What do we mean by soul?

The simple answer is that it means different things to different people, but we can agree that spirit and soul are often used interchangeably.

For the religious, our soul is both the gift and creation of God. It is an eternal entity whose purpose is to be reunited with God in the afterlife.

For the agnostic or atheist, our soul is perhaps the flame of life that burns within each of us.

I consider our soul to be a fragment of an eternal Universal Soul that manifests throughout the Universe.