Souls. Real or Fiction?

Hey!!

You’re probably asking why I’m writing about souls all of a sudden…it’s because some of my classmates started talking about it and the topic sparked my interest.

Yeah it’s a very interesting reason. Anyways, hope you like the post!

What Are Souls?

Some people might be asking what souls are. Well, souls can have many meanings, especially in different religions.

Though, on an universal scale, souls are “the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal”; they are thought to be immortal.

Souls can have deeper meanings, be symbolic, and even be associated with daily life. Have you ever read a book where souls or a word that replaces/means souls are mentioned?

But, are souls real or are they just fiction? Were they established only because people couldn’t understand something?

Yes, Souls Are Real

In 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, a Massachusetts doctor, performed a series of experiments trying to prove that souls are real. He said that human souls have mass and therefore could be weighed. His experiment is famously known as the “21 grams soul experiment”.

He conducted his experiment by fitting a bed with a sensitive set of beam scales and convincing ill patients to lie on it during the last few moments of their lives.

MacDougall recorded everything. Even factored in losses of bodily fluids and gasses (like oxygen and nitrogen). He concluded that the human soul weighs 21 grams (or 3/4 of an ounce).

Even when people fought back at this claim, he kept trying to prove that souls are real. He had said that he would photograph the moment the soul leaves the body. And, he was able to do it…maybe….he had managed to photograph “a light resembling that of the interstellar ether” in/around the person’s skull.

Though, there’s not much scientific evidence today to prove that souls are real, some like to believe they are because they say that the universe is a mysterious thing.

I mean they are not wrong…there are many things that have baffled scientists and physicists alike.

No, Of Course They Are Fictive

There were many people who had debated with MacDougall. One was a physician names Augustus P. Clarke. He had pointed out that when one dies, the lungs stop cooling the blood, which causes the body temperature to rise, making the skin sweat. And the sweat would account for the loss of 21 grams.

MacDougall did make a counter argument and this way the debate kept going…probably to this day.

Science says that the fact that people think the brain is simply a storage for the soul to rest in is absurd. In addition, most have concluded that the soul is nothing more than an abstract idea.

It states that the word “mind” is a useful idea but the close link between the brain and mental function leaves no room for a physical mind (which is something separate for the brain) to hide. So..it should be the same for the soul.

If you want some evidence for these claims, here it is.

Sean M. Carroll, a physicist, made a video that conveyed that physics shows that souls don’t exist. He says that there is much of physics we don’t understand, but the physics of our Newtonian world is well understood.

So basically he states that we know enough to rule out astrology, clairvoyance (power to see into the future), life after death, etc.

So what do you think?

Could souls possibly be real knowing that we don’t know everything about the universe and haven’t discovered or understood many ideas?

With the science you now know and thinking of the fact that humans have this need to explain everything, the concept of souls was established just to satisfy that need?