h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... yes, one might as well claim that plants grown from cuttings and plants conceived in the way nature intended differ in an important way ...



now do plants have souls? I think they ought to. there should be some sort of reward for standing out in the rain all that time.

breakfastlunchandtea

Do clones have soul?

Give one a saxophone and we'll soon find out.

A clone is an induvidual person, therefore it has a soul. Simple.

Wow. Dead conv.

now we must ask...what is a soul? does the existance of a soul only manifest itself in "living" matter? i.e., flora and fauna, or, since everthing is made of basically the same elements (third and fourth generation stars), does everything that exists posess a soul? plants and animals, i'd say definitely. but what about the inanimate? at least the inanimate to our way of seeing the universe.

When does animate become inanimate, and vice versa? Is a virus inanimate? When you look closely, there is no line between the two, they are the same thing. The concept of a 'soul' is a religious relic that simply hasn't gone away, even for people who do not subscribe to mainstream religion, it's that comforting.

Ste

so, you'd argue that say, air, water, even rocks are inanimate. if the defination we use is something that is in a state of flux is inanimate, then that would be the case. a virus is animate, athough it's very small, it still is a life form. ais, water, and rocks are not. but who's to say what does and does not have a soul. you are right, the notion of a soul is a manifestation of religous dogma. there must be something beyond that though. tests have determined that trees and other forms of veggie life possess a particular measurable life force. i.e., when you harm one, others feel the pain. this surely must be the souls reaction...after all, everthing is made up from the same material. just arranged differently.

The one truly important question everyone here is missing...

Do souls have clones? How can you be certain that one of our less sane gods hasn't gone around cloning people's souls and bestowing the same spiritual composition on thousands of people at random?

Just kidding.

actually, that's not such an outlandish idea. i beleive they even have a name...the christian coalittion...with jerry falwel as the soul-clone donar...gad zooks! that's a horrifying thought! i need my vapors....whew...i had a horrible nightmare last night. i dreamt that this maniac named george bush was our president, and he gave a truly insidious speech outlining his intent to merrily lead us down a path that will result in our collective ruination. let me tell you, it was bone-chilling. to tie this in with soul-cloning, he was one of falwels goon-souls, arisen from dantes 7th circle. bad, bad dream...

Eh. We've been ruined for about 200 years now.

So what you are saying is that it is okay to murder an unborn clone for your convenience.

Yep.

Exactly. Clones are just identical twins. No-one has ever been able to produce any evidence that the 'soul' exists anyone, cloned or uncloned.

Hooray.

Everything created by God has a soul and clones were not created from God

does anyone konw anything about the Bahai Faith

As men and women can be differentiated by X and Y chromosomes, so clones can be distinguished as an A-soul or an R-soul.

Hmm... tough one...
I think that whether they did or not may prove the existence of God. If you say that the soul is like the Atman in Hinduism, then yes it will, bcos every animal, rock, object has the life force of the Atman - anything on earth has that (in hindu belief). Then again, it could just be the part that tells a human whats right or wrong, in which case, how would you tell? In which case, how can you tell that anyone has one?
My personal answer to that question has to be no, they don't. But I also think that the claim that one is soon to be born or has been born is bogus.
In any case, don't you think that its unfair to the child thats born, knowing that they had an unnatural birth? I wouldn't want that hanging over my head, is it right to do that to a living breathing creature? Let alone a human?

"Let alone a human"
What makes humans any different from other living, breathing creatures? (Since there's no such thing as a soul (at least not that anyone can prove convincingly here) that doesn't count as a difference.)

Why wouldn't they have a soul? Every human has a soul, and maybe even animals, who knows? But just because clones are artificially created doesn't mean they're not human or don't have souls. Test tube babies have souls!

I erased that line about 6 times, but couldn't think of any other way to put it. But if u read the rest of my message, I do say that we're equal....So don't be so picky!!!!
And I don't think anyones said that only humans could have souls.
I don't think souls are something that can be proved, I think there something that has to be believed, and its up to each person to decide on that.