The soul, and its purpose

[alwayspensive]

The last few days I've been thinking about the nature of the soul and whether or not I believe that animals possess a soul, and if so which ones. Your thoughts and personality are believed to be part of your mind which affects how you behave. But your personality doesn't entirely embody who you are; two people can have the same personality type but are inherently different. Personality is defined as our consistent pattern of thoughts and feelings which affect our actions and how we respond to stimuli. Where does it come from though? From somewhere in my brain perhaps?  Then you have to think about culture and how that affects the way we think and act. Does that mean when I die and go to heaven I won't have cultural constructs and behavioral tendencies? that doesn't seem right to me either. Where is my soul and how do I find it and get in touch with it? That's really what matters to me. What does it feel like? Because I can't seem ot find it does that mean it doesn't exist? I typed up my notes from Richard Dawkins's book the Selfish Gene, and he basically argues that most our behavior is governed by our genes, which I definitely believe, and if we behave in a way that is counter evolutionary it is because of our mind's ability to overcome our genes. He obviously mentions nothing of the soul, particularly because it's a scientific text. The fact that animals exhibit many of the behaviors and characteristics we do (a personality, a learned sense of cultural norms), makes me wonder if souls really exist. My mind controls my thoughts and moves my body (physiologically), when my mind doesn't have time to think, my genes use my autonomic nervous system to make me act in a way to preserve myself and my kin, but what does my soul do exactly? Is it my conscience, perhaps my ability to love or connect with people? I just don't know, and it bothers me a lot.

Is it different from what is inside animals? Does Max have a soul? He doesn't seem to have a conscience, just a desire to avoid punishment., a learned response.