I get the religious stand point- a soul is our being, our humanity, but what constitutes this within evolution? Why are we smarter or more "humane" than animals?
2014-12-18T21:28:11Z
I get that a "soul" isn't athing, I was asked a question by one of my colleagues of something along the lines of "if there is no soul, why are we better than animals? why do we know right from wrong and how to think." I tried to tell him that we developed this but he told me that animals can survive without it so why can't we? That might be clearer, how is being smarter helping us?
DrJ2014-12-18T21:50:36Z
It's not clear what you are asking. Are you talking about morality which has nothing to do with a "soul", does it?
Do animals kill/eat their own offspring? Most don't. In a wolf pack when the alpha male fights one lower in rank, does he kill him? No, the loser turns on his back and exposes his soft belly, but the alph male does not kill him. There are many social species that depend on the community effort to exist.... is that morality? Thus the concept of "right and wrong" can only be evaluated on the basis of survival. It's "right" to solve problems that contribute to the good of the community, it's survival, and the survival of the next generation. It's "bad" to kill other humans, especially if they are related in any way to you (blood is thicker than water). It is "bad" to steal since you are reducing the fitness of the person you have stolen from and have decreased the survival probability of the group. All the above without invoking a soul. Evolution works on REAL things.... things that can reproduce, that show variation, that natural selection can act on. The "soul" has none of those.... does it? And therefore out of the realm of science and evolution.
I personally think the word "soul" is just a poetic alternative to "consciousness". That said, if an organism is just growing or chilling with no concept of self-awareness, there's no "soul". When we sleep, our "souls" kind of disappear for a while.
As opposed to other animals, we're less inclined to act upon natural instincts, whereas a squirrel would direct their lives in a way that satisfies that reflex part of the mind. It doesn't mean any of us are superior. It just means we think and live differently. Over thousands of years of evolution we continuously eased up with the use of natural instincts because we've figured out ways to deal with things more efficiently for us. There's actually a study that suggests our brains have been shrinking (which could be good or bad). The other animals don't really survive better. I mean, we survive just fine, right? They live easy in their natural environments and we do, as well. Our natural environment was built by us, and that doesn't make it any less natural. Birds build nests. Bees build hives. Beavers build dams. Just because ours are more advanced doesn't make us any better or worse. Humans are more dependent on crafted items while monkeys can pretty much do without them. As intelligence improves, physical strength decreases because we find more convenience.
I suppose a soul equivalent (if you must) is consciousness. We are smarter than other animals because of the way we evolved and the way our consciousness evolved. It's not that animals do not have a conscious, it's that ours is different and developed differently using different senses and different parts of our brain.
However, there is no evidence to suggest that our conscious continues to exist after death the way people think that a soul can. There is no evidence of a soul or anything like it
But when people talk about a soul, they often think of it as "who they are" and what they feel beneath their skin and deep down, even outside of their mind. They are feeling nothing but consciousness.
EDIT:
What is smarter? It's true we are smarter in general - but has your friend ever try to hear high frequencies like a dog can? Has he ever smelled a scent that was super far away? Or extremely distinct? In that way you can say dogs are smarter than us. We use dogs to pick up on scents because we don't have the ability to do that.
Have you ever seen ants work together? It's amazing. Have you ever seen bees work? That's also amazing. Have you ever seen birds fly together? Also amazing. They're all smart creatures - they have consciousness, just limited.
Oh, you're asking about our huge brains, and our being social critters -- two tightly-related things.
Our intelligence and sociality are what enabled us to thrive.
Better than? It's just ego that insists that we are BETTER than other animals, in some absolute sense. We do more DAMAGE than any other living thing; so in that sense, we're WORSE.
Of course, there are all sorts of ways we're "better" -- at the things we're better at. We're not the best swimmers, or fliers, or better at detecting scents.
Anyway, our brain, our language, and our being social are all things that evolved; we managed to survive, and ultimately fill the world, in a sense. So, clearly, those things ARE beneficial to our survival.
A group of critters, that can make detailed plans, and agree on them, and manipulate objects, turning them into much more useful objects, and teach our young how to do same -- all that stuff, clearly helped survival.
And, that we are cooperative is central to our thriving. The idea of war of all against all clearly is not how we got this far.
There is no soul and evolution is simply a word. Humans are in no way better than animals. Entire actions done by an animal is done by man too like sex, eating, sleeping and so on....