religion and your views on your dolls.

Test-tube babies are humans' way of recreating a natural process, so you can't call them souless man-made object. I do talk to my stuff toys and possibly will do so to my future BJDs. But, that does not mean he/she has a soul. I give them a gender, but not a personality because humans I talked to can't understand me, so I made them the ideal companions. They can only agree, can't talk back and tell me what I want to hear, to me that is not a real personality.

 

I guess I'll start my response to this with I'm very much an atheist, but I do believe in souls in the sense it's that it is the name human's have given to the little spark of energy/life force that we have yet to really discover/answer in an understandable way. And like the rules of energy you can't destroy it, it can only be changed or transferred (can be read as incarnation if wished.).

However that said I don't believe my dolls have souls or are alive. Plants are alive, but not a rock. The difference is cells (a living and self functioning thing) instead of just elements, (which are non living or self functioning). A doll is made of plastic, which is a combination of elements. People are made of tissue which is a combination of cells. For me since a soul is a life force or energy not yet fully understood by science, a doll or toy of any kind cannot have a soul. (Yet, I do hope that some day in the future science can not only identify the "soul" but can harness it, and maybe someday Toy Story can be real, however I hope it doesn't turn into Small Soldiers. Yay plastic revolt! XD)

Doesn't mean I don't like my dolls or hug them, as I do. I even talk to them, though I like to inform those around me that I am not crazy I know my doll isn't real it's just fun to rp with the character it's supposed to represent.

And I guess also to reply to some of the more controversial parts of the op, I will same that comparing a doll to a test tube baby, is not only completely abstract and off base, (again a cells verses elements.) And a bit offensive to anyone who may have trouble giving birth on their own without the help of science. A doll is not and could never be a replacement or stand in for a human or a child. And it's demeaning to people to even hint as such in this reference.

And this view also applies to comparing a doll to a human vegetable. Though I believe a person who cannot sustain life on their own physical processes isn't alive, they were once alive, unlike a doll. Hence why their life can be propped up by machines. A doll can not be giving life by machines at this time, it can be given movement or voice, but not life.

 

Guess I'll pop in and state my opinion, even though it seems to be the less popular one.

I do believe that my dolls have souls. And it makes me sad when I hear of people who hardly ever play with their dolls and store them in a closet. But the reason it upsets me is not because I fear for the dolls happiness, but because the potential that the doll has isn't being brought out. You see, to me, anything can have a soul (soul, spirit, spark of life, whatever you wish to call it). A computer, certain game systems, toys, and dolls. If you name something, give it a personality and life it will grow and love you back. So the fact that some doll owners don't talk to and hug their dolls only bothers me because their doll can be so much more than just a piece of art. If you let him/her they can be a friend and a companion.
I've had my first doll, Errol, for about 5 months now. He's got some discoloring on him, his face up's chipping and he has scratches on parts of him. This is because I'm constantly loving him-giving him hugs and cuddles, letting him sit on my lap so he can see the computer or TV, that kind of thing. I would rather have a doll that some claim to be damaged then to have to hide him away whenever I'm not taking pictures of him.

Just one owners opinion. Whether or not dolls have life in them, you paid for them and you have the right to do with them what you will. Live and let live.

 

My religion is Christianity and I have always been sensitive to spiritual beings. By my own experience, I have sensed and had dreams of my older sister giving birth to 3 of her children. When my grandmother was in her last hour of life, I felt a gentle peace in the room and the Angel of Death awaiting for something. It was really powerful. And I knew from the feeling she was going to die that night. I decided to go to bed early and within an hour, my parents woke me up saying she was gone. The presence was gone as well when I walked into the room. After the people took her body away a dream came to me of me walking into the living room(where she was most of the time) she turned her head and just smiled the biggest smile.
Sorry for that paragraph, on to dolls! XD Just giving an idea of what I go through at times :0. Ever since I can remember I have felt my guardian angel has always been with me and protected me from many things. Ever since I have bought my first doll I have felt the presence of my guardian angel gently touch my doll. Almost as if giving her life. Whenever I hug my doll my tears stop and I sometimes sleep with her in my bed. I love her very very much. Sometimes I look at her and a different emotion is played on her face even though she has the same face, it's hard to explain and it's amazing. I can never sell her, I feel she is the biggest part of my life. If something happened and where I was out of food and had to sell stuff she would automatically be the last thing. She is going with me to the grave ^_^! Thanks for reading my post!

 

"In short, I think my dolls are a little bit like the characters in Toy Story or the Velveteen Rabbit idea. Not human, but somehow, strangely, alive."

That's just what I was thinking, Harlequin-Elle.

It saddens me to see a much-loved doll get tossed in the trash, or destroyed in some other way, because I can almost see the love that was put into it. By the same token, that doll would't mean a thing to anybody else (in the sense of a child's well-loved toy), so when it comes down to it it is only a 'thing'.

I love my first and only BJD very much, and she lives and travels in a box (puki), not because I care for her less, but because I care for her safety. And oddly enough, though said inanimate object can't really have its own personality, I have witnessed/felt a personality emerge as I personalize it, such as the dnd figurines I paint, or painting Ylle's face.

Come to think on it, maybe SHE was the one who wanted harlequin eyelashes

 

I don't think dolls have souls.

I think often people mistake seeing something with characteristics that remind them of humans as having 'souls'. For example, you may look into a dog's eyes and find it a very familiar thing, and think that is has a 'soul'. You could look into a goat's eyes, and you might feel uneasy. Do you know what the difference is? Dogs have eyes with a round pupil like a human's, and goat's are kind of bars.

It's easy to project emotions and characteristics onto something like a doll-- and honestly, the more correctly the face is proportioned, the easier it becomes. We're trained to recognize, on a biological level, what is human. And a well-crafted doll certainly gives off a lot of those queues. It's hard to feel like you're ignoring another person-- which people will have a tendency to see dolls as. You don't feel bad because you're neglecting a thing with a soul. You feel bad because on an instinctual level you 'read' the doll as people, so you subconsciously are reacting to the idea that you're ignoring a person.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's just that we're social creatures. We're programmed to want to interact with things that we read as human. It's the same way you can show a money a drawing or figure of another monkey and they'll treat is a lot like it is a monkey. It's not a matter of soul or not. It's a matter of being biologically programmed to recognize others of your species.

 

I"ve commented on the souls thread about this, but I'll do it here. I am a pagan, of Heathen persuasion, among other things. I do not think dolls come with a soul the way a dog or a human does. I sometimes talk at my dolls (but I do the same thing with my plants because of an old superstition), but I don't think the doll has a soul. I think it can collect energies which give it that extra spark, that takes it from just an object to not quite an object (or even become possessed in a way, but that doesn't make it the doll's own unique soul). In short, no, religion does not get in the way of how I view/treat my dolls.

 

My dolls and my religion coexist just fine. I do think that tokens and likenesses can hold a degree of spiritual power--a medallion of St. Barbara protecting an artilleryman in a war zone, for instance, or a statue of St. Joseph bringing blessings to a home. If for some odd reason a priest should decide to bless one of my dolls, I would recognize the spiritual power in that act... but it's not the same thing as giving the doll a soul. Humans can't create souls and put them into things, not priests or Saints or anyone, certainly not ordinary people. It's just not within our power. I have a good friend who is a pagan, and he believes that dolls could be used to hold already-existing spirits, but that just naming them does not make this happen.

There are some huge problems with a lot of the analogies you've made, but they've mostly been addressed by other people at this point. The only point I wish to further underscore is the anthropological issue of early dolls. In many cultures dolls were originally made as educational tools of a sort, to teach young girls how to care for a baby/child and prepare them for motherhood. Even in cultures featuring spirit-inhabited dolls, dolls for this practical purpose also existed, and were not considered to house powerful or important spirits themselves. Also, cultures in which dolls were believed to be capable of housing spirits are not necessarily all on the same page as to whether or not using dolls this way is a good idea.

 

I am a Christian and I have never believed that any doll or any inanimate object has a soul. It's all a fun and creative game to find your dolls personality but it's not really coming from the doll but your own mind.
It's basically playing pretend or roleplaying. So be creative in your doll's story but don't mix it with believe your doll is embedded with a living soul. That's what I believe.

 

[paragraph]This is a really great topic! While I understand so much of what has been said, I think it should be pointed out once again that everyone has their own ideas about these things, being too dismissive is a danger of offending so please everyone pay close attention to that! After all it is a bit harder to say you believe in something that can't clearly be seen, so I think some these people's ideas should be given credit. Anyways, anyone who's church believes in the old testament probably believes that tree and dogs and cats and all manner of creatures other than humans have no soul, so I don't think saying that something "obviously" isn't alive automatically qualifies that it doesn't have a soul, as so many people believe that many living things have no soul. I will of course stop this stop this line of thought here, but wanted to state one of the bigger facts about religious ideas pertaining to life, souls, and the world around us.[/paragraph][paragraph]Myself? Well as far as religion goes, there is nothing to say that a doll does or doesn't have a soul. I do not so easily relegate dolls into piles of pricy play toys, as with dolls and many other things for that matter, but it seems particularly so with dolls as they have eyes and human forms, that there is something else there. Perhaps I am a romantic artist at heart, but as I sat reading Diana Wynne Jones' "Howl's Moving Castle", I began to wonder about the magic of the book. The main character Sophie, a girl like any other, just as plain and not so interesting as any other, who I must say has her very own romantic job and hobby which I consider hat making to be, sits mostly alone talking here and there to inanimate objects. How familiar a scene this is for so many I think yes? Of course her real magic is not in the beautiful hats she makes, but rather that as she talks to the objects they gain life. This is one of the most interesting parts of the book for me, and as it saves their lives near the end, I assume to Howl and Sophie as well.[/paragraph][paragraph]So does she give them life or does she bring it out of them with her caring treatment of them? I think a little of both with dolls. There is some kind of magic in the resin form our beloved artist creates all on it's own, a potential that is waiting to be unlocked as that potential is a doll's purpose in life. When an artist crafts a doll, you can see it in the careful work, there is imperfection, maybe there is simple beauty or complex, but no matter what, there is love in it. The artist strokes out a face, a sculpt we generally call them, and that sculpt begins to have its very own personality. Sure the maker gave it some of that, but anyone who knows a thing about inspiration can easily tell you that it has a mind of it's own as obvious by it's touted fickle nature.[/paragraph][paragraph]The doll has a head, a face, no eyes, but it could have more features as they are painted on, attached to a body, and given their own kind of bones in string. Most of the time a doll is even given eyes before it leaves the maker. The eyes are one of the most important parts, glass, acrylic, any kind of eyes, they are still doorways. A common symbol used by many an organization and religion, mainly because it is so clear that the eyes are something special as far as body parts go. As a child I remember my grandmother's doll that sat in her room. She was a amber haired doll with a royal blue satin dress who always sat in the chair facing the door which was often open. Even before I had any interest in dolls I felt that they had something extra to them. The days I would play near her room, paying no attention to the doll I still felt as if I was being watched. Creepy I know but if I looked into her eyes up close, a little of that unease ebbed away as I thought about my grandmother's love for her, and her own cheery nature as a doll. There is so much emotion in the eyes of a doll, if not, why bother trying to capture their beauty in photos?[/paragraph][paragraph]The last point of interest that comes to immediate mind is our love for the dolls. Most of the more emotional objects which are also inanimate generally have some memory or deep seated connection with our minds which often gives them emotional connection, but dolls seem to have their own thoughts to many of us. That rose our mother gave us before her death, and this is funny because a rose once was a live, but if we dropped it, would we worry that we truly hurt it, or that we have hurt it's form in a way that the rose will immediately question to us, why? No, we worry that the rose our mother gave us may have been damaged therefore bringing it closer to us losing it and in turn our memory of her. It is a thin line that I tread here, but ther is just so much evidence that we ourselves help to bring out a dolls potential and perhaps their true purpose, true name, true nature, and in turn a true soul. Yes animism, is there a need for another theory here?[/paragraph][paragraph]Anyway, these words here?...they are the ramblings of a romantic artist, as previously stated or maybe warned, and you can take what you wish from them. Not everyone believes that in the artists hands and mind and heart, in the folds of inspirations grasp, is some magic that gives resin a life, and then continues to believe that the composition created by this band of finely tuned instruments is given to a person who may understand this work's potential and give it a true life as it was meant to have, but that my friend...is EXACTLY what I believe. So do they have souls, I'd like to think so, but then again maybe the real question becomes what is a soul truly? What is life? A physical eventually measurable thing, or perhaps our perception, which can change the world around us and make it into whatever we please with enough effort and of course love of the thing itself. Uh oh, I've said too much![/paragraph]

 

I'm a devout Christian, and I don't think my dollies have souls (no offense meant to anyone who believes otherwise). They do take on a "life" of sorts, but said life is really a part of the owner's life and not their own. With regards to dolls and religion my dolls have never gotten in the way of my faith. In fact, I think that dolls are one way for someone to exhibit a God-given talent for art (I see dolls as a type of art form), be it in a unique face-up, or an original outfit, or an unusual hairstyle.

I hope that doesn't sound too dumb or superficial, but I felt required to take a stance on this. Cheers to all!

 

Forgive me, I haven't read the whole thread, but this makes me think of Chobits. If something man-made, in the case of the show, a robot, is given a personality, a 'lifetime' of experiences and a name, does it then have a soul? In Chobits, Chi becomes a sort of person, someone who learns and cares about the people she encounters. But, at the end of the day, you can just think "totally unrealistic, she's a robot, dude!"

People who bond with their dolls make them 'alive', and the people who don't, don't. I think it doesn't matter one way or another, so long as somebody's happy. I have a figurine of Len Kagamine on my TV set. He has a name, but I don't think it necessarily makes him alive. He's fun to play with and all but, to me, he's a toy. An expensive as heck toy!
To those who feel their BJDs are more than just dollies, I find there's nothing wrong with that. It makes you happy and it gives them a high sentimental value. To those who see them as just dolls, that's fine, too. It's the prerogative of whoever owns the doll to care for them and interact with them as they see fit, wether that be a daily chat, or as a once every-so-often photoshoot.

I don't personally have souls, just as the book characters we love don't, either. But, I very much think they can be given a personality and a "life".

 

I'm with Harlequin, I've always thought it was a bit sad to say that a doll or similar object had no soul. I don't believe they have a "soul" in the Christian sense (as a Christian myself, I just can't say that) but I do think that we can give them a little spark. I feel like old things hold on to some of the time spent with them, objects that were my great-grandparents seem to emanate a quaint happiness. I know I probably imagine it, but when I think of all the people that have held an object before I can't help but sense the history of it. I have an antique stuffed dog, hand stitched neatly together with big neat stitches. Whatever's he's made out of is scratchy and rough and I believe he is stuffed with newspaper, but even so he seems comforting and a little melancholy. I spotted him at an antique store and felt the sadness of a toy abandoned so hard that I bought him on the spot for twice what I thought he was worth. I couldn't help but think that the child he belonged to would be distraught to find him covered in junk and all alone.

I think my favorite anecdote was from all things "Ah My Goddess." Belldandy (the goddess in question) was in some kind of inane motorcycle race and somebody had sabotaged her bike. She used her magic to make each part "feel" better individually and when she came to a point where she needed the bike to run hard for her against all odds it gathered it's pieces together and gave a last push to propel her to victory. That's how I feel about dolls or really anything. If you love and take care of it, it will repay you, even if it is only in the service it was built to perform. My doll makes me happy in that way.

 

I'm not religiously affiliated and I don't believe that religion has anything to do with whether your dolls have souls or not, etc.

And amen, Capistrono.

I do believe that dolls in no way are physically alive. They don't have internal organs, they can't speak to me, and they can't breathe. But... there's something about them that's so much more than just resin, cloth, and fiber.... I left my girl in a box because my room was incredibly messy and my room was always shining with light even with the blinds covering the windows, and I didn't have anywhere to put her that was relatively clean/appropriate than my window seat, which was still full of stuff. The window was there though where the most light came from so I decided to keep her in a box until it was less bright outside and cleaner in my room, from the beginning of June to the beginning of this month for my second doll's arrival and when I took her out, I suddenly felt... relieved. o_o;

Lincy(my girl) and I have a strange emotional bond. Xien is getting there but I haven't gotten to bond with him yet, so. :P

 

THIS POST IS NOT MEANT TO OFFEND PLEASE DON'T GET OFFENDED AS IT'S JUST MY OPINION!!!!! :'( AND I want to make clear...I accept all opinions, even the ones who disagree with me, so PLEASE, if this offends ANYONE, I'm really truly sorry! I wouldn't be able to apologize enough! :'(

When I think about myself and religion...I get confused. I call my religion Satanism, [and before everyone jumps on me, contrary to popular belief, Satanism is not the worshipping of the devil, but as ones-self as a god] however, I've come to find that it's more of my philosphy than a religion.

Souls? Yea. I believe in souls. I believe everything around me has a soul or a spirit.
Ghosts? Yea. I believe in that, too.
Science? Absolutely. I most certainly believe in Science, and I love what science has done for our society, our elderly, and our sick. That was not done by God, it was done by man who studied science.
Phsychology? Oh yes. Above all else I believe in psychology and the human mind. If I had to choose one of these things to believe in more than anything, I'd choose pyschology.

Do my dolls have souls? Yea. They have the souls I give them from my storie, just as their characters have souls. Are they going to come to life and haunt me or my friends? Lol. No. But they have life. To me, at least.

I'm kind of strange. I apologize to inanimate objects when I drop them or something. i have ever since I was little.

But my dolls...they have hobbies. Or at least, I liek to think they do. When I go to movies, a different doll comes per different genre. When I'm painting or doing something artsy, one of them stays with me. Same thing with when I write, and so on, and so forth.

Does my "religion" affect how I bond with my doll? No.

Though you bring up a very interesteing point that I often wonder...what makes something have a soul? What makes something alive? Is it something that breathes, drinks, eats, reproduces? When we were young...some of us had imaginary friends...were those imaginary friends not alive? Did they not have a soul?I know for me...mine did. My toys were my friends, they were alive to me as well.

Idk, I think when it boils down to it, I really do have very childish/innocent ideas on life. I really believe world peace will come some day, I believe that at the end of the day, everyone has a bit of good in them. And...I believe my dolls can have a soul. I understand what you mean, OP...

I have a friend who named her doll she hasn't even gotten in yet, and already plans on selling him. And I kind of felt like "Well...why are you naming something you don't even plan to keep?" But I wouldn't say I became offended. I just know she feels differently than I do, and that's okay. But I did feel it was a little strange for her to come up with a name for something that she's just going to sell anyway ^.^;

 

I'm Pagan (nice to see others) & I believe in physics - quantum physics. What does this have to do with dolls, you ask? It has to do with the investing of energy, which will certainly be collected in a beloved object like a doll. If you believe then you put forth energy and if it is directed at your dolls there will be a resonance.
Dolls WERE originally some sort of ritual objects - some anthropologists have theorized that certain cultures thought of them as repositories of wandering souls, others that deities could inhabit them etc etc. I have an actual example of such a doll - my mother got a doll (2 dolls in fact) from a missionary to Haiti when she was a little girl. The one doll is a simple cloth doll a child would have owned. The other (who lives on my altar) is definitely a Haitian priestess doll The missionary wrote my mom that the 'wise woman' of the Haitian village had given the one doll for the far away little girl, but the other was to keep harm from the missionary.
All my life I've felt this doll as a warm & secure presence - as something safe. There is resonance there
BB

 

I'm not religious in traditional meaning of this word.
And don't like when someone offers to perform any ceremony with my dolls.
But one of my doll is religious. She doesn't share my point of view and even wears a crucifix on her neck.

 

Capistrono, AnchixDPx, Teleri

I always thought of myself to be consciously mad, so to speak. Well aware that some of my beliefs might be fairy tales. But it seems that I am not the only one. Some of us share very similar beliefs.
To quote Ian Lungold "We have to get out of our mind to get in touch with our spirituality".

I believe that. It at least makes me happy and hopeful when I'm a little bit nutters.

 

Well I am a Unitarian, with Pagan deities (As in, I believe in all that other religions believe in, but I worship only a few, if that makes since). My religion hasn't really gotten in my way of my interest in dolls. In fact, I think it has enhanced my feelings for them.

I'm an avid believer in the supernatural and in the Faerie realms, so I always find it fun when I meet a new doll. I can immediately guess what they're like and how to treat them. To me, the doll is alive. I don't really believe in 'souls' as that word is up to interpretation, but I do believe that everything has a life they must live out, a duty so to speak. A rock is there to give the earth stability, a river is there to shape the land and give life to others, the dolls are there to give someone a smile, make sure they're no longer lonely, and/or to inspire creativity among others.

But that is just my belief, and I know others will disagree with me. And that is fine.

 

They may not have souls exactly, but if you love your doll enough and spend time with it, you may leave a bit of your soul, energy, or what have you inside it, but i think this can happen with any object you might own and has importance to you.