I see lots of false teaching in this thread which is heavily influenced by false Seventh-Day Adventist doctrine, so I will share what I believe to be the truth of the matter.
Human beings consist of body, soul and spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, a whole human can be referred to as a soul, but that should not be confused with the fact that we are "wholly" made up of "spirit and soul and body". as Paul taught. So, while we can be referred to as souls, we also have a soul. I've noticed that there are many people on this site who don't accept certain things that Paul taught and this seems to be yet another one.
Scripture makes it quite clear that people have consciousness after they die, as evidenced by passages like Luke 16:19-31 and Revelation 6:9-11 as well as the passages which give the account of Jesus's transfiguration where He talked to Moses and Elijah. Some people have chosen to twist those scriptures or ignore them, to their shame.
There is a debate about whether Luke 16:19-31 is a parable or not. It shouldn't be a debate. Since when do parables contain references to real people and real places? Since never. That alone shows that it is not a parable. But, let's say that it was a parable. Would that change the fact that Jesus is giving the impression that people are conscious in hell? No. He gave that impression regardless of whether it's a parable or not. So, why would He give that impression if it isn't the case that people have consciousness there? That makes no sense. He would not do that. And, again, how did Jesus talk to Moses and Elijah if there is no consciousness after physical death? Those who believe in soul sleep are cherry pickers who ignore scriptures like these while misinterpreting their cherry picked verses that contradict these other verses.
I'll address one verse they commonly use for now (Ecclesiastes 9:5) and show how they misinterpret it.
Ecclesiastes 9:3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.4 Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.
So, those who believe in the false doctrine of soul sleep see the statement "the dead know nothing" and draw conclusions from it without even looking at the context. Context is very important, so to ignore the context of scripture is foolish. So, what is the context here? That people know nothing and have no consciousness after they die? No, not at all. The context is that once people are dead they no longer know or experience the things they experienced "under the sun", which refers to what they experience on earth, under the sun, before they die. Once a person dies they no longer know/experience anything on the earth because their life on earth is over. That's all this means. It does not mean they have no consciousness after no longer being under the sun. Nowhere does this passage indicate such a thing.
Notice what it says in verse 6 above. That verse explains what verse 5 is about. The "nothing" that the dead no longer know is "their love, their hate and their jealousy" that they had during their lives under the sun. They don't nkow those things anymore because they are dead and will no longer experience life on earth under the sun. That's all that means. Them knowing nothing is not a comment on their state of consciousness after death, but rather that they no longer have physical/bodily life and can no longer do the things that they did when they were physically alive.
