Original title: "Yesterday I sold my soul on reddit. Today, let's examine the damage."
I first posted this on a debate sub, but it was removed. So I guess I'll just preach to the choir, seems like the right day for it. Maybe you find it interesting.
I'd like to thank u/Cryptostormz, the proud new owner of my soul, for starting this debate.
Thesis: If it turns out that souls are real, then as an atheist, selling it may be the best thing I ever did.
Thesis too: Nobody knows what "selling your soul" actually means in concrete terms, therefore it is meaningless. At best it's a symbolic concept unrelated to trade and human laws of ownership. What we think it means is only based on our fear and intuition. It sounds bad, but that's all it is.
I'm an atheist. If it turns out that souls and hell are real, I'm massively fucked anyway. But now, "my" soul is actually someone else's soul. And that someone else may be, or become, a good Christian. So when they die, why shouldn't their soul(s) go to heaven? It may be my only chance. I see no reason to assume selling your soul must always be a bad thing.
Let's say I die, and arrive at the gates of hell. They're like "we're going to torture your soul forever." Well sorry, but I don't have one of those. I used to, but it now belongs to a good Christian. I assume they took good care of it. Also they're still alive, so you can't just take it.
So now I'm in some kind of waiting room, curious to see what happens when that other person dies. Years and years later (damn that healthy living), someone arrives in heaven with two souls.
I guess my first question is, if my soul is now waiting at the gates of heaven, then what exactly is sitting in Hell's Waiting Room? (And occasionally nipping out to Hell's Kitchen for a snack, it's like two subway stops away.) I think that's a rhetorical question, because it's nothing. My body died, my brain disintegrated, most people who believe in a soul would agree that the soul is the only thing that remains of us after death. That may even be the definition of a soul.
I don't have much more to say about it, I honestly don't know how people think it works, and I suspect they don't know exactly either. My opinion: we don't know because it's made up, and the people who made it up don't really have a clue about the specifics either.
Some questions that occurred to me.
-Maybe I sold my soul "as is." You may own it, but can you tell it what to do? Why shouldn't it keep functioning the same as it always did? If you buy a watch, can you order it to run backwards? Can it refuse?
-If you own a pet, are you allowed to torture it or mistreat it? Does buying a soul come with responsibilities?
-Does my soul agree to being sold? Is buying and selling souls technically a form of slavery? Do we have a moral right to try to free ourselves from bondage? Do we have a right to change our minds?
-Can you own anything? For example, can you own land? It used to belong to nobody, until suddenly someone declared themselves the owner. Is it not just a mutual agreement between humans, a set of rules that we only follow out of convenience or under threat of force?
-What part of our being owns things? Is it our body, or our soul? Is "selling a seller" a coherent concept? Can half my body sell the other half? Or half my brain?
-Is ownership of a soul not simply a different concept than owning things you buy for money? Does "own" not just mean "is," i.e. I am a soul? Does the thing that "sold" its soul simply not exist apart from the soul?
