Body and Soul

At around 428 BC a boy was borne into a Greek Patrician family and because he showed great intelligence early in life, he was sent to the finest school.
One of his teachers was Socrates and it was from this Greek Philosopher, that he, Plato, got the idea of the existence in Man of a Soul.
Along with Socrates, Plato postulates the existence of a three part soul..

1.) Appetitive : controlling Basic Instincts. ( plus others )
2.) Rational  : controlling the Want of Truth and Wisdom ( plus )
3.) Spirited  : controlling Self Preservation ( plus others )

Socrates and Plato simply decided that there must be a Soul, without, of course, being able to present any evidence for its existence. Looking at the logic need for the existence of an immortal soul, their arguments are also non-logical.
Opposite Forms, Plato finds, cannot exist within the same object: The same object cannot be large and small at the same time. Since the Soul comes to life because it is part of Life, it cannot also be part of Death. Therefore the Soul must be immortal.
Since, however, the concepts of 'large' and 'small' are concepts of comparison, an object may well be both. A warrior's shield may well be large when compared to a coin, but be thought of as very small when compared in size to the wheel of a chariot.
If a Soul comes to life at conception of human Life, why can it not also die at the end of human Life?

In any event, since neither Socrates, nor Plato, nor anybody else has succeeded in demonstrating the existence of a Soul either through evidence, nor through logical deduction, it is pointless to speculate upon its immortality.
Socrates concepted the existence of a Soul out of whole cloth and Plato simply bought into this supposition.

Now, we move about 1600 years into the future and the development of Christianity is in full swing.
St. Thomas, in 1311, ( Council of Vienne ) defines, as of faith, that the Rational Soul is one with the Appetitive and the Spirited Soul.
This three part Soul exists in the body and makes up human nature.

The study of the Soul has vexed many a Philosopher and Theologian. There are about as many interpretations as there are Philosophers.
Sometimes the differences are fundamental and sometimes they are insignificant.

On one thought Christianity is unanimous: The Soul is immortal. The Soul must be immortal, since if it were not, Christianity would have to close up shop.
Without an immortal Soul, there would be no Life after Death, there would be neither Heaven nor Hell, nor Purgatory.
The incontrovertible evidence is that the human BODY is NOT immortal. Therefore what is it which goes to Heaven or to Hell ?
The belief that on Judgement Day, the Resurrection of human flesh and blood rises to either place is so absurd that only very few fanatical Christians still believe in this phenomenon.

Now, I ask you  Is there such a thing as A SOUL ?
If there is, is it just the carrier of our conscience ?
Will it die when our body dies?
Or is it immortal, and at the instance of our death goes to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory ?

Or did Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and along with them, before and after, many other thinkers just come up with something out of their imagination, something for which they had absolutely no proof either through direct observation or through true logical deduction ?

I think they all were dreaming in technicolour.

Bertstravels