What is a soul

Soul

• Soul refers to the theoretical entity that exists inside, but is separate from your body and mind. The soul is said to exist after the body in which it resides has expired.
• Yes soul or energy do exists but they canot be seen with our normal physical human sensors. Kirlian Photography has been able to verify there are indeed energy field surrounding our physical body, called it the Etheric Body. Kirlian Photography has also been able to verify that that energy field is merely an electrostatic field created by all living things including plants. The Bible, written in the word of GOD, who is never wrong, said only humans had souls.
• Yes, the soul has energy attributes, but it is not defined by what we can currently detect.
• Writing was to arrogant
• A soul is a made-up thing by religions in order to lure and frighten you into that religion. Either the promise of an 'after-life' or the scare of 'an eternity in hell' will do the trick for most. But trust me, when you die there's nothing left, not even a soul :)
• ..................I know you must think you are clever, do not ever think that way or else you will not discover anything which is a millimeter beyond superficial. At the moment any information on the soul is just speculation, and strong belief about anything like this would be to do with ones faith (this type of 'faith' would also be required to believe strongly in your opinion about the soul not existing). Also like myself and I'm sure thousands if not millions of other people, you do not need to be religious in the conventional sense you talk about in order to think the soul could or does exist. You think you are clever but talk about such a globally questioned posibility in such a narrow way and use such narrow conventions and attempt to make it appear as though you are right.

What the Bible reads:

Gen. 2:7: "God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be A living soul." (Notice that this does not say that man was given a soul but that he became a soul, a living person.) (The part of the Hebrew word here rendered "soul" is ne′phesh. KJ, AS, and Dy agree with that rendering. RS, JB, NAB read "being." NE says "creature." Kx reads "person.")

Gen. 9:5: "Besides that, your blood of your souls [or, "lives"; Hebrew, from ne′phesh] shall I ask back." (Here the soul is said to have blood.)

Josh. 11:11: "They went striking every soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh] that was in it with the edge of the sword." (The soul is here shown to be something that can be touched by the sword, so these souls could not have been spirits.)

Ezek. 18:4: "Look! All the souls-to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son-to me they belong. The soul* that is sinning-it itself will die." (*Hebrew reads "the ne′phesh." KJ, AS, RS, NE, and Dy render it "the soul." Some translations say "the man" or "the person.")

The philosophy of an eternal force within the body which supposedly departs you after death was developed by Plato in the 4th century. The idea of an eternal soul within the body was not a teaching of the 1st century disciples nor by Jesus. So what do you think?... do we have something inside us that departs our body after death?


Supplementary Answer

Yes, we do have something inside us that departs the body at death; it is the human spirit. (Job 34:14-15, Psalm 146:4, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Luke 8:40-56, James 4:5)

The spirit of a breathing creature is the invisible and essential element that provides both the root of its organic life (its breath) and its conscious life (its soul). This applies as much to people as it does to other living and breathing creatures (Ecclesiastes 3:19-21).

So the life of any person, as perceived by their Creator, is in their spirit. (Proverbs 2:18, Psalm 88:10, Isaiah 14:9, Isaiah 26:14, Malachi 2:15, Matthew 27:50, Luke 8:55, Acts 7:59, 1 Corinthians 5:5, Hebrews 12:9, Hebrews 12:23, James 2:26)

But that same life as perceived or experiencedby human observers, is referred to as the soul. The soul is the earthly (bodily) expression of the life in the human spirit.

While we cannot immediately view the spirit of a person, we are well aware of the ongoing expression of its life through the palpable activity and behaviours of the physical body. So, we can and do apprehend a person's soul (1 Peter 3:1-4), even though our physical senses can give us no direct access to their spirit. As we cannot identify or look straight into another person's spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11), their inner life thus remains private to all except God (Proverbs 20:27).

Our inner life, also, can be understood, in part, as our soul life because it is dependent to a great degree on sensory inputs and the processes associated with thought and emotion as they are moderated in the physical systems of our body. The machinations, for instance, of the endocrine system or the nervous system (which includes the brain) are physical phenomena that are ultimately accessible to human exploration and inspection - they are thus aspects of our corporeal life (the soul) as opposed to our incorporeal life (the spirit).

Might it be the soul - as 'opposed' to the spirit - that survives death? In a real sense, it does, because the human spirit was never a fixed entity, it was tender and malleable (Isaiah 29:24; Luke 1:80). The human spirit develops its own character and matures as we pass through life's ups and downs. " In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered" (Hebrews 2:10). If the soul of Jesus Christ could humanly unfold and fully mature as a result of his life's experiences - both the good and the bad, then so can yours and mine (John 1:12-13, Ephesians 4:13).

A life-worn soul mirrors the developments in the character of a person's spirit, whether positive or negative; hopefully, it reflects positive growth of, and strength in, the human spirit. In effect, our souls are returning to God in the form of our, now, unwrapped, developed and seasoned spirits. That is the sense in which the soul may survive - as a blueprint carried in the spirit.

When you die your spirit/soul may carry within it a seal and guarantee of eternal life. This depends upon the matter of whether or not you have already accepted this gift from your Creator (John 5:24, John 11:25-26, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Ephesians 1:13-14).

All the references here were taken from the default (NIV) Bible version at BibleGateway.com.