Today in my interpretive journalism class I was asked if I had a soul. Now the person who asked this question does not know me, and he has not held a full conversation with me. What occurred to prompt this inquiry into my spiritual being was an editorial we wrote for the class where we answered a letter from a little girl who asked simply if Santa Claus was real. I won't post the piece now, I feel it will be good for everyone to read around Christmas time, it is not what I wrote that I want to examine, but his question, "do you have a soul?"
What is a soul? In many aspects it is something people believe is the embodiment of their being outside of the physical. In Christianity it is the part of you that will survive long after your flesh has decomposed leaving just a skeleton. It will fly alongside the angels in a kingdom in the sky, or it will suffer an eternal pain in the fiery kingdom of Lucifer. Either way, according to these beliefs, it exists in every person and is shaped by how your physical body moves through the material world. So according to this, which is the belief system I grew up with, I have a soul. Where that soul is headed may not be a beautiful paradise in the skies, but it does exist nonetheless.
Religion has long left my thoughts; I have come to see religion not as an inspirational way to live my life, but as a complete intrusion on my own personal thoughts and feelings. I am not here to destroy religion, for some people it is a way to help them guide their lives on the right path and helps them fear death a bit less by reminding them there is something beyond this life: you're soul will continue on. In the three major religions that "soul" moves onto another plane of existence as I discussed already, while in others it continues on in this world just in a different form. Whatever your religious preference is they all have an explanation of what occurs after death.
I am not an atheist, I believe there is something greater than every human walking this earth, but I don't think there is a purpose in following a religion. If there is an all mighty creator why would he/she/it care how we worshiped if we do at all? It makes no sense, we must adhere to these rules or this being that created all will shun our soul after death. Why? I understand why some people follow religion, it gives them guidelines to live their life without ever having to make any real decisions or creating real thoughts by themselves; whatever they need is written down in their particular holy book. Others just want something to believe in greater than themselves, and are unable to do this without an organized structure. Of course there are other reasons why people follow organized religion, but regardless of your reasons I have reasons why I do not.
Which leads me back to the soul, according to religious belief we each have a soul, yet those who do not follow religion will be damned to the underworld. Why? If souls are real and if they live long after death why should a person who has led a life of caring, giving, and all around good, yet that are atheist and do not believe in any god, why should that person's soul he banished? Yet, still going with the Christian version of soul because that is what I was raised with, a person who brought nothing but harm and destruction to the world but worships and believes in god is allowed to confess his mistakes to an old man in a wood booth; he is allowed to pass the gates of heaven. This makes no sense, you have two people each possessing a soul on has led a good life the other a bad, yet because he doesn't believe he is banished to purgatory? If god does exist and he decides the fate of our souls why would he accept the soul who has been tarnished but because he told a priest what has he done its ok. Kill someone, kill another one of this god’s creations, it ok as long as you confess to an ordained priest that you killed them, and it saves your soul. Yep, that makes sense.
As I said earlier, I am not here to destroy religion; people are welcome to believe in anything they want just as I am. And I encourage everyone to do what makes them happy as long as it doesn’t involve murder, pedophilia, rape or any type of other violent crime. The religion aspects remaining in my life are pleasant. Being as my family is Christian I still celebrate holidays such as Easter and Christmas, and though I do not believe in the founding religious aspects of these days, they have grown into something else. They are times when my family gathers and spend the day in each other’s company: that is the soul—the bonding of loved ones.
The soul is something that cannot be touched, cannot be heard, and cannot be seen; yet it exists. It may not be in the religious sense, but we all have one it is the part of us that has faith in other people, it is the part of us that allows us to love one another; it is the embodiment of all that is good with mankind.
So to answer the kid’s question: yes, I have a soul; I just disagree with what it stands for most of the time because I am an asshole.
