What is a soul? How do you define the concept of a "soul"? What are the criteria that an object must meet to be considered of having a soul?

I think from most people's perspective, being an object probably immediately disqualifies anything from being a soul.

A soul is just like... what seperates us from others and why we are who we are and not someone else.

Like synapses in your brain?

Granted, but I know that some beliefs hold that even rocks and mountains have their own souls, so I was trying to sound all-inclusive by saying "object" instead of "creature" or "person."

I think anything living has a soul. A soul, too me, is like...Batteries...and you're body is like the...Battery operated thing...

A soul is like the driving force in a creature's body, and when the body dies for good, the soul leaves the body.

Actually, the Hebrew word for "soul", nephesh, literally means "life" or "breath", and according to the Old Testament, animals can have nephesh. So I have no problem at all with attributing souls to animals.

However, there is something distinctly unique to human beings, in that we bear God's own image (and God has born ours in his Incarnation). This makes us unique within the scheme of creation.

I have one question though - what about when the body dies (brain dead) and then comes back to life? It's happened in animals.

This is an amazing question. I love it. However, it's really hard to answer. I have this idea in my head, about what I soul is, but it's so hard to verbalize what I am thinking.

I've always thought of a soul as something deep within yourself. It kind of exists on a more spiritual plain. Your soul guides you through life, helping you make decisions, and is there for you when you truely need it. When you talk to yourself in your head, you're talking to your soul. Your soul also knows when you've met that special someone, and it lets you know. That's called love. Hence...soulmates. When you die, your body ceases to exist, but your soul lives on forever.

Saaaappy. But its what I believe

Hmmm, for some reason I disagree with animals having souls. I think a soul must be able to comprehend the universe and to know God, and animals can't really do that.

I have one question though - what about when the body dies (brain dead) and then comes back to life? It's happened in animals.

f. Sometimes it is claimed that when people die, their body loses 21 grams of weight. This loss is supposed to be the weight of their soul, which is liberated from their body by death. (This is a line from the movie “21 Grams.”) If we assume that the released soul exists in the form of energy, the energy in question would be the equivalent of 451.5 kilotons of TNT (since, as we have seen, each gram of matter, converted to energy, is equivalent to 21.5 kilotons of TNT ). In other words, each time a Daytonian died (assuming that he hadn’t previously sold his soul) the resulting release of energy would pretty much flatten Montgomery County.

Interesting...

Too bad it's a load of bollocks. The human body does NOT lose 21 grams when it dies. That's just an urban myth.

Hmmm, for some reason I disagree with animals having souls. I think a soul must be able to comprehend the universe and to know God, and animals can't really do that.

Something I plan to expound on later when I'm not drowning in Accounting Financial exams on bonds and journalizing taxes--do souls have an observable link to quantum physics theories?