Originally Posted by Vecha
I'd like to think there is. But there's many, many more reasons to doubt there is one than to believe there is one.
Our personality is effected by the many environments, situations, family, etc...so maybe the soul is above our own body, personality, ego. It is merely using us to learn and grow.
I also personally like the idea of reincarnation...past lives that shape us.
Having a radical trauma that changes your body's personality would be an experience for your soul to learn and experience from.
I'm mostly thinking outloud. Rambling nonsense
Anywho, to me, it is nice to think that there is a soul after death, but I'm not going to ignore all the logic that leans on the idea that there isn't. So, I respect those opinions that lean on debunking it.
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To back up the portion I have bolded above, we have scene many instances where damage to the brain can change someone's personality. Either through chemical imbalance or injury, people can find themselves unable to recognize faces or remember names, might lose their short-term or long term memories. We have found that introducing certain elements can improve or strip away the brain's capabilities, thus altering the personality and abilities of the individual.
Are we to believe that at the moment of death that personality is freed from the brain somehow and, what, reverts back to its peek functioning? Everything we understand about consciousness hinges critically on the brain functioning. If you get knocked out cold, it's not like you just lose control of your motor functions and are stuck inside your body, patiently waiting for your brain to reboot. You shut off. You wake up sometime later confused and disoriented.
All of the evidence we have at our disposal suggests that everything we understand about consciousness, our personalities, and our very understanding of existence is fundamentally reliant on the brain's functions, and those functions can be demonstrated to be purely physical. Neuroscientists can isolate specific areas of the brain that are responsible for various things, from moods to motor function, and stimulate them.
There is, however, absolutely no evidence that there is another element at play. A presence that inhabits the body independent of the brain's functions. People who have suffered brain damage and are unable to think, act, or feel as they once did don't retain those abilities somewhere, unusable. They lose them, because the brain lost them.