What is the difference between the soul and spirit? Are they the same thing? I don't know. I was born a Christian and still can't tell what hell the difference is. Do both the soul and spirit go in into the afterlife or just one? I would love for anyone who knows or thinks they know anything about this to shed some light. That would help us better answer the question of what the soul does in the afterlife I think, which is a very intersting topic.
I'm guessing if there is a God or supeme being then the soul simply takes orders from that being for eternity in the afterlife. If there is no God, then I'm not sure what the soul would do.
Spirit comes from spiritus (Latin) which means breath. It is the same root that we find in respirate (to breathe). The greek word for spirit (ie, a person's immortal life-force) was pneuma, which also means breath. It is the same root word that is found in pneumonia (a disease transmitted through respiration). In scriptures, at the creation of humans, God "breathed" life into them. Spirit, classically understood, is the animating principle found in all life.
However, as with the Greek concept of Pneuma, there was also the concept of Soul. This was not seperate from the spirit, and in many cases can be found to be nothing more than a synonym for spirit. In other instances, Soul is synonymous with Person. That is, we can speak about "soulmates" as two
persons who are meant to unite with one another. As with Pneuma, the Soul is both the animating principle of living things, but also the human person. In other words, human spirits are also souls.
The thing is, these two words, so synonymous, are often interchanged and used differently by different people at different times to describe different aspects of human life. Thus, the confusion between the two terms. For instance, we may say that after death, the soul enters into eternal life, the soul here referring to the person who has deceased. Yet, in other instances, we might say that we are spiritual creatures, again referring to our personhood. Really, in humans, the animating principle is also personal (that is, has intelligence and free will). Whether you want to call this a soul or a spirit is really irrelivant, for when talking about humans, it's the same thing, just different terms.
This happens a lot, particularly in English. The two terms, spirit and soul, don't originate from the same language. If they did, we might be able to make a deeper distinction between the terms. As it is, they originate from different languages, and so they can easily be understood to be the same thing, even if their meanings have ever-so-slight variations. For all intensive purposes, though, they're synonyms.
There is a different distinction that can be made. Some say that all living things have souls, but not spirits. Moreover, these same people would also say that angels and demons are 'pure spirits,' but would not call them souls. In this regard, the difference is that in one instance, the soul refers to nothing more than the animating principle of life, energy I suppose. In the other instance, spirit refers to personhood, or having intelligence and free will. In this sense, the terms are reversed. However, there is relatively little importance to this. Terms are simply that, terms. Expressions designed to communicate ideas. The generally universal idea about spirits and souls is that they are what animate us, and animals, and angels. The distinction is that in animals, it is an impersonal life-force. In humans, it is a personal one. In angels it is purely person, and does not "animate" matter (well, perhaps not necessarily).
I hope this helps.
On a side note, this principle of animation may actually be the observed energy itself, or something else which makes use of bodily energy. I make this second suggestion because there seems to be something missing when attempting to "energize" an unliving thing. It does not come to life. This may, or may not be accounted by the presence or absence of soul. I can't say. I'm merely making an observation.
