The magazine Bilim ve Gelecek dedicated its August cover and special feature to the question Does the Soul Exist? Alaeddin Şenel’s article The Epistemology of the Soul is very satisfying and forms the backbone of the issue. What follows, however, are conclusions that the soul does not exist because it cannot be scientifically proven, which, in my view, treat the subject rather lightly.
While reading this feature, I inevitably pondered the soul. In Islam as well as in other divine and non-divine religions, the soul is defined as a metaphysical concept independent of the body, believed to continue its existence after death (sometimes even before). If the soul undergoes an evolution, and if this occurs through the body’s experiences in the world, then we cannot think of the soul as being independent of time. However, once separate from the body, time may lose its significance.
The matter of space is more complex. If we suppose that the soul continues to exist after death, then this must be not in our material world but in a realm where only souls can exist. A soul independent of space would find a place for itself in this spiritual realm according to its degree of progression. If we take the rough common ground of existing beliefs, we can speak of a pyramid: as one ascends the pyramid, souls of higher degrees (perhaps even God) also encompass the knowledge and comprehension of those below them. But this pyramid is not a physical structure; rather, it must be a dimension that I find difficult to describe precisely—perhaps a dimension of nestedness, where the higher contains the lower within itself.
Of course, none of what I write here can be proven; these are matters left to faith. Still, I see that this conception of the soul contains logical flaws. If the soul truly is independent of space, then while a person is alive, as their body moves, the soul should not be moving along with it. In other words, if my soul accompanies me as I walk from room to room, this indicates that it is not actually independent of space. And a soul that depends on time and space would require physical proof.