Belief in a soul but not God

[michaelArc]

I know someone who holds a belief that we all have souls but does not believe in any deity or God.

Is there a philosophical term that may be attributed to this belief? I don’t think agnosticism is really accurate in this case. Thanks.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Is it a Buddhist thing?

@rossum might know

 

[michaelArc]

No it’s not Buddhist. This person is very anti-ogranized religion and certainly doesn’t subscribe to any dogma. I would describe it as more of an amalgamation of western ideals and new age philosophy of sorts.

 

[Gorgias]

I know someone who holds a belief that we all have souls but does not believe in any deity or God.

Is there a philosophical term that may be attributed to this belief?

Do you mean an immortal soul that perdures after death of the body? Or do you simply mean some spiritual aspect of the person (which, too, dies when the body dies)?

I’ve never heard of an atheistic system that would profess the former.

 

[michaelArc]

Yes they meant an immortal soul that perdures after the death of the body.

I’ve never heard of anything like this as well, but I couldn’t dive in to learn why they believe this. I thought it to be quite peculiar.

 

[Gorgias]

I thought it to be quite peculiar.

It sounds quite odd to me, too. Asserting that there are people because there is a universe in which they can be created and exist is one thing… but how could they propose that there is nothing from which to give rise to a spiritual soul (and associate it with a particular body to form a particular person), if there is no God to do so?

It sounds like sloppy theology to me, at first blush. They’re asserting the existence of the immortal person, but don’t want the responsibilities that those persons have to the Creator who made them.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Maybe a general term like eclecticism would be a good description. Since they believe in a soul, but not God, they are probably influenced by quantum mechanics?

 

[Duckling]

That’s really interesting.

I don’t understand how one could believe in an immortal soul and not God, but perhaps that’s just because I was raised as a Christian.
In the secular world, and even with atheists, “spirituality” is a term used quite frequently.
I think immortal is the word that is getting stuck, or perhaps misunderstood.

As you may know, it is a scientific law that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but it can be “passed on”. I’m not sure, but this acquaintance of yours might be referring to that energy, rather than a soul that remains your own after death.

I don’t know, just a thought. Very interesting though.