An atheist can also be more effective at helping humanity by adopting secular ethics and values rather than bronze age myths. — Wheatley

Really? How?

I never got round to reading Dorian Gray but fun fact: we look older in our pictures than in real life - something to do with distortions caused by camera lenses.

Speaking to The Telegraph, plastic surgeon Rajiv Grover explained that the angle and shape of the lens play a big role, saying, “The phone's 28mm camera lens does exactly what time does to your face, enlarging the front of your face so that it looks bigger, as well as amplifying the features that get larger as you age. ... What we see when we're looking at ourselves in a mirror is not reality — the reflection in the mirror is a reversed version of the way we actually look. And since we look in the mirror every day, we're very used to this flipped version. It's called the mere effect. — From Quora

I never got round to reading Dorian Gray — TheMadFool

Just read it.

Just read it. — baker

Will! All in good time, all in good time.

You have mentioned at least 3 frameworks in which the subject of "soul" is studies and treated: religion, philosophy and existential psychology. In each of them we can find different views about the existence and nature of soul. Even different religions view soul in different ways. So, what's the use of bring all this up, since your message, as I understood it, is that there is no need to think and talk about soul and what that entails, but instead what we should be concerned with is how to have happier lives? That is, all we should be concerned and talk about is our existence, our problems our feelings, and so on. Well, I don't remember well my existential philosophy, but what remained in my mind is discussions and thoughts about the anxiety that our existence produces. I also remember Sartre talking about "the hell is the other people" and all that nonsense. Existential thinking itself produces anxiety and unhappiness.

Indeed, today rational thinking is reduced to a minimum and we are left with bias, superstition, compulsive behavior, obsessions, psychosis, neurosis, and all that stuff governing our lives. We are not concerned about knowing ourselves and how to live better and be happier. We leave this task to shrinks and psychologists. Is this what you mean by "having a life"?

Well, taking soul out of the equation in our lives and believing that we are just bodies, is the root of all unhappiness because it creates a huge conflict in us, since we actually know well that we are not just bodies but something more ...

I've never retired something that was born before. [ ... ] To be born is to have a soul, I guess. — K, a cop (Blade Runner 2049)

A Replicant-killing Replicant's 'insight' of anātman.

I've never retired something that was born before. [ ... ] To be born is to have a soul, I guess.
— K, a cop (Blade Runner 2049)
A Replicant-killing Replicant's 'insight' of anātman. — 180 Proof

:up:

What are your thoughts. — Wheatley

Why do you ask, if you are not responding to replies?
I sent you my reply more than a week ago ...
(https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/605997)

Why do you ask, if you are not responding to replies?
I sent you my reply more than a week ago ...
(https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/605997) — Alkis Piskas

I lost interest in my thread, sorry. :pray:

What are your thoughts. — Wheatley

There's a saying that "You don't have a soul; you are a soul. You have a body." In agreement with that, I would add to it, saying that soul = life; life = soul. Of course, I'm one of those folks that think's animals have souls. And I go beyond that, to plants and so-called "inanimate objects." Finally, I don't think any are more evolved or better that any other. Some folks refer to the "spark" of life, consciousness, etc. It's all the soul. I've explained the consciousness aspect elsewhere.

I lost interest in my thread, sorry. :pray: — Wheatley

:rofl:

Without souls, most religions would collapse, being as they are wholly dependent on a promise of an afterlife to make sense of their theories which, unfortunately for us, includes morality.

A life would become rather unbearable sans morality - ethics would become nonsensical (good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. WTF?) and bedlam is unavoidable - and hence, we need souls, if only as a gennaion pseudos.

A rather pessimistic point of view I admit but look around you, is any other option viable?

I lost interest in my thread, sorry — Wheatley

OK. Good to know, anyway.