Question:

What evidence have you for the existence of a metaphysical soul outside
the Bible? Where is the soul located? Where absolute proof is
unavailable, we should be able to proceed on the basis of the balance of
evidence. For example, if a person is standing at a bus stop and a bus
comes along and they are no longer at the stop, it should be
circumstantial proof that they got on the bus. 1.Do you agree? When a
miracle is involved, we should look for a non-miraculous explanation and
if there is one, we should give it greater credence than the miraculous
one, since we have no day-to-day experience of the suspension of the
“normal” laws of cause and effect. 2) Do you agree? The same goes
for the metaphysical. If there is a non-metaphysical explanation for a
phenomenon, we should accord it greater weight than the metaphysical
explanation, for the non-metaphysical we know in our everyday lives and
the metaphysical is a hypothesis. 3) Do you agree?

Answer:

Direct evidence: none! Zero! I have absolutely no direct evidence of
heaven, that Jesus will come back, that there will be a judgment day,
etc… Such things are to be believed by the indirect evidence of the
inspiration of the Bible. The basic claims of Christianity are
established by the fulfillment of messianic prophecy, by the evidence for
the resurrection, the evidence that Jesus worked miracles, etc. If it can
be shown that Jesus raised from the dead, if it can be shown from evidence
such as my book From Shadow to Reality (www.ipibooks.com) that the Bible
is inspired by God and that Jesus was who he said he was, then it is
established by deduction (but I totally confess not by direct evidence)
that there is a soul.

I could mention subjective “evidence,” but will not, as I am sure you will
find such evidence to not be valid.

I do not know where the soul is located. I would speculate that location
may not be a useful word for a soul–that a soul exists outside of space,
and possibly even outside of time. However, if I were to be honest, I
would have to say I simply do not know. Is a soul somehow located in/near
a person in physical space? I do not know. Obviously, the Bible does not
answer this question. As I said a couple of e-mails ago, my belief in a
soul is not scientific, but based on faith in the Bible. Therefore, for
me to provide an answer is to speculate. I find that many believers and
theologians get in big trouble when they speculate. I did hint that I
believe there are certain indirect evidences for a soul, but such evidence
is not admissible in our (yours and my) intellectual court, so I do not
bother to bring it up. That is a great question, by the way. I apologize
that I cannot answer it.

Of course I agree with #1

I also agree with #2 (like I say in my book, Reasons for Belief)

I do not agree with #3, as some things are metaphysical, and to assume a
physical explanation is not logical and is not likely to give the best
answer. The soul is not physical. The spirit is not physical. God is
not physical, yet all these things are real. To assume against the
metaphysical in this case would be to apply circular reasoning?arguing
against the existence of something because you assumed it does not exist.
This is to make the materialistic/naturalistic assumption. A DEFINITE
NO on this one. If there were no non-physical reality, then of course
your advice #3 would not work. However, in a discussion of whether there
is a non-material reality, one begins by assuming the answer, that would
be very poor reasoning.

John Oakes

John Oakes