Great Thread, DB! and Great questions too.
I, like you, feel we make the decision BEFORE birth. I think the soul DOES exist. I don't think I can be quite so eloquent in explaining this here in words, as others - but I'll try.
I have been to the Akashic Records - as MANY have. I believe that the records exist to take note of every souls journeys. There is a reason for this as well. When I leave this life, I fully expect that when I go into the light, as I believe EVERY soul does go to, I believe we undergo a 'healing' time. It is during this healing time, that we are given the chance to see into OUR Akashic Records and see everything we've experienced-everything we have done, said, or not done or not said and should have.
It gives us the chance to 'review' our life and see where we could've done better. It is a time for us to come to terms with anything we left 'undone' when we passed.
After we have healed, we are given the chance to return again to the earth-or who knows, perhaps ANY planet in any time frame - we may be here right now in the 21st centruy, but we could go back to the 18th century. Our ultimate goal for our soul is to become 'God' (or Goddess) like. To become 'whole'. So it is at THIS point, that we make the decision of whether or not we need to come back and learn a lesson.
If we choose to come back again, we do so--and we are born again, with the chance to start on a new journey of learning. some of our journeys are only begun and then ended just as quickly--(such as being aborted, either purposely or through miscarriage)--or we may live for 100 plus years.
Each life--whether it has only been for a few seconds or for a 100 plus years is important and has helped our soul in some way, and also some other soul(s) as well. We all learn from each other too--from one soul to another.
We choose how we wish to come back into this life again. Whether we will be born poor or rich, healthy or ill, white, black, spanish, or asian. all these choices are made, and we also have other souls - who remain souls-that become our 'partners' in our lives as we have chosen. These are our guides in this life. Perhaps they were our guides in a past life too. Perhaps they are a new guide for us.
We choose the family we will be born into, the life we will have, and the lesson we hope our soul will learn. We do still have free will as things come to be for us in our new life--and our decisions shape the person we become--and thus our lesson is either learned or not. If it is learned, we go further soulfully--toward the step of being one again--with all.
I also do not know if I believe in the Darwin theory or not--and I do believe in God. but, I do not believe God is this old fatherly man, who is sitting on a throne welcoming us into his arms. I believe we are all a little piece of "God" and when we finally reach the ulitmate spiritual level, we join into 'the collective' (yeah, sort of like on Star Trek!
) and we become ONE.
This ONE is the ultimate love and all that is good and all that EVERY soul is reaching to achieve.
These are my views. One interesting story to share, as to how it helped me to come to my conclusions above, is that one of my first guides to ever appear to me was a monk. He asked me if I was ready to begin a new spiritual path now, to which I responded "yes". At any rate, this monk was one of my guides. I was to 'meet' him face to face again--years later, in a meditative dream like state, where I went back into time--and I found myself sitting at a desk in a cave like place and I was also a monk. I was sitting with many other monks and we were all creating parts of the bible. We were copying these pages - onto other papers that I imagine were for new bibles.
while I stood behind this "monk", I KNEW without a doubt that this was I in a previous life, and I was "a part" of this man. It was as if I had two bodies. My body as I know it today--standing behind him, looking over his shoulder, and yet also HIS body--sitting on this stool/chair and writing. I swear, I could even feel as "my"--HIS arm moved the pen into the ink and then back to the paper again to write. It was a bizarre and very cool experience for me.
But, even more was when the door opened and all the monks looked up to see another monk walking into the room. This monk and I - both as 'me' and as the monk I "was" locked eyes--and it was THE SAME MONK WHO APPEARED TO ME A FEW YEARS AGO!"
This is why I feel that when that monk that I was passed away--he later decided to be reborn--as 'me' today--and this other monk was also passed and agreed to be one of his (one of my) guides.
There may have been, and I believe there were also - many other lives for my soul in between my life as a monk and my life today. I also believe that we all work together and we may even be born again into the same family or some other circle that will eventually 'unite' us. Many people feel and/or know they were in many lives with the same person. My husband and I for instance, I believe have gone through other lives together.
It is a complicated thing to even try to come and understand, but one reason I do believe in this, is because I KNOW I've had other lives--I've experienced them in my meditations. I KNOW I've been the Akashic Records--and that especially makes me believe that we make the decisions BEFORE birth. Why would we record all the happenings for every soul unless it is to serve some purpose? I think the purpose is to help us grow and become more "God/Goddess" like and this whole thing just makes sense to me. I hope I've explained it well enough here for others to understand my thoughts on this issue.