I had a thought about the soul when I was out on my walk this morning and now I have some serious questions for #Christians.

There seem to be a lot of contradictions floating around in descriptions of what a soul is, who/what has one, when they get it, and why abortion is bad. I don't mean this as ridicule - this is a challenge to those who would force religious-based policy on the general population to offer a strong justification for their doctrine.

To keep it simple, this is directed *only* at those who believe all human beings have a soul.

• *What* is a soul? I have my own idea, and I looked at Wikipedia to get another perspective, now I'm coming to you for your interpretation. A decent definition is essential before considering the following questions.

• If a soul is instilled at conception, do identical twins share a soul? Or does God stick two in there, because he already knows the fertilized egg will become twins?

• Does God put a soul into every fertilized egg, including those that will only last for a few cell divisions before miscarriage? Do frozen embryos have a soul? (A *lot* of IVF clinics in states where abortion has been criminalized are really interested in knowing the legal view on this)

(I’m going for edge-case scenarios, as the regular situation of a person being conceived and then born without complications seems pretty clear-cut... for now)

A few hashtags for the discussion: #Religion #Soul #Abortion #ProLife #ProChoice