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From: padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Souls
Message-ID: <590@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 00:40:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.590
Posted: Fri Aug 23 00:40:33 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 02:38:07 EDT
References: <1195@umcp-cs.UUCP> <540@utastro.UUCP> <1206@umcp-cs.UUCP> <542@utastro.UUCP> <5486@fortune.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 30

> In article <542@utastro.UUCP> padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) writes:
> >
> >SOUL: The spiritual or immortal element in a person. [Oxf. Am. Dict.]
> >
> >You say we know nothing about "the method taking us from this life to the
> >next". Implicit is the concept of something that survives us after death.
> >This has been traditionally identified with the soul. You can't have it both
> >ways. You cannot say that the soul does not exist, and then say that
> >something survives us after we die and goes into the next life.
> >
> >Now you may have a new definition of "soul" that is completely different
> >from anything like the above, but this is just pussyfooting around.
> >
> >A rose by any other name is still a rose.
> >
> There are many notions of what happens after death.  According to 
> some Buddhist traditions, for example, there is no such thing as a "soul";
> rather there are components of a personality which may disintegrate at 
> the time of death and behave differently from each other.  
> The Oxford American Dictionary, while an excellent guide to conversational
> English, is a poor guide to religious and philosophical usage.  I think
> a dictionary of philosophy would have a more interesting definition of the 
> word "soul".

Perhaps, but Charley claims he is christian, believes in resurrection while
denying the existence of something that survives death, namely the soul.
This is all that is meant by "soul" here; something that continues through
death, to be resurrected. 

Padraig Houlahan.