What Have You Been Taught About The Soul

I'm taking a course called "Soul Beliefs". One of the questions was "what have you been taught about the soul?" What the professor did was have various members in the class answer that. The key is not to worry too much about what one believes now but to focus on what one has been taught to believe. This in mind, what have you been taught to believe about the soul?

Rosalyn J wrote: I'm taking a course called "Soul Beliefs". One of the questions was "what have you been taught about the soul?" What the professor did was have various members in the class answer that. The key is not to worry too much about what one believes now but to focus on what one has been taught to believe. This in mind, what have you been taught to believe about the soul?

I have actually been taught quite a conflicting array of things...

That it is eternal.
That it eventually dissipates as it rejoins the all.
That it does not exist at all

That it can be sent to experience pain in a place of torment or ecstasy in a place of pleasure
That it is energy that can travel the universe after bodily death not being subject to any such corporeal sensations
That it goes to a neutral realm similar to the corporeal after bodily death and can experience either

That it will be judged by a supreme Deity
That it evaluates itself and plans its next corporeal lessons accordingly
That it is evaluated by some non-sentient force that plans out its future corporeal incarnations

That it can leave its corporeal body and travel the astral realms at will
That is is bound to its corporeal body until death
That it can be ripped from the body and stolen or enslaved

That it is subject to external forces of good and evil and must make appropriate choices
That it generates its own morality

That it visits the corporeal realm over and over to gain knowledge and wisdom.
That it only has one chance in the corporeal realm to gain as much knowledge as possible before eternal afterlife

What I have been taught is also conflicting nonsense.

Rosalyn J wrote: I'm taking a course called "Soul Beliefs". One of the questions was "what have you been taught about the soul?" What the professor did was have various members in the class answer that. The key is not to worry too much about what one believes now but to focus on what one has been taught to believe. This in mind, what have you been taught to believe about the soul?

I did this course.. he asks people of different religions right?

I wasn't taught anything by my family (who are non religious).... I don't remember what church taught me... by the time I turned 13/14 I was rejecting christianity so it didn't matter by that point.

Concerning what I was taught about the soul:

Genesis 2:7:
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

Ecclesiates 12:7
"And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it."

Which demonstrates that the soul is the animating part of the human being. Humankind lives as a result of their soul. The soul is also the breath of God. This wasn't really a problem until sin entered the world through disobedience. Its almost like our soul got tarnished because at the point of sin there was an immediate separation from God. Our nature changed at that point from a God nature to a sin nature. Even though by two people's disobedience our nature changed, we cannot change it back by our own attempts at righteousness. It's like if you have ever colored with a yellow marker over a black marker. No matter what you do, the original pristine nature of the marker cannot be regained. To speak on the nature of children being prestine, according to Christianity, they may not have done anything wrong, but because they were born of two sinful parents, their nature is sinful.

Notice here that when God has a sort of hands off approach, things degrade quite quickly in bible terms. Cain murders Abel. Lamech murders one of his kinsmen and here the Lord says

"5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."-Genesis 6:5

But then after the flood, this is God's assessment.

Genesis 8:21
21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done."

I think we would be ok here with replacing the word heart with soul, but then I am no expert.

This here is important:
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."-Romans 6:23.
Accordingly, our ultimate destination is death if we remain on the same trajectory, which if you read Genesis 2 is not the original plan. Remember that God said *if* you eat of that fruit you will die. He then proceeded in Genesis 3 to make skin coverings for them, so *something* died in their place, which is a foreshadowing of what will ultimately come.

So the conundrum is that God still wants to have the relationship that he had before sin with all of mankind. The intimacy, the ability to walk in the garden in the cool of the day, but He can't because he cannot look at sin. Sin has at this point and for generations afterward spread itself abroad like a cancer, and we have already established that we cannot make ourselves well, so the ultimate solution is an outside source:

John 3:16
"16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Matthew 16: 24-27
"24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."

Its evident here then that the purpose of Christ's ministry, death, burrial and resurrection is to restore that connection with God. Its also evident that Jesus is drawing a line in the sand here. Follow me (deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me) or lose your soul.

Christ will say earlier:
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

So the soul can be lost, the soul can be destroyed it can also be saved.

Christ says "6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6

I hope that was a sufficient explanation and I hope it wasnt too long.

Edan wrote: I wasn't taught anything by my family (who are non religious).... I don't remember what church taught me... by the time I turned 13/14 I was rejecting christianity so it didn't matter by that point.

^ Same.

I seeked it in experiential terms through prayer and dream, found something, and worked with that from there. So my answer to the OP would be I taught myself through experiences.... whether they were from some metareality or just products of my imagination is another question, and indeed one which has shown me the greatest temptation, well beyond anything of the flesh... as belief can be vast
:blink:
So I have learnt that emptiness and wisdom go hand in hand, but now I'm getting a bit too Buddhist for my own good :lol:

I've just signed up for the course BTW!!!

I have been taught that my Soul is my essence like the spice in a cake , that it is fluid and that you can feed it and that its etarnal in the sense of lessons learned more than your character. That if the cake burns up the essence ( my Soul ) remains.

I take my information on the soul from Patrick Pearse, Irish Revolutionary.

Silas Mercury wrote: I take my information on the soul from Patrick Pearse, Irish Revolutionary.

Is that what you were taught, or what you decided to believe now?

I was taught it by his books and poems and speeches, and what I chose to believe.