Religion Theological query about souls

This is a genuine question, not some trap trying to get views about, say, Obamacare. I am legitimately interested in what you believe and how you acquired that belief. It is a question for people who believe
(a) they have a soul and
(b) it is that that will survive their bodily death and live on in some afterlife (heaven or hell)

So, here's the question:
When was your soul created, and how?
Options:
Apparently there's a view called "traducianism" whereby the soul is created by the parents by the joining of sperm and egg. Alternatively there's the "creationist" view whereby the parents take care of making the embryo but God directly creates the soul at the same moment and joins it to the embryo.

Both these views deny that the soul pre-exists the body. Alternative views suggest that souls do exist, perhaps eternally (perhaps God created them all at once and sends them down from heaven to earth in turn. The question then is, are they conscious before then? Do they regret being sent to earth? Could we recover memories of our soul's pre-existence?)

If, on the other hand, you believe in souls but haven't thought about these issues, I'd be interested to hear that too.

 

It's definitely more interesting for me to conceive of having an eternal soul....whether that's an individual energy or a collective, I have no idea...I have read about reincarnation quite a bit and there are compelling cases of children born to a family yet speaking another language and having memories of other families that are far away and have never met....I think it's fascinating. Could be we inhabit these flesh bound orbs like an electrical charge and need to recharge from time to time...my logical side says I'm of the church of "Don't have a clue" but these possibilities are more interesting than becoming dust and compost...don't believe in purgatory though....I think that's just fear which I'd hope wouldn't exist in a pure state of being...I have traveled to places that seemed familiar and I know was visiting for the first time and Mandarin came to me really, really easily having not grown up around it.

 

I almost went with Aretha, Al Green, Etta James and James Brown as an answer

 

Humans just can't quite imagine that we aren't all precious can we?

We just have to be eternal somehow.

I hope not if people have to keep living through different eras of human suffering. Former slaves come back and somehow know deep inside that life still sucks but not as bad?

If there were only 2 people as in Adam and Eve, have we been creating new souls each year or were there billions to start with and they've been waiting their turn?

 

Don't get me started on the whole "where did Cain and Abel get their wives" issue.

 

This supposed almighty could put a bun in Eve's basket anytime he wanted to.....if you believe in immaculate conception

 

duh....

 

So, still incest then.

 

we are all his children according to Christians so....how ya doin' bro?

 

The important question is - did Joseph?

 

That would break up the gene pool....even further, there may have been multiple angels involved as well...the Greeks hinted about this

 

Get back under your rock. Light is not good for you.

 

Only if they fail to learn.

 

Learn what?

 

So, basically none of y'alls have any theological teaching to pass on to this curious unbeliever?