There are 3 choices, 6 votes for NoTears2Dry's debate

IS there an afterlife? Do souls even exist? Does god exist?

Belief and faith is a key part of religion. The fault of faith is that there is no proof, and therefore the existence of God is highly debatable. In every religion there are key beliefs based on opinion and mythology, not fact or logic. In a world with absolutely no proof as to whether a God or set of Gods exist, no one can prove anything. I say, with certainty, however, that there is no such thing as immortality and that the soul, if it even exists, cannot transcend the earthly body into a place called heaven, where everything is perfect and no problems exist.
If you try to argue with faith and religious beliefs, I must then tell you that they are fallacies, and that only logic and fact can expose the true nature of the subject. Faith is a belief, and a belief is an opinion, which is only supported by fantasy and wishful thinking. Logic is reason, and reason is fact, which is supported by the very nature of the world itself.
I have a few reasons as to why I believe that immortality cannot truly exist. First of all, if the body can’t live without the “soul”, then how can the soul live without the body, unless the soul is more important, and more potent than the body itself? However, if the soul is larger than the body, then how can the body contain the soul? In other words, the soul cannot exceed the limitations of the body. If our souls were of a greater proportion than our bodies, our bodies wouldn’t be able to handle the soul, and therefore humans would cease to exist.
The soul may not even exist. When one thinks about the soul, one associates it with feelings, thoughts, and moral reasoning. The area that controls these things is the central nervous system, or more specifically the brain. This has been proven. If our soul exists inside our bodies, then how have we not found it yet? How have we not found an area of our body that controls the things we associate with our soul? We have, and it’s the brain. Still, some may question this. Some might say that the soul isn’t physical; it’s an idea, like love. This is actually proving my point even more. It is an IDEA. An idea isn’t a fact, it is more like an opinion, and until it can be proven, remains a fallacy. If our brain controls thoughts, feelings, and moral decisions, what does our soul do? Does our soul even exist? I may have used logic to show that our soul is not more important than our body, and that our soul can’t exceed the limitations, or even that the soul has little purpose, but there is no way to say that the soul doesn’t exist, however the soul cannot be immortal, because it must die with the body.
Some people might argue that the soul is separate from the body, and that God can create a new, heavenly body for us in heaven, but the law of conservation of mass argues against this theory. Matter cannot be created or destroyed! How can a being, no matter how great, break the very laws of nature itself? If “anything is possible” with the power of God, then explain why that God doesn’t use his amazing powers to bend or break laws of nature in order for the betterment of the world. I can tell you why, because the laws of nature exist for a reason, and if they are broken, then the very fabrication of the universe would not exist.
“A bit of faith” is needed in order to believe in God, because there is no proof. Well, a little bit of faith is needed to believe in pretty little unicorns with pink horns and amazing mermaids with colorful fins, and its true that we can’t prove, or disprove the existence of these creatures, but man has roamed the earth for generations and never found proof of these creatures, yet many different cultures believe in them. Men in the past have talked of a god, because they cannot truly comprehend the amount of power it would take to carve lakes and build mountains, but what they lacked was the knowledge that NATURE created those things. Is it so hard to believe that we are meant for nothing more than to live our life and help give birth to more generations? Is it not enough that each and every one of us will most likely do his or her part for the human race? The truth is yes. We want to believe that there is something more, and out of this want, and almost need for the hope of living in a better place, is why religion even exists in the first place. Religion was created out of our own selfish desire.
Furthermore, don’t shove your religion down other people’s throats. The main reason is because when you are that pushy, the other person wants nothing more than to NOT believe in what you are so avidly shoving down their throats.

  • reason(s)
    "Logic is reason, and reason is fact, which is supported by the very nature of the world itself.


    The area that controls these things is the central nervous system, or more specifically the brain.


    An idea isn’t a fact, it is more like an opinion, and until it can be proven, remains a fallacy


    If “anything is possible” with the power of God, then explain why that God doesn’t use his amazing powers to bend or break laws of nature in order for the betterment of the world.


    We want to believe that there is something more, and out of this want, and almost need for the hope of living in a better place, is why religion even exists in the first place. "


    These five points seem interesting enough. First of all, reason is by no means that which controls nature, just as the sun doesn’t go around the earth just because the culture has established it. Reason is not supported by the world itself, but rather it is only supported by the capacities of our own minds. Fact, in a similar manner, is only an inductive generalization which is dangerous to investigation and fact-finding itself. Between 1687 and 1905, nobody felt that Newton could be proven wrong. Even in 1905, they still didn’t believe it when Einstein’s theories were new. The first great experiment to prove him right happened 7 years later. Facts are relative and often incommensurable. Reason is an institution, and as any institution it is far from perfect.

    Cognitive sciences in the last 30 years have established a strong base for the argument that, while there may be cases in which the structure of the brain alters behavior not all behavior is structured by the brain. Even in something so logical as language, the mere fact that there are so many perfectly serviceable languages in the world that are dramatically different from one another is enough to prove that spontaneity happens, and there may just possibly be neither rhyme nor reason in it.

    An idea may not be a fact, but one must note that a fact might just possibly be little more than an idea. The faculties to prove ideas, and even facts, are highly specialized and, again, are but institutions. Fallacies such as eugenics, phrenology, physiognomy and the like were just as indistinguishable from fact to the people on the ground at the time. Given the proper institutions of propaganda, governments, corporations, hospitals, etc. fallacy and fact could just as easily have resembled each other.

    One could argue that the very existence of the world, of the mind, and of the laws of nature themselves are, in fact, the amazing powers of God, rather than arguments against God.

    Finally, I will concede that we all want to believe that there’s something more. This doesn’t necessarily need to come from a need for something more than life, but simply for life. Or, to perhaps put it a better way, to purpose in life and reason in life. Life becomes a better place with some disbelief in the pointlessness of it all, the dogmatism and the stodginess of those opposed to enlightenment. Each culture deals with it, and in this treatment find foundation.

    50%  Voted for by Auxiliar, TeChNoWC, Crazyhead.
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  • Did You Really Just Ask That?
    There isn't enough time on Earth to finish discussing that question.
    Not that any debate in philosophy ever leads to an answer.
    Everything is ALL faith, everything is ALL hope, and ALL belief.
    There is no truth. I'm tickled that you're interested in what we all believe, but I have a distinct feeling people will be preaching and getting their emotions involved in something that won't lead to much fruitful results.

    My personal opinion? Yes, there is an afterlife, yes souls exist, and yes God exists.
    From there on out it gets real complicated.
    33%  Voted for by endsofbread, Energizer Bunny.
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  • Heavenly bodies
    "Some people might argue that the soul is separate from the body, and that God can create a new, heavenly body for us in heaven, but the law of conservation of mass argues against this theory. Matter cannot be created or destroyed!"

    I'm not sure that this is exactly what heaven is supposed to be like. I'm not religious myself, but I don't think people that believe in heaven try to qualify it in physical terms like that. Rather, it is a state where just someone's soul or essence is joined with God, not in any way connected to our material world.

    Personally, I believe that there is some kind of soul, because to me that's what separates us from artificial intelligences such as computers - we have awareness of our own existence, and thoughts, feelings and emotions. Put another way, I think that if we didn't have some kind of soul we would be mindless like robots, rather than living beings.
    Voted for by aerozeppelin.
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