Sensation

Humanity is the effect of many causes. It is the effect of an environment, and innumerable lucky coincidences, yet somehow, we have invented for ourselves a greater identity than that of the automatons which reason may lead us to be. The concepts of individuality, pathology, consciousness and the soul are all sentimental fabrications with little evidence to support their realizations. For many the answer has been simple:"I think, therefore I am." In many instances the simple solution is correct; this is not among them. To say that thought alone is reason to allow for the existence of an ethereal dimension would bind us to make absurd concessions regarding the soul of "thinking" machines.1

Suppose that machines, created by mankind, which are able to make decisions when given certain datum, are thinking. After all, is not the ability to decide the lone distinguishing attribute of thinking creatures? One could easily argue that because computers are reliant on the programming which we dictate to them that they do not think, but rather that our thoughts and our rules are executed within their inanimate circuitry. However, as the majority of faiths adhere to creationist principles, this makes mechanized consciousness feasible. If a created substance, as mankind, may have a soul, then another, as computers, may have the same. Yet we must first consider further what thinking is lest we come to ill conclusions.2

Human thought is a fickle entity. With the science of psychology we have been able to find irrefutable trends which show that environment plays an invaluable role in the formation of personalities. This alone contradicts any belief that we are born with a soul, or at least an identifiable soul. With the advent of psychiatry we may now use chemicals to alter the "wiring" of people's brains to medically change the way they think. This ability seems to transcend our bounds, allowing us to "play God". As human ability expands it becomes our responsibility to decide to which goals we should endeavor for the most universally benign outcome. If we were to believe that human nature, the nature of the soul, should hold ultimate authority, then mental illness should go unmedicated and criminals unpunished for it is only natural. As we have chosen to correct what we see as erroneous programs in errant software, so we have chosen to aspire to the correction of erroneous aspects of society through the creation of bodies of government, trade, and purposefully benign invention. On occasion, humanity has strayed from natural urges; this seems to show signs of a soul. For instance one can consider birth control, abortion, even euthanasia. Here we have gone against the empathy which our natural souls beget us. For us to deny our natural allotment is to show that our soul, should it exist, is subordinate to reason, should their goals conflict. And yet again we have returned to the autonomous homo scapea. With the ultimate goal being the immortality of forty-six chromosomes, all our actions may be justified. We strive for technology to better the lives of ourselves and our posthumous children. We strive for peace to remove the likeliness of war, the killing of our species. We find love in a life partner to guarantee a method of procreation. By these we are machines. It is unnecessary for us to attribute ourselves a spirit if our goal is materially attainable. In time it has grown apparent that no epoch of invention will be able to satiate our lusts for unbound procreation. Our fantasies of personal immortality are expressed in our desire to be remembered, in our creation of monuments and in our literary and cultural traditions. For millenia this desire has been essential to the development of our species,yet this necessity has recently dissipated. As our material desires have been more clearly defined, their attainment has become less necessary. Time is now better spent in defining our philosophical goals, and aspiring to their ends. This need, a desire of the non-physical, seems to have no natural benefit. In striving for psychological contentment, we show again potential for the syllogical existence of the soul. In nature a rock may "choose" when to split and fall, but never when to pick itself up. As it is natural for the rock to fall, its "choice" to do so does not require complex desire. Yet the rock will never desire to return to its previous state. No appealing vista or pride in its previous facade may ever lead to its own assembly and reinstatement. This is where humanity is divided from mechanized nature. As not every human desire is directly derived from nature, we do have something within us which is separate from nature. The desire of lifelong chastity in extremist faiths, of silence for the sake of nobility and of holiness. Although these desires are only found in a few, this few is disproportionately inflated for it to be considered anomalous. Here our desires have exceeded the animalistic drives of physical sensation. We do not need to experience orgasmic or euphoric states to reach a point of satisfaction. Hunger, thirst, emotion. None of these prove a soul. Our soul exists because we are an unnatural body. We are an abstraction of what is nature, what is only good in nature. Denial of earthly pleasures, finding pleasure in life-risking behavior, these and other unnatural yet reasonable drives are what separate the thinking from the living. We are physically and spiritually alive. Perhaps we are not alone in this duality, but our inquest is limited to ourselves, and unlimited within our minds.