whole becomes divided, then the parts need names;
if i have even just a little sense I will stick to the main path and my only fear will be in straying from it
sticking to the main path is easy, but the mind is easily distracted..."

[covoxer]

I would not agree that everything non material is beyond time and space...

You are wrong. As long as we are talking about default definition of space and time (both philosophical and physical), it is only a function of matter. Non-material things do not have these parameters. For example, take any informational object, let's say Xara Xtreme and locate it in space. How long is it? 10 inches or 20'000 miles? What's it volume? These are not applicable. Same stands for time. Matter changes with time but information don't. Thus, information does not exists in physical space or time.
Materialists decline existence of anything non material so they define information as a function of matter. But shifting a point of relevance a bit we can say that the matter is a function of information. None can be proven by definition.
So, what we have is the fact that information requires material medium to interact with human senses (which are part of the material body), and as such, we can only transfer information on the material storage or carrier. And this medium, being material, exists in space and time.
But information as a phenomenon does not rely on the medium - we can ignore medium used, the same information can exist on different mediums.
That's why the law of conservation of mass/matter is not applicable to information and you can copy it freely as much as you want.

[ankhor]

There's no clear and common definition of course. That's why I propose to look at commonly accepted facts about it:

1. It is definitely non material.
2. It is individual for every human being.
3. All psychological activity is a function of the soul.

Nope I dispute the last one.
Since personalities can change through
braintrauma, the hardware also seems to play a major part.

[covoxer]

Nope I dispute the last one.
Since personalities can change through
braintrauma, the hardware also seems to play a major part.

You can't dispute it this way.
You only state that body can influence soul. This fact doesnt conflict with statement in pt.3.

[morphonius_821]

You are wrong. As long as we are talking about default definition of space and time (both philosophical and physical), it is only a function of matter. Non-material things do not have these parameters.

I realize that the mind likes to work in absolutes:
i.e. "simply something is material or it is not....."

However the universe does not neatly divide along the lines of:
1)that which you can perceive and
2)that which you can not,
each side having distinct properties commensurate with an arbitrary observation.
(Insofar as this distinction is only in the mind of the observer... as dictated by their particular sensory capabilities.)

Because you can not see something does not mean it is immaterial in any sense other than one of arbitrary definition.
And things are not rendered incapable of any parameters whatever simply because you have failed to observe them.

And with reference to matters of spirit I'm obviously not simply talking about a definition of matter limited and framed by the current extent of our scientific knowledge...
But in a broader sense that includes other more rarefied types of matter on as yet scientifically uncharted dimensions.