There is no soul in the Religious Context; which asserts that the soul is some kinda non-physical aspect of the self, with all the mental, psychological, and even physical elements of the physical self; some Casper the Ghost type shit. That’s some bullshit.
Religion even asserts that the Soul can feel pain; and that God will allow your soul to burn for all eternity if you fail to follow Gods laws, or accept Jesus Christ as you Lord and Savior, or if you have gay sex, or masturbate, or eat shell fish, or some other shit. That’s utterly absurd, but the soul was invented because people saw that the body decomposed after death, so they had to invent something that God could rule over and punish after death.
There is no aspect of yourself that any God can punish, abuse, or reward after you are dead. There’s no evidence of of a soul. There are many fantastic and frightening stories about the after-life, but none of them have been confirmed or validated.
Now, the soul in a non-religious, cultural context is real; it is the fusion of your personality, your intellect, your style, your values, all that you are; and how you express it. Being soulful is to be a complete person, to have all elements of yourself developed and expressed. Black people have “soul” so much “soul” we move soulfully, we interact with each other soulfully, we talk soulfully. Our souls live on in the people we touch in our lives.
So, I see soul as a way of describing a person’s presence, and their memory and impact after they are no longer with us, after going away or dying.
But that spooky, mystery soul that will be judged by some tyrannical God who claims to be about peace or love as he threatens you with eternal fire; that’s some bullshit, and we should not fear that bullshit.
