Envy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
exeggutorhead) wrote2013-08-28 01:04 pm
exeggutorhead) wrote2013-08-28 01:04 pm
47th Transformation [ANONYMOUS text | action for Mahogany]
[There's an anonymous message popping up on the network this afternoon. And I do mean anonymous; Envy has made as sure as he possibly can that nobody would be able to trace this question back to his Gear ID.]
What does it mean for someone to have a soul? In your world or in your religion or whatever you think. What does having one give you, or not having one keep you from doing?
how can you even tell if you have one?
[It'll be a little while before Envy actually responds to any answers, because two seconds after he hits 'send' and realizes what he's done, he chucks the 'Gear clear across his hotel room. Miraculously, it doesn't break the machine entirely, even if the screen gets cracked all to hell. He can't believe he even thought to ask something like that, much less actually went through with it. Since when did he start turning into Lust and asking ridiculous philosophical questions about the nature of existence? That's something he's always just rolled his eyes at and halfway tolerated, why does he feel the need to ask things like this now?]
[But this is a question that's bothered him for more than a year now, ever since he took that brief trip back to Amestris. Does he have a soul after all? And what the hell is he supposed to do with the thing if he does? Mostly he ignores it, leaves it alone as a doubt in the very back of his mind. But then during the last crazy weekend, Heather had been sure he had one, had brought that question back to the forefront. It's been months since then, and he still can't shake it off. And if he has to ask stupid questions to the network in his weakness, then...maybe the answers will let him push this back down into something he can manage.]
What does it mean for someone to have a soul? In your world or in your religion or whatever you think. What does having one give you, or not having one keep you from doing?
how can you even tell if you have one?
[It'll be a little while before Envy actually responds to any answers, because two seconds after he hits 'send' and realizes what he's done, he chucks the 'Gear clear across his hotel room. Miraculously, it doesn't break the machine entirely, even if the screen gets cracked all to hell. He can't believe he even thought to ask something like that, much less actually went through with it. Since when did he start turning into Lust and asking ridiculous philosophical questions about the nature of existence? That's something he's always just rolled his eyes at and halfway tolerated, why does he feel the need to ask things like this now?]
[But this is a question that's bothered him for more than a year now, ever since he took that brief trip back to Amestris. Does he have a soul after all? And what the hell is he supposed to do with the thing if he does? Mostly he ignores it, leaves it alone as a doubt in the very back of his mind. But then during the last crazy weekend, Heather had been sure he had one, had brought that question back to the forefront. It's been months since then, and he still can't shake it off. And if he has to ask stupid questions to the network in his weakness, then...maybe the answers will let him push this back down into something he can manage.]
[Anon Text, but not nearly as well anonified]
To have a soul means that there is an aspect of a being that is able to transcend the physicality of the body, that isn't bound by the body's basic needs. There's a lot of theological arguments across religions in my world about the nature of the soul and whether those besides humans have them. I personally think that it is your soul, since it is what survives the body, that allows you entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whether or not I myself have a soul is a question that has never been answered, and, since I cannot tell definitely what a soul looks or feels like, I don't know how to tell if you have one or not.
[anon text]
I'm not so sure about whether that whole surviving the body thing has much to do with me. Or maybe it does, it gets complicated there. What about emotions, do you think having a soul has an impact on whether you can feel those or not?
[That's one of those things he's been getting a few mixed answers about. And if this other person isn't sure either, Envy is especially curious about the answer.]
[anon text]
I'm inclined to say that the soul does have an impact on how one experiences emotions, especially since emotions are heavily connected to moral choices and the agency needed to make them. One of my philosophers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, claimed that the soul is what gives humans a conscience, that endows humanity to think above the body's basic passions. I cannot say if this is entirely true because I do like to think that I am able to tell right from wrong, but I have been wrong about my moral compass many times in the past.
[Look, through the power of anon, France has actually pretty much confessed to being wrong occasionally. This is monumental in its own way.]
[anon text]
I've always thought of a soul as something that lets you feel emotions or make connections with people at all. Things like me aren't supposed to have them.
As for that philosopher...choices are easy to make even if you can't feel anything about them, you just need to have the mind to make them. For right and wrong, I guess you'd need emotions to really know the difference, but those can be learned from observation too.
["My philosophers" sticks out to Envy after a minute; he nearly overlooks it, he's spent so much time with France that it doesn't sound odd to him. He decides to let it go for now, but the seed's been planted.]