John Hick - Do People Have Souls?

Is the ‘real you’ a special substance that is nonphysical and immortal? Most regular people would agree, but most scientists would not. What are you? A body alone that is dead forever once it dies? A soul temporally inhabiting a body? A body unified with a nonphysical entity of some kind? What some theologians think may surprise you.

John Harwood Hick was a philosopher of religion and theologian.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[aleksmartini]

More I watch these series more I realise no one has the slightest clue

[eemanuel]

Had a lifelong friend who had a moderate head injury in a car wreck at 33 years old... Went from the sweetest person I knew and fairly religious to death row inmate after some frontal lobe damage.. 💔 .. so I'm not sure about soul... or godliness.. I'm pretty sure it's genetic and avoiding brain damage.

[surfingonmars]

I think that the notion of “soul” — like a ghost of ourselves that is independent of the body — is just a construct to comfort us in our awareness that we are mortal.

[dashtuso]

We are spirits in human form, not humans with a spirit, just because a brain injury changes perception... doesn't mean the soul is non existent

[stevefrompolaca]

brings to mind... behold the lillies if the field they worry not for the morrow... whatever this realm may be I cannot but be awed by the miracle of it being.

[Whippets]

I think our (human) specific level of consciousness gives rise to this desire for a "soul", but no one seems to know what this "soul" is supposed to be and how it can manifest itself beyond the expiration of our physical form. I'm not sure of its' existence beyond just being a human conscious desire for some sense of immortality.

[Kritiker]

I think of the soul as being the essence of our being that causes us to care and feel love for others. It feels useful to attach something intangible as love to something as intangible as a soul but honestly, I don't have a clue.

[sajitbalachandran]

The question is wrong. It is souls having bodies

[sujok-acupuncture]

The body is the soul in the gross form . And there is subtle bodies over and above the gross body. The body mind are not two things. It is one single unity.

[rc]

there's been millennia of research n this topic untill present and yet we're struggling to conceptualize the difference between mind and matter...

[basvanelburg]

I'm afraid evil is just an evolutionary construct that helped us survive as a tribe.

[stellarwind]

I don’t see how a soul is any less plausible than saying a brain made of water, fat and protein can become self-aware with private thoughts and emotions.

[banmancan]

John Hick delves a little in to his Soul Making theodicy which was his modern take on Irenaeus' old position. If you're interested in Hick's work, it's definitely worth a search.

[-by-_Publishing_LLC]

(4:05) *JH: **_"But no collection of neurons actually is that scene."_* ... Excellent way to phrase it! I get that it's difficult for many to accept the existence of nonphysical phenomenon, especially if you're dealing with the "phenomenon in question" during every moment of your existence. ... However, "Existence" isn't obligated to manifest itself based on our playbook.

True, there are specific processes that orchestrate "Existence" such as patterns, logic, necessity, and conceivability, but these are preconditions that "Existence" established for itself, and which didn't come from us.

Unless there is some type of *evolutionary barrier* set in place, "Existence" is perfectly free to evolve into nonphysical structure (or some other type of structure) in the same way that it evolved into physical structure.

[cocobolooooooooo]

In the spirit of Advaita Vedanta " Who is asking if people have souls ? "

[mirrorimage]

Would'n humanity show deep self knowledge when accepting that some questions simply have no answers? That there are phenomena that are not explainable. Unknowable.

[petervisser]

He is honest and recognizes he does not have a clue and instead of applying the art of keeping his mouth shut he keeps on talking.

[Ekam-Sat]

I had a crazy idea. What if there is only one soul which incarnates itself as seemingly separate souls so to be able to love and be loved in return? 😍

[science]

We are soft machines. Carbon machines. Biological devices, by natural selection. That is the materialist perspective.

[ptimal]

Amusing that anyone could believe they know for sure. Whether you say yes or no, youre both expressing certainty about a fantasy.