I was debating with a Muslim gentleman and he was lecturing me about what a cell does for its survival. I interrupted and said- Its a figure of speech, a cell doesn't do anything.
He bombarded with me all the cellular processes and told me that I don't know shit!

Analyzing what he said can help to see the reasoning behind the concept of a soul.

For instance, Let's break this sentence -

An Amoeba has to maintain its osmolarity

I think Amoeba doesn't 'have' do anything because an amoeba isn't sentient. I have this problem with the figure of speech (But my friends, Teucer, Toomas, etc don't see a problem in this as I do) Sometimes language which we casually use in the biology creates problem while taking things to the philosophical realm. 

Let's consider a statement -

The Evolution gave mankind a fear of snakes, to protect him from snakes.

The second part of the above statement natural selection because it increases the chance of survival.

Creationists and Neo Creationists mindset work on the sheer exploitation of what we call "figure of speech" so let's consider this in the statement above. 

The evolution 'gave'? Like deliberately? To 'protect' or 'help' him. Why? Does evolution have favourites? Is evolution looking out for its favourite species? Better yet...is evolution really there to 'help' or grant favours to species? 

Coming back to the Amoeba...

An Amoeba 'has to' maintain its osmolarity.

Really?
Actually, Na-K pumps and other mechanisms maintain the osmolarity of an organism which we call an Amoeba.
An Amoeba is not a conscious entity who voluntarily control its biochemistry!

I want to know how the opening and controlling of stomata is regulated?

1. Is it that the leaf opens and closes its stomata by regulating its biochemistry? 

2. Or is it the Levitt's K-H ion exchange which opens and close stomata of the leaf.

One may argue that both 1. And 2. are correct the latter is an explanation of the former. You won't be wrong in a sense, but you will be missing the entire point I am trying to make here concerning the figure of speech.  

If you fail to see my point here, you are missing out on my expose of creationist's ammunition.

They like the first statement and the next thing they ask goes something like this - 
"How do you think a leaf learned to open and close its stomata in response to the light?"

Now you see where this is going?

I have been asked how amoeba learned to do what it does!?

I answered this question with some counter questions with equal validity like

How did deers learn to hunt tigers?
And how did donkeys learned to brush their teeth?

I mean seriously, where is the evidence suggesting an amoeba understands and learn what happens inside that plasma membrane?

Also, the creationist never give up you know...they like an infinite regress

They say - Ok fine. But what are molecules made up of?

How do atoms learn their valencies? 
How does an electron learn to choose its path?

But anyway, its much harder of rather nonsensical even for certain spirituals out there to suggest that microorganisms have a soul. They don't even try and shy away to take a stand either way. They shrug their shoulders and try their mysticism on something they can play around with...the human mind. 

I recently came across a fantastical question 

"If emotions are just electromagnetic signals in the brain then who interpret and understand them".

I want to know the validity of the question.

If we could really understand what emotions are, then there should be definitions of happiness, sadness, love in the dictionaries. Except there are none. Only synonymous. 

On the topic of comprehension, I like Dan Dennett's philosophy

Let's compare, the Bever dam to Hoover Dam
Or Let's compare castles made by termites with the castes made by humans.

From a superficial look, they both look somewhat the same, but the processes by which they are made are hugely different.

One involves Competence with Comprehension - Human castles. An architect or an engineer lays out the plans, make the blueprints and give directions for labor to work on it. They all know what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Global order generating local processes.

Competence without Comprehension- The Termite Castles- Is there a designer in the termite caste? do they comprehend what they are doing? Or is it local processes generating a global order? They act out on their competence alone.

The Evolution does not always install comprehension along with competence, If any feature or change which is helpful to the organism, it gets selected by natural selection.

It's our tendency to attach comprehension along with competence, whenever we see competence.

Why do dogs lick their balls?
To relieve an itch?
Oh, the dog's saliva acts as an antibacterial agent!

Does a dog know about the antibacterial properties of its saliva? To what extent? Do they know about pH, lysosomes etc?

Well, in any case, they lick their balls because they CAN and yes to relieve an itch.

We have more comprehension than other species, but we don't understand it all. I would like to know who or how our brain interprets emotions from electrochemical signals when I have been shown the interpretation. We feel the emotions, we remember the experiences, we act upon them. They are all part of our consciousness and conscious experience but we cannot and do not understand them. 

Please refer to my blog; Consciousness an Emergent property for some related discussion. 

The fundamental argument of brain, mind, soul, consciousness is very deep and interesting. Especially now in the age of some serious arrogance from hard determinists taking a different approach altogether to claim man-made machines will attain consciousness because tech companies are working on "neural computing" and shit like that.