What Do Humanists Think about the Soul and Immortality?
We are constantly learning more about the interrelationships of mind and body, intellect and senses, genes and DNA, and the effect of inheritance and early living environment. We realize more fully how wonderfully sensitive and intricate is the human nervous system. No longer is it necessary to explain our best thought and feeling as the result of an inner light. There just does not seem to be any evidence of, or any need for, an immaterial soul or spirit. Some humanists do, however, use the term “soul” as a poetic metaphor. Deep and important life-giving feelings are often spoken of as spiritual. Immortality implies the existence of a soul, a soul which can be separated from the body. We know of no humanists who believe in a dualism of soul and body. Humanists do believe most thoroughly, however, in the kind of immortality which flows from the effects on others in the way one lives, effects which often continue long after we have perished. In giving up the idea of life after death, we
