I enjoy running Twitter polls and recently did one that was the closest one yet. It was about whether the immortality of the soul.
It began with the affirmative far in the majority and then slowly the gap got smaller and smaller. Eventually it became a virtual tie.
I need to clarify some terms. I don’t distinguish between soul and spirit. By soul, I mean that part of us that survives death.
The question is about whether the soul is immortal by nature or if it needs to made immortal by God.
This is an important conversation when it comes to the topic of hell. Those who believe in annihilation, now prefer the term, conditional immortality. This means they don’t see God destroying that which was already immortal but rather God withholds immortality to those who reject him.
This does not necessarily mean that all those who said that the soul is not intrinsically immortal believe in annihilation.
I suspect that for some, there is a concern that the immortality of the soul is an important from Platonism. Definitely there has been Platonic influence, especially through Augustine.
While the immortality of the soul is a common belief among Christians, I have not seen any support for the idea in the Bible. It is more of a philosophical idea than a biblical idea.
What do you think? Is the human soul intrinsically immortal?
Can you show that the soul exists at all? This would be the problem to solve before you try to claim it is immortal or not.
The discussion was within a Christian context, and so no I don’t have to establish the existence of the soul. That would be like me telling Muslims they can’t discuss Sharia law until they can first demonstrate that Muhammad received visions.