Puppet lore

There are, basically, two kinds of people: 1) those who believe they existed before the birth of the body, and will exist after the death of the body, and attribute this feature or characteristic of their "existence" to something they tentatively call, their "soul" or their "spirit," and; 2) those who believe they don't exist before birth or after death, and the present lifetime is all there is, not believing in some intrinsic "soul," "spirit," or "otherwise."

Who's right?
Can both BE right?
Can both BE utterly wrong?

What think you? Can puppets have thoughts, either way, about any topic, whether it has to do with their "essential being" before "The Great WoodCarver in the Shop" had a twinkle in his imaginative eye, or a twitch in his carving fingers?

Or, are the only thoughts puppets can have, those that issue forth from their mouths, due to the electronic device tuned to a frequency known (by the woodcarver) and unknowable (by the puppet) - a radio in their wooden heads?

What think you? Do YOU exist at all, or are you just the transiently anomalistic responses due to causes outside your control, that you react to - on cue, and quite predictable everytime?

What think you?