jack_ryder: (Default)
jack_ryder ([personal profile] jack_ryder) wrote2009-03-10 01:04 pm
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The God Fuse

10 Things that both Christians and Atheists agree on

(for [livejournal.com profile] nyssa_p  and [livejournal.com profile] robinpen  )

(I think, while it's a pretty good list, he badly mischaracterises atheism - which he's taken to task for in the comments.)

[identity profile] capnoblivious.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
How does the three souls thing work? I've not come across that idea in a Jewish context before.

[identity profile] gillpolack.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
The quick explanation is that one soul goes immediately to wehrerever, one hangs around old haunts for a week (or a month, depends on which period of mourning you are following) and one stays with the body after death. I first heard it as an explanation of reincarnation, but it's wider than that. It is, however, by no means universal, even if one of my favourite Medieval sages described it (I can't remember if it was Rashi or Maimonides, sorry, and I can't remember which soul was named what). It's why I took longer to understand the Pullman novels than most people because I thought "Exterior part-soul - what a cool derivation from the Jewish diea."

[identity profile] murasaki-1966.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
The Ancient Egyptains believed the soul had five parts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_soul

[identity profile] capnoblivious.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, Taoism has two - the good bit that goes all trancendental and the bad bit that sticks with the body.

Unless, you know, White Wolf has lied to me.

[identity profile] capnoblivious.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
But ... all three souls are essentially the same person?

[identity profile] gillpolack.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
Yes. Or of the same person. This si where LJ is not a good place to explain - and I am no theologian so my explanations are not going to be useful.

[identity profile] capnoblivious.livejournal.com 2009-03-10 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, sorry, didn't mean to put you in the position of religious authority.