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Wraywolf
07-13-2004, 03:33 PM
The goal of the human self is to seek out others. The burning need to seek out companionship is the left over instinct from times when it was needed for the primitive tribesman to huddle together against the lurking shadows outside of the hearths protective warmth. Banding together against the hostile elements meant survival, and for some reason survival is what all life strives for. But then, with the human minds realization of its own existence, evolved a new brand of will. To better control the resources that surrounded it, to improve the chances for survival and propagation, there evolved from the simple animal mind of humans the intangible limb of conclusion, allowing humanity to utilize inanimate matter as well as the living flesh in order to better the survive and perpetuate its genes. The ability of thought, ideas, pictures and notions without physical form, that do not exist in the realm of the five senses, yet to the self there is no doubt of their realness. With this new cognitive ability, humanity progressed and were able to better balk the malicious forces of the world surrounding them. Human beings now carry the light of the hearth with them, letting it grow brighter, and shine upon the world in order to pacify it.

But, from this new ability which the world was made hospitable, arose new strife. The by product of the lucid mind, the concept of self, created the thing which could be understood as ‘soul’. Morality, complicated emotion, art, music, theocracy, all born from the soul, served as a new and interesting variable for the human survival. The very thing that pacified the world, the very hearth that kept one warm, was as a wildfire whose goal and purpose was to engulf all flammable things. The soul is a predatory entity, a malignant being that relies on the destruction of its kin in order to propagate. Theocracy most often was used to these means, numbing the souls of others into conformity and idleness, drying the spirits into brittle husks easily devoured by flame. It is the nature of the soul to feast endlessly on the ones that are weaker then itself, to spread the fire which burns but not consumes, forever onward, and one only need to open a history book to know it true.

Now we are in a time where contact with another is becoming optional, the need for other people diminishing as technological advancements become more pronounced. Now, those with weak souls can somewhat protect themselves. Through isolation from others, one is allowed to become certain. Distancing themselves from the hungry fires, a weak soul is allowed to burn on itself and let its own hallucinations and ideas to solidify, emotions becoming hollow and the needs of the flesh the only heeded cries. If one were to transcend to a state of pure isolationism, something that one day soon may indeed be possible, it would allow a blissful yet hungry existence for the self. Denied its desire to devour anything but itself, the soul would eventually smother, and fizzle out, allowing an individual to lead a stable existence free of pain and happiness.

It all comes down to the choice of the one who exists what to do with their soul. To through it among other for it to devour the brittle husks, or in turn become itself an enflamed servant appendage of the stronger, or to keep it inside and let it smolder, burning away all forms of itself until all that is left is the motionless cognitive and lustful meat. Insanity that is the human soul, for what else can it be called when one sees things that do not exist, is the ultimate human predatory, whose diet is exclusive and who feeds unconscious of its infinite hunger.

Luthious
07-13-2004, 04:29 PM
Ummmm, yea.

Sounds good.

DarkWolf
07-13-2004, 04:33 PM
This is a good post, and a good discussion. If you have nothing to contribute, don't contribute at all. This goes for everyone.

Blazer
07-13-2004, 06:07 PM
Wray - very poetic, liked this a lot.

But don't you think a soul is just a human defence to the knowledge that death is inevitable?

The soul was originally created when our ancestors became aware of their mortality and thought "Shit! I don't want life to end... We've just invented flint!" Then came up with the story of an afterlife where his soul goes if he's been a good little caveman.

The rest reads more like human nature. We've evolved from caveman to internet nerd. That process required us to stay away from things with big teeth and compete with other members of our species.
The best looking caveman got to bash the best looking cavewoman on the head. This carries on today although slightly more subtly.

I think the general question you raised is do we remove ourselves from human contact or dive right in and risk suppressing others or be suppressed ourselves.
You are right that without human contact we would loose our own humanity. Therefore, I'd say it is better to jump in with both feet & embrace our humanity.

But of course the hermit cavemen would disagree.

DarkWolf
07-13-2004, 07:21 PM
Something hopefully useful thanks to MSN Encarta:

Soul, in many religions and philosophies, the immaterial element that, together with the material body, constitutes the human individual. In general, the soul is conceived as an inner, vital, and spiritual principle, the source of all bodily functions and particularly of mental activities. Belief in some kind of soul that can exist apart from the body is found in all known cultures. In many contemporary non-literate societies, human beings are said to have several souls—sometimes as many as seven—located in different parts of the body and having diverse functions. Disease is frequently explained as “soul-loss”, which can occur, for example, when witches steal the soul or evil spirits capture it.

II EASTERN RELIGIONS

In the East, belief in a human soul is central to several philosophical and religious systems. Thus, for instance, in early Hinduism the soul or self (atman) was considered the principle that controls all activities and defines one's identity and consciousness. The philosophical Hindu writings, the Upanishads, identify the atman with the divine (Brahman), adding an eternal dimension to the soul. Bound up with matter, the human soul is caught in the cycle of reincarnation until it achieves purification and knowledge and merges once again with ultimate reality. Buddhism is unique in the history of religions because it teaches that the individual soul is an illusion produced by various psychological and physiological influences. Thus, it has no conception of a soul or self that can survive death. The Buddhist view of reincarnation is simply of a chain of consequences unmediated by any continuing identity, although in popular belief this subtlety is often lost and worshippers regard the dead as transmigrating souls.

Traditional Chinese religion posits a dual soul, divided into a lower, more material part (the p'o) and a higher mental part (the hun). The former dies with the body; the latter survives death and becomes the focus of ancestor worship.

III JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

Early Judaism considered the human personality as a whole, without making a sharp distinction between body and soul. By the Middle Ages, however, the soul was defined in Judaism as the principle of life and was considered capable of surviving bodily decay. The Christian doctrine of the soul has been strongly influenced by the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Most Christians believe that each individual has an immortal soul and that the human personality as a whole, composed of soul and resurrected body, may, through faith, be granted God's presence in the afterlife. The Neoplatonic theory of the soul as prisoner in a material body prevailed in Christian thought until the advent of the 13th-century theologian St Thomas Aquinas, who accepted Aristotle's analysis of the soul and body as two conceptually distinguishable elements of a single substance. Hence Christianity struggled over a long period with Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and other such sects which regarded the soul as exiled from the spiritual realms of light in an entirely corrupt material universe.

IV ISLAM

The teachings of Islam on the soul resemble those of Judaism and Christianity. According to the Koran, God breathed the soul into the first human beings, and at death the souls of the faithful are brought near to God.

V SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE

The belief in the existence of souls may have important social consequences by reinforcing moral obligations and by serving as a guiding principle in life. The cultural significance of the belief in souls reflects the universality of the problems to which it is a response: the complex question of the human personality, the moral and spiritual experiences of life, and the perennial question of life after death.

Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Personally I use it describe the emotional and personality side of a person, beyond the schemas, psychology and stereotypes.

Klark
07-14-2004, 04:08 AM
I really hate to go all shitty geek on ya'll here, but in Superman issue #205, I found an interesting little morsel of knowledge that kinda seems to fit in right here...well, maybe with a twist, but we'll see. It goes like this:

Superman catches a peach that a Father throws while almost using God's name in vain. He says "Something bothering you, Father?" and the Father says, "Nothing I can't live with...heh."

Superman then asks, "Why's that funny?" and the Father responds with, "Because the alternative isn't." Superman asks him if it's a bad time and the Father says, "No. I'm sorry, my time...is yours."

While taking a bite of the peach, Superman says, "Then let me make the most of it. The last time I was here, I mentioned my sin..." and the Father finishes his sentence saying, "...trying to save the world. Better men than you have tried and failed."

Superman says, "Better than me?" and the Father says, "Well, they were just men." This causes Superman to ask, "Why do you think they failed?" and the Father says, "Because...no matter how many people a man tries to save, his own life will ultimately prove to be the one most important to him."

Superman ponders while saying, "Hmm. So if you dedicate your life to humanity, eventually you will regard yourself as the one most purely human? That's food for thought." and the Father says, "If you're a dog."

It's the part where he says that if you dedicate your life to humanity that you begin to regard yourself as the one most purely human that gets me thinking and then combined with Wray's post...well, it rolls through the mind.

It's like the soul that Wray was talking about, the one feeding upon itself. I'm beginning to think that it's human nature to just consume and consume resources until they are used up. I think this includes our humanity, our souls, and ourselves. I think the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker because of this consumption. I think it's how we, as a sentient species, have survived for as long as we have. I think the soul is just another resource for human consumption. :shrug:

WhiteCrowUK
07-14-2004, 04:44 PM
I really hate to go all shitty geek on ya'll here, but in Superman issue #205 ...

I really liked that. I always like when a little gem like that comes from something people usually dismissive of.