Yesterday, a friend of mine asked me a question that what do I think about the immortality of souls. Before questioning the immortality of souls, I said, I would question does soul exist? If yes, what is it made of? From our knowledge of materials, we know that everything in this universe is made up of different combinations of atoms. Take any body and you can disintegrate it to atoms (not literally of course). This suggests that soul too is made up of some combination of atoms. Now we also know that no combination of atoms is immortal. For instance, an oxygen molecule (O2) disintegrate or say react with other molecules to form something else. Here we can say that O2 molecule died and some other molecule emerged. In other words, one combination of atoms changed to some other combination of atoms. Our bodies are made up of atoms and when we die, it finally disintegrates into dust. This way, if soul is made up of some combination of atoms, it surely isn’t immortal (if at all it exist).
Quantum scientists Dr stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose has propounded a theory that soul is present in structures called microtubules in brain cells. According to this theory, microtubles stores information. When a person dies, this microtubules leaves the body. I would mark this hypothetical for there isn’t any reliable proof for the existence of microtubules. If they exist, there is no proof that they are immortal. It can be said that this theory is just another version of the myth, just replace the word ‘soul’ with a new word ‘microtubules’ which appears merely more scientific.
Up till now, I argued about immortality of soul when it has a physical form.What if soul doesn’t have a physical form? Lets look at the things we know that do not have any physical form. Memory, thoughts, feelings etc. None of this thing is immortal for sure. We lose our memory, thoughts or feelings when we die. Many people think of soul as our conscience. This belief of soul as conscience can be easily discarded. This is because the myth of soul is that, it enters a body at birth, dwells in it for whole life and then finally leaves the body at death. Soul doesn’t change or evolve or develop during the life. Soul is a rigid element according to the myth. Contradictory, conscience is say at level zero when you are just born. Your conscience develops throughout your life. The major factors that play role in the development of your conscience are the environment you live in, thoughts of people you interact with, books you read or simply putting, your upbringing. Inference is that soul is not your conscience or inner self. Forget the last few lines you read and say soul is conscience, then it is not immortal. Because when you die, your conscience die. There is nothing in which it can dwell. One might argue that ‘conscience’ dwells in space and then again at the appropriate moment, enters in another new born. Now if this is so, then every new born should have a developed conscience which is not seen. This clearly explains soul is not your conscience.
In short, if soul has a physical form, it cannot be immortal. If soul doesn’t have a physical form, it cannot be immortal.
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