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Pathway2
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I concluded that my soul was the concept of my own existence (from God). what is it really?
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Kei
Guest
That which binds all the parts of your body together and animates it. Or something.
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Maximilian75
Guest
CCC 363
…soul also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him that by which he is most especially in God’s image: “soul” signifies the spiritual principle in man.
…soul also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him that by which he is most especially in God’s image: “soul” signifies the spiritual principle in man.
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AveOTheotokos
Guest
The Catechism discusses the soul in paragraphs 362-368 and 1701-1709
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thistle
Guest
Modern Catholic Dictionary:I concluded that my soul was the concept of my own existence (from God). what is it really?
SOUL. The spiritual immortal part in human beings that animates their body. Though a substance in itself, the soul is naturally ordained toward a body; separated, it is an “incomplete” substance. The soul has no parts, it is therefore simple, but it is not without accidents. The faculties are its proper accidents. Every experience adds to its accidental form. It is individually created for each person by God and infused into the body at the time of human insemination. It is moreover created in respect to the body it will inform, so that the substance of bodily features and of mental characteristics insofar as they depend on organic functions is safeguarded. As a simple and spiritual substance, the soul cannot die. Yet it is not the total human nature, since a human person is composed of body animated by the soul. In philosophy, animals and plants are also said to have souls, which operate as sensitive and vegetative principles of life. Unlike the human spirit, these souls are perishable. The rational soul contains all the powers of the two other souls and is the origin of the sensitive and vegetative functions in the human being.
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KevinK
Guest
If this is true how can we have any moral culpability? If God infuses us each with an individually created soul then what role do DNA and hereditary traits have on how we behave?It is individually created for each person by God and infused into the body at the time of human insemination.
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BlackFriar
Guest
The soul was posited by the natural scientists of old to explain the unity of the matter in an organic body.
That is, how does the complicated mass of matter we call a body unify itself into a coherent single thing with everything working together in harmony in a certain nature. There is nothing in the individual parts that explains this. “Soul” is the “place filler” to describe that mystery.
Nobody knows how it works that is why its nothing directly to do with matter. Yet, like a poltergeist, its visible effects are obvious.
Some say the discovery of DNA replaces the need for soul nowadays.
Well, yes, to a large degree we no longer need to posit a poltergeist. The word soul probably applies well to DNA as well for it does most of what the soul was required to explain…only the “soul” now seems to be “material” rather than “spiritual” substance.
Thus far Aristotle would probably agree because he basically said animals had “material souls”.
The problem comes with humans who can “think”. This was considered a purely spiritual operation requiring a purely spiritual soul, not a material soul. DNA cannot substitute here.
However if computers can exhibit “memory” (which used to be considered a spiritual “faculty”) and even primitive thinking (e.g. abstraction of universals from matter) then perhaps the brain as matter can explain spiritual intellect also.
We just don’t know for sure.
That is, how does the complicated mass of matter we call a body unify itself into a coherent single thing with everything working together in harmony in a certain nature. There is nothing in the individual parts that explains this. “Soul” is the “place filler” to describe that mystery.
Nobody knows how it works that is why its nothing directly to do with matter. Yet, like a poltergeist, its visible effects are obvious.
Some say the discovery of DNA replaces the need for soul nowadays.
Well, yes, to a large degree we no longer need to posit a poltergeist. The word soul probably applies well to DNA as well for it does most of what the soul was required to explain…only the “soul” now seems to be “material” rather than “spiritual” substance.
Thus far Aristotle would probably agree because he basically said animals had “material souls”.
The problem comes with humans who can “think”. This was considered a purely spiritual operation requiring a purely spiritual soul, not a material soul. DNA cannot substitute here.
However if computers can exhibit “memory” (which used to be considered a spiritual “faculty”) and even primitive thinking (e.g. abstraction of universals from matter) then perhaps the brain as matter can explain spiritual intellect also.
We just don’t know for sure.
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