Soul is the essence of who we are. The essential being. Untrap the soul from the religious trappings that surround it and you have the pure essence of yourself.
The soul is born of spiritualism, not religion. Religion is a herd-instinct manifestation of spirituality that can distort and pervert how we think, who we become and ultimately what we do. Hideous events throughout history right up to the present day prove this to be true.
Religion can turn human beings into inhuman beings who kill each other over conflicting beliefs that are insane in the first place. The conflict becomes a conflagration of atrocities.
In the purity of childhood we love one another. The love becomes twisted by religion and politics and we grow hateful and racist and obsessed with doctrine. We become blind to understanding and compassion. We become monsters. We slaughter each other in the name of maniacal myths and nonexistent gods.
The bullets and the blades and the flames destroy more than our bodies. They destroy our souls. And that is the end of humanity. This planet, this life becomes a hell beyond belief, beyond religion, beyond myth. The hell becomes reality and we all burn to death.
James 1:27. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
To remain undefiled by the world, that is the challenge — it requires a strong spiritual detachment which is often hard to attain, or at least maintain. However, one continues to try.