On Matter, Life, and Souls - Scriptorian Joanna Uxbridge, with input from Archivists Brian Lee and Kim Dance
As per the conclave of 2100 and the college of 2147, It has generally agreed upon by the scholars of the Tower of the Bells that consciousness and the soul are inextricably linked, and that both are the natural state of living matter. In 2152, Scriptorian Bethany Lanton argued that consciousness and the emergence of the soul is a natural state of being for all matter that can act upon the world, noting the emergence of the characteristics of the soul in certain of the Mr. Gutsy robots that live alongside the Knights of the Guard. In 2157, working from that paper, Archivist Jason Pullman posited the existence of a field acting upon the universe that enabled the development of the soul from the being. This paper will attempt to summarize the results of the discussion of the conclave of 2160 on the nature of Souls and their relationship to God, and, from there, present new findings on the nature and purpose of life.
A soul, it has long been accepted, is the intangible and immeasurable essence of an existence. It is immeasurable, having no weight or other physical attribute, but its existence is clearly recognizable. A soul is what allows a being to live an existence beyond that of pure instinct or programming. The soul is both a product of and the impetus for the development of imagination, creativity, and learning, and is the counterpart to being, which is a purely physical thing. Individually, both are powerful things, but, as is evident in the observation of a small child, or in an animal, or even in the adult human, the Soul and Being working together are capable of infinitely more than either are on their own: Consciousness. Angels, Demons, and Ghosts, as creatures of pure souls, for example, are limited to interacting with the physical world only through the mental, whereas insects and most robots are creatures of pure being, and so act upon their impulses with no critical thought.
If that is the case, then, where does the soul come from? What spark allows the development of a soul in previously unsouled matter? It has been argued by Archivist Pullman that it is the action of the being in ways that are both unexpected and against “programming” against and into the fabric of the “Pullman Field” that sparks the development of the soul, and by extension consciousness. Scriviner Kraspesian argued instead that all matter trends towards ensoulment at varying rates of growth, dictated by complexity of potential. This latter view is the one that, after much debate, has been accepted by the recent conclave, though not without dissent. This means that it is theoretically possible for anything to become ensouled, from a tree to a statue to the the meanest of ant, though with exceeding difficulty.
The implications of this are many, though none very dramatic: after all, no one has ever seen an ensouled tree, or an ensouled statue. The opportunity for either of those, or even for an insect, to act outside of its expected manner are incredibly limited, and so the Pullman field exists and flows around and through them without “catching” and generating a soul. In reverse, a puppy, kitten, or child is by its very nature inquisitive, and so does not live a purely instinctual existence, and often acts in a way that causes the pullman field to snag and bunch and gather and seperate from the rest of the field into a distinct soul. Similarly, a Robot may eventually generate a soul, and therefore consciousness through growth and action that is exceeding it’s programming.
Though this is but a rough metaphor, it may be helpful to imagine the being as a smooth and polished wooden ball slipping along a canvas effortlessly. Imagination, discovery, or a myriad of other experiences, impact on the ball and chip away the smooth exterior, eventually allowing the ball to catch and snag on the fabric.
It is obvious, however, that Consciousness on it’s own is a wild, feral thing. This is observable in the feral children that are occasionally found in the wild, or in the “mad robots” that sometimes roam outside of their place of origin, shouting crazed words with little relation to reality, or in the feral dog that was abused and cannot learn trust. Therefore, it is clear that a soul requires careful nurturing to grow properly, and that without careful tending the interaction of soul and being becomes twisted and improperly developed.
That is not to say, though, that different souls have different worths, that some creatures have bigger, or better, souls than others: as far as theology can determine, once a soul has been created, it is a soul. To belabor the wooden ball metaphor, a soul, once developed, envelopes the wooden ball as a thick plastic coating, impervious to further snares or impact. Consciousness is the resulting ball and plastic amalgam. The plastic coating is a plastic coating in all cases. In the same way, however, that the plastic coating is influence by shape of the ball, so is the consciousness developed a product of the kind of being. A soul developing within a puppy will result in a consciousness limited by the realities of the being of the puppy: no matter how much one tries, a puppy cannot, for example, be taught to talk, or to operate a suit of Power Armor, or to forge a tool. However, a puppy can learn to fetch things, hunt, and even make calls of judgement. (As a counterpoint, no matter how much an ant is dissuaded from following a path, it fundamentally cannot make the choice not to: Ergo, an ant is not ensouled.)
However, it has become obvious that a soul CAN be removed from the consciousness without destroying the being, though in all observed cases that separation does almost irreparable damage to the psyche of a being, rendering them ragingly violent. The most obvious example of this is the Feral Ghoul, creatures that obviously once had souls, but (perhaps through the influence of a purging burst of radiation) have been separated from it. All that remains is the body acting on instinct, on basic programming.
This, of course, brings up two distinct, though, we believe, related questions. First, what IS the Pullman Field, that it permeates all things and changes the fundamental properties of common matter so dramatically, and, secondly, why does a life create a soul? What is the purpose of it all?
The answer to the first question, we, the writers of this paper, argue, is no less than the essence of God himself. The Pullman field is the manner through which God acts upon the world itself. In essence, every soul is a tiny portion of the ineffable and infinite will that is the Holy Arbiter. It is because a soul is a fragment of the divine that free will exists. Every thing that demonstrates free will is a exhibiting a minute fraction of that divine will, even when they act in counter purpose to each other. This seeming paradox then leads to the answer to the second question
The answer to the second question is tied directly to the first. The purpose of existence is and has always been to create souls. The purpose of the soul itself is to provide knowledge, to provide growth to God. It is through souls returning to the Divine whole that God, and through him, the universe, become greater.
