just because scientists can't trace the soul doesn't mean you should dismiss
I can replace "soul" in the above with anything, anything at all. Therefore there is no way to dismiss anything. Therefore we have to spend mental effort (and more resources) persuing everything. Without a filter to decide what is worth some effort you will waste time and resources on wild goose chases.
Who says demons don't cause disease --- you can't dismiss it. Who says voodoo isn't how someone was killed, you can't dismiss it. and so on forever with no progress being made.
If there are purple people eaters, then X must occur. If X does not occur, then we necessarily conclude that there are no purple people eaters.
Are there any purple people? No, there are not! The purple-people eaters ate 'em. This proves the existance of purple-people eaters. (well, at one time, I guess they all starved to death by now)
Every time you insist that something is mathematically or logically impossible and thus it IS IN FACT impossible, you are implying that math and/or logic is in fact an accurate representation of the world.
Is there a way it couldn't be?
Don't you have to demonstrate that the particular math being used is a representation of the world. Eg. the problem of using euclidian geometry over the surface of the earth. Some things "proved" using euclidian geometry at that scale on the earth would not correspond to the real world, no?
I think the point might be that math would probably be very much the same developed (discovered) by an alien civilization but monopoly would be very, very unlikly to be invented by them.
It can be argued that you are just a set of objects. The you of your youth is gone in more ways than one.
Most if not all of the atoms of your body that were there when you were 10 have all been changed. There is no physical you left. Then what are "you"? Just the organization of something. Just a set defined by some boundaries.
The point is that we can't be considered to be something specifically physical. Whatever "we" are it isn't the precise atoms that make us up. It is the arrangement of some atoms. So it is the arragnement that is important not the exact physical things which are arranged.