What is spirit, exactly?

by Viviane 609 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  jgnat

  Hubby made up a word this week too. Bart-Sim-Strated. Don't ask. I told him it doesn't count because only two people in the world know it.

  Here's another technique investigators use to learn more about the unknown. They have an unusual observation and they come up with many different possible explanations. Then ingenious experiments are devised to narrow down the possibilities. The experiments are so devised to either eliminate or confirm the explanation. The smart thing to do when going through the list of possibilities is to apply occam's razor and confirm or deny the simplest explanations first.

  Here's an unusual observation. People testify to a spiritual experience after returning from a near-death experience. There is consistency in the experience that may be more than cultural imposition. What are the possible explanations for the common NDE's?
• 

  galaxie

  Viv ; those things are the consequences of the efficacy of the air we breath on our bodies you are confusing metaphor with causal effect.

  Yes there are many things we need for us to exist,but stick to the contextwhat's the first thing a human requires at birth? Exactly or no existence.

  That first breath and the force on the lungs is the spirit bywhich we all exist. It's as fundamental as that.

  Toying around with what ifs is distraction for distractions sake.

  Do you think the word spirit can be applied in a physical human way if so what would be your description being that the dictionary first definition is a noun
• 

  prologos

  the question "-- comprised of--" implies a material substance or equivalent, the world of Ideas, personalities, information, has no sustance sthe framing of the question shows that you do not understand the meaning of comprise as relating to substances or the idea of spirit as so well defined in the dictionary quotes above.
• 

  Viviane

  i created " future existence"

  Huh? It existed the moment you created it, not in in the future. You still aren't telling me what future existence mean. You are simply taking one undefined term and substituting it for another. We are still no closer.

  And its as real as the word " spirit"

  When did the word SPIRIT come in to existence?

  Utterly irrelevant (and untrue). We are still no closer to an answer.
• 

  jgnat

  I think the origin of SPIRIT as a part of ourselves, comes from the Greek philosophers.
• 

  jgnat

  The word is not the thing.

  Gravity existed before we had a word for it.
• 

  Viviane

  Viv ; those things are the consequences of the efficacy of the air we breath on our bodies you are confusing metaphor with causal effect.

  They are consequences of a great many things, all of which would be a metaphor for what you are talking about.

  Yes there are many things we need for us to exist,but stick to the contextwhat's the first thing a human requires at birth? Exactly or no existence.

  Atoms. BOOM! Atoms must be the spirit! Well, no, wait. Atoms need electrons and protons and neutrons and the the strong nuclear force. Wait, quarks and bosons are involved in mass and atom formation also....

  Your choice is 100% arbitrary. Oxygen is by no means the first thing required for a human to exist, it's one of many components.

  That first breath and the force on the lungs is the spirit bywhich we all exist. It's as fundamental as that.

  The lungs couldn't draw breath without electrical energy transfer, so really, you could say it's electrons. Your answer is arbitrary and gets us no closer to an answer.
• 

  Viviane

  the question "-- comprised of--" implies a material substance or equivalent, the world of Ideas, personalities, information, has no sustance sthe framing of the question shows that you do not understand the meaning of comprise as relating to substances or the idea of spirit as so well defined in the dictionary quotes above.

  It implies no such thing. That may well be a logical consequence of attempting to answer the question, but that is in absolutely no way implied in the question. All your statement shows is that you want to re-direct the question to that.

  We are still no closer to an answer.
• 

  Viviane

  I think the origin of SPIRIT as a part of ourselves, comes from the Greek philosophers.

  Hmmm.... that's a good research topic. I would have thought it to be earlier than that.

  The word is not the thing.

  Gravity existed before we had a word for it.

  Good point.
• 

  jgnat

  Viviane, looking as worldview from a biblical perspective, the OT Isrealites were chiefly concerned about how they behaved on earth. There is death and the grave, but scant talk of heavenly life. By the time of the NT, religions are heavily influenced by Greek philosophy for a couple hundred years. The Sadducees continued to reject the idea of an afterlife, but there's a lot more talk about it during Jesus' time. So that had me looking at what Plato had to say about the SPIRIT. His description is far removed from our modern one. Paul's talk of the several levels of heaven feeds right in to the Greek beliefs of recirculating spirits inhabiting earthly bodies for a time, then returning to the perfected, heavenly state. Seen from this perspective, Paul's talk of this life but being a shadow of what is to come, and our "true home" being in heaven makes a lot more sense.

  Now we have lots of religions with different ideas regarding spirits. We have the native religions believing spirits reside in the very rocks under our feet. Are they borrowing an English word to describe a similar phenomenon, or is it something different?

  Then we have Feng Shui and the attempt to keep loose spirits out of our homes. That could be older than the Greek philosophy.