Oblivion?
Are we destined for oblivion? Is death the end of it all? Is our life on earth no more than 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'? Is there an immortal soul?
Let's look at this crucial question in a reasonable manner.
As human beings we are capable of rational and logical thought and behaviour.
Often we prefer not to exercise ourselves unduly in this regard, especially in an age which depends increasingly on audio-visual inputs, a cut-and-paste mentality and quick fixes. Consequently, our judgements and decisions are often seriously flawed, and our lives built on "shonky" foundations.
Thinking about thought
Nonetheless, we are beings who can think about the abstract, and reflect upon the immaterial, including thought itself. We can recognise and get worked up over that which is not! Take the atheist who denies the existence of God, the person who denies immortality, and the mathematician who deals with the concept of the negative.
These are amazing feats, impossible to a purely material brain which is informed only by its physical senses and some genetic programming.
There needs to be enshrined within each human being a principle which enables it to do this.
Because this principle is capable of apprehending and making sense of the immaterial, the negative and the abstract, it has necessarily to be as immaterial as the abstract and reflexive thought it engages in (eg: reflexive thinking about thought, thinking about values, about the abstract and even about that which is not).
The immaterial principle within
Such a principle could not be composed of parts. It must necessarily transcend matter, and be as immaterial as the ideas and concepts it deals with.
Because it is not composed of parts, it is not subject to the bodily breakdown and disintegration that follows death.
It does not die, but lives on, whether we want it to or not.
Many refer to this principle as the human soul.
You may well ask, "Where does the soul come from?" "Does it spring from the matter which it transcends?"
The wise among us say that the existence of the human soul points to the existence of Some One who created it.
I am sure that you are wise too.