Wowsa.
/dumbstruck

I suppose that if the soul proportionately covers the entire the worm, then cutting it in half wouldn't change a thing, in that they would both be wriggling around, and both have a proportionate amount of soul, and then one of them would turn into bird poop. It's after that happens that I'm flummoxed.

What's a soul? I've never really figured that one out, so I can't answer this.

It goes to back to the soul pool.

The great big swimming pool of souls...of something like that.

Or the worm's cells have soul-ullar memory and its soul travels underground with it.

Not that I really have any clue.

The God of Worms, being omnivermiform, is well equipped to deal with such conundrums. Do not fret. Worm souls are infinitely able to subdivide and become new souls, as in the famous Platonic ideal worm dialogues, in which one worm says, "Wowza! I'm twins now!" and the other worm says, "Yeah, how about that?" and they go their separate wormy ways. And thus the souls of worms are as recyclable as the compost in which they thrive: all hail the god of worms!

the worm's soul automatically becomes the property of James Brown. That's how he got so much.

I think you're assuming "souls" are equatable with bodies, or are singular entities. I might suggest that every time I touch my wife, or even brush up against someone in the grocery store, our souls intermingle, interchange. So I'd posit the chicken's and worm's souls have mingled, married, and so on, in adfintum.

The real question is, what are chickens doing strolling around your neighborhood without an escort?

Actually, you've stumbled upon the proof that there is no such thing as a soul.

If a Gentile converts to Judaism they are assumed to be in possession of a "Jewish soul," in other words one which was present when Moses came down from Sinai with the Tablets of the Law. I'm not sure what bearing has here, but perhaps it will be helpful.

(All the rest is commentary, now go and learn.)

Perhaps Jainism is in your future.

I agree with selfnoise, I have no idea what a soul is. But if we have them, I imagine they stick with us despite any sort of amputation, whether it be a worm who gets half eaten, or a pair of gangrenous legs that need to be removed. Also, I'm tempted to say that if you believe in souls, then identical twins must have them, depite the fact that they come from a split cell, right? But I feel that I sound like I'm trying to make a political point there that I am in no way trying to make, so don't read too far into that.

Worms are multi-soul-ular.
/that sounded funnier when I thought it.

everything is connected, so the half soul is whole too, but since the worm was a single entity, then the soul of the half is still the whole soul... if the two halves lived, going seperate ways, then the soul would become souls... anyway, those critters that can regrow major parts are lucky... no harm, no fowl? (wait, that should be "no fowl, no harm", but if everything is connected, then "even with fowl, no harm") (and apparently I should have considered sleep a long time ago, as I can't even understand myself)

Ah, mygothlaundry, how you tease and tantalize me with your wit.

Jain's Addiction.

I don't believe in souls, so I'm not really any help.

I'll just let myself out.

What if the worm is cryogenically preserved immediately after death? What happens to it's soul if it's eventually revived? Is it shit out of luck?

It's a myth that if you cut a worm in half it grows back in to two worms. The wormsoul, if there is one, resides in the part that can live independently; the other part is already dead and souless when it's severed, it just hasn't stopped moving yet.

Off to kill more joy!

Two possible answers:

(1) There are no souls.
(2) There is only one soul, and we all share it.

LLOYD: Hey my brother? Can I borrow a copy of your "Hey Soul Classics"?
J-MAN: No my brother, you have to go buy your own.

*whew*

What PinkStainlessTail said.

This post is making me hungry.

There is only one soul, and we all share it.

That's my belief.

I think the soul is like liquid. Like the water in the earth's atmosphere, soul is always moving around.

Think of the water. There is a finite amount of water in existence. Sometimes it's lifted to the sky as water vapor, forming clouds. Sometimes it coalesces and falls as rain or snow. Some falls into the ocean and watersheds, replenishing their volume. Some falls onto the land, pools in caves, gets bound up in soils, nourishes plants and is incorporated into their cells to be used for growth. Some is drunk and becomes part of us for a while; some is cried as tears. Some is pumped from a steel-handle pump in a desert campground. Some cools the core of nuclear power plants. Some washes the brushes of artists. Some washes the skin of the wounded. Some is distilled into finely crafted single-barrel bourbon.

No matter where the water is, what it's doing, it remains water. When combined in drops and pools and oceans, boundaries disappear. When splashed like sprinkler spray into discrete drops, it appears to have an individial identity. But given the chance to combine on a blade of grass, two drops will do that, through cohesion. The more drops fall close to it, the more cohesion there is, until it drops from the blade of grass, slips through the dirt and gravel, and joins the vast underground pools of water beneath our feet. Soul is like that.

Lots can happen to soul; but I don't think it has boundaries any more than water. While we are alive, our bodies are in possession of some of this soul. Some may evaporate from us, and some may be replaced, like the water we drink. But whatever escapes us continues a path back to cohesion.

The chicken will one day be eaten - whether by people, coyotes, or dermastid beetles -- as will the other half of the worm. And the soul within both will make a silvery path to cohesion...perhaps, then, evaporating, and going around again.

And I'm not even stoned.

I guess it depends on what you think a soul is. I suppose most people think of it as our personality, our memories, all those things that make us what we are that we can't point to or cut out with a scalpel.

I don't really think worms have any of those things. Worms don't seem to have much personality, much need for emotion and I shouldn't think they need to remember much of anything. Are worms proud when their worm children graduate from wormiversity? Do worms feel sad when their friends are eaten by the evil, evil chickens? Are worms happy when it rains?

I'm an atheist myself so I'm not much inclined to believe in souls but the idea of worms being happy makes me happy for some reason.

*hands gold bunny sticker to brainwith*
(for coherently and succinctly saying what I think my sleepy brain wanted to impart)

*wonders if taz eats worms, or identifies with mudpuppie's chicken*

Somehow reading the "recent comments" I read this comment by mygothlaundry

Aha. Now it makes sense. It's been bothering me for some time - it just seemed like a bizarre design flaw but now I understand. Thanks!

As being part of this thread. Which made me laugh a lot. Just had to share.

Dualism is stupid - Negativeville.

The wormsoul, if there is one, resides in the part that can live independently; the other part is already dead and souless when it's severed, it just hasn't stopped moving yet.

If I read this correctly, when you cut a worm in half, you are contributing to the creation of a zombie worm army. Just saying is all.

The simple answer is that souls are a human construct and don't exist.

On the topic of all one soul...

What happens if you step on the worm half with the sole of your shoe, do you have a souled sole or can you sell your soled soul?

One of my long time pet theories is that there is a finite amount of soul and the greater the population becomes, the less soul each person gets and, subsequently, the culture degrades and people become worse and worse to each other.

But then I remember that I'm an atheist and I go back to my default disbelief altogether.

This post is making me hungry

I hope it's not because you feel like nobody likes you and everybody hates you.

Are worms proud when their worm children graduate from wormiversity?

Would that be vermiversity?

I believe souls exist but beyond that all I can do is shrug.

ah! vermicelli! (^_^) *goes to eat*