The soul doesn't exist, it's a facade. Some people just can't cope with the idea of mortality, so they invented the soul. The idea is also handy for religions who want to guilt/scare people into acting a certain way. When you die, you die. It's pretty simple.
We attribute a bunch of stuff to the soul that is just the action of our bodies. Thus I consider how ling this particular semantic device lives to be a moot point.
Almost everyone of us is wishing that the soul is immortal - that means we can live eternally and not vanish when we die. I sometimes think that the soul is not immortal because we die when the soul dies. What is immortal is the spirit which is the embodiment of our consciousness. A person in coma has the soul but not the spirit anymore since he has no more consciousness. I may not be correct but that's how I see the soul, just a part of the physical body - so much like the computer with the hardware and the software.
It's possible the soul is immortal, but that doesn't mean it remembers the previous lives. Often a soul doesn't because they can't learn if they have prejudices or have had bad experiences. That's why some people may have triggers of things they feel they recognize, unexplained phobias and also why they prefer certain things. It's subconscious, so we don't remember, but the soul maybe drawn to things. Being immortal is scary to some people, because it means that karma does exist and any dubious dealings will be atoned for. Some simply don't want to believe in this so they can continue how they live and not fear any consequences.
I'm not really sure, a part of me thinks like this because I'm afraid to just die and disappear, but imagine how many souls there will be there at this moment, for what propose? Another world/civilization? I need to read more theories about this topic.
Satan has us all deceived, and so we ignore the truth and immerse ourselves in the material world which we are told evolved from a big bang, and is a ball whirring through infinite space faster than a bullet among a myriad of planets and galaxies, solar systems and milky ways making us an insignificant spec among the endless dust of space. Whereas in reality, it is the exact opposite. We are intricately and marvelously formed by a wholly magnificent Creator in His own image, and earth is a flat un-moving plane that was created in 6 days, not evolved. It doesn't spin nor hurtle through space, it has a firmament above, Van Allen Belt ..so NO we didn't go into space or to the moon we don't even have satellites in space or an international space station, The Apollo (Apollyan The angel of the abyss) missions were fake, hence why we have no video or pictures of the 'globe' from space. etc etc...Just look at the horizon for goodness sake, is it flat or curved? If we live on a ball 24,000 miles in circumference the horizon should drop app 8" each mile, I can look at 50 mile stretch of the horizon and not see the slightest deviation from level, can you?
>>I can look at 50 mile stretch of the horizon and not see the slightest deviation from level, can you?<< Actually, yes I can. I take it you are not a trim carpenter or billiards player.
I believe that souls are immortal. We all have souls, and our bodies are just the houses of our souls. In my religion, we believe that after we die, our souls travel to heaven if we were good on Earth.
I've always had a hard time accepting that we are more than just a body to begin with, but I think that in the end we will all go to the same place, though I have no idea if that is a nonexistent place, Heaven, Hell, or something else all together.