by Viviane 609 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Why are many not emotionally satisfied with this answer ?-caliber
Thanks for the caliber. I think it's because many are concrete thinkers and need answers in black and white terms. Some are not able to make higher order abstractions and read between the lines. Kate xx
we are getting a much better picture of how a living brain works.-jgnat
I have seen sci-fi stuff about reading the thought patterns of the brain. e.g. red glow for happy and green for sad. But the article just explains how LHC is made not really how it works. Very interesting though.
Kate xx
Hey! I resemble that remark! I can assure you my conclusions are painfully clinical, not based on emotion at all. Is not an insistence on an unknown, untestable force, such as spirit, evidence that emotion is at work in the belief?
Viv ....SPIRIT is a group of christians, singing them selfs in to heaven " we are so happy, we are so happy" But that answer those words, that song will not satisfy...." We are so happy, we are so happy" A silent empty answer for you but for many christians a fully satisfying and complete answer....actually the arrival of answers is an answer.
Please do not presume to have any intelligence regarding what I will think about things. Having said that, your answer is that it an emotional high of happiness. It's a metaphor, in this case.
What is an emotion? What is it comprised of?
Chemical reactions in your brain. Off topic, however.
what is power exactly?
The ability to do something. There is electrical power, physical power, chemical power, emotional power, etc. Off topic, however.
Why does it seem that some see emotion as an enemy ?
...cognition , feeling and volition are equally important functions
we are animated beings not machines
(volition defined ... act of will, choosing , resolving)
Spirit is intertwined with of all the above processes giving rise to things like love, hope , trust , purpose, fulfillment
Trying to capture the essence of spirit is like a cat trying to catch a flashlight beem you shine at it
and we laugh at him
So we can identify the chemical cause of an emotion and observe the physical consequence of an emotion, but the emotion itself, what is that comprised of?
Chemical reactions in your brain. Off topic, however. Please strart your own thread if you want to discuss biology, Snare is quite good at contributing to those.
I only added this question since it seems to be of a similar composition to spirit.
We know it's there because we can observe the effect of an emotion, much like the spirit manifest itself at pentecost.
So far no one has offered any as to what spirit may be comprised of. We are no closer to an answer than when we started.
All the EFFECTS you so well describe S&R , and even the chemical-electrical SITUATION of the brain that give rise to them, can or should be possible to be detected, but the word is give 'RISE' which implies that the way we perceive information, conditions are a notch above the mere physical, material domain in which they occur, because how can you say that your's or your patient's or your reader's feelings, thoughts are not real, only queer, meaningless arrangements of matter,energy in time?
No one said they weren't real, prologos.
As I have stated earlier on in this thread, I believe spirit is the animating force within living things, I also believe the memory animates living things. So I have my answer as to what spirit is. I doubt it will satisfy everyone, but I am satisfied.
What is this animating force made of? Where is it? Can we detect it? So that that gets us no closer to an answer as of what spirit is made of.
So the spirit is the combination of factors that animate living things.
Can be summed up as "evolution, chemistry and biology", making it a metaphor.
All made possible by the air we breath.
Metaphor, already covered.
Why are many not emotionally satisfied with this answer ?
It has nothing to do with emotions. It's just a non-answer that tells us nothing new.
I think it's because many are concrete thinkers and need answers in black and white terms. Some are not able to make higher order abstractions and read between the lines.
Kate, please don't insinuate other posters are stupid. This has nothing to do with an ability make higher order abstractions. So far, no one has been able to say what spirit is made of except to claim it's a metaphor for something else. There is no abtraction to make so far.
Why does it seem that some see emotion as an enemy ?
Completely off topic.
Spirit is intertwined with of all the above processes giving rise to things like love, hope , trust , purpose, fulfillment. Trying to capture the essence of spirit is like a cat trying to catch a flashlight beem you shine at it
You still haven't said what it is and, in fact, have said we can't know. Is your answer still "don't know"?
Viv;...All made possible by the air we breathe, is a statement, it is NOT trying to identify the type of spirit as in gods, demons etc, but rather identfies the ancient concept of the physical air which without we would not be able to communicate as we are now doing, with great spirit I might add.
Nothing mystical about it and certainly not a metaphor.spirit and air we breathe in the context as I have described are the SAME thing, we just don't use it in modern times in our conversation, as in times past when the air we breathe was also known as spirit being the physical force which was seen(rightly) to sustain our life.
Am I right in believing the spirit you are trying to identify is of the supernatural kind? As I have said previously I don't believe there is such a thing.
Best wishes.
Kate, please don't insinuate other posters are stupid. This has nothing to do with an ability make higher order abstractions. So far, no one has been able to say what spirit is made of except to claim it's a metaphor for something else. There is no abtraction to make so far.-Viv
The ability to make higher order abstractions has nothing to do with intellect. I was not insinuating posters are stupid, just not as able as others in this area. We all have stengths and weaknesses. Many very intelligent people are concrete thinkers and this ability can put them at an advantage in some aspects of life, whereas the ability to make higher order abstractions can put people at an advantage in a different way, in different aspects of life.
In general I am a concrete thinker and that's why I am good at chemistry, in social situations I am an abstract thinker, due to my AS though I don't keep my thoughts to myself when perhaps I should. The point is, those that say there is no evidence for spirit want concrete evidence and sometimes use intellectual intimidation to make their point, whereas those who look beyond the evidence and read between the lines do have certain abilities that should be recognised.
People who believe in the spirit of life are not stupid either.
Kate xx
By saying my comments are off topic, you indicate I have failed in my explanation.
To assist, please read the entire post, since it is easy to extract individual sentences and project them as being off topic when in actuality they are merely smaller parts of a larger whole.
Let me try to do better, with the analogy of a memory.
Where does it reside? What does it look like? How can the memory be harvested or examined?
When the body dies, where do the memories go?
How is it that all memories, despite them being so different and including things such as sound, vision, smell etc, all look the same at the physical level?
Here's where it links to the current topic.
'Spirit' is not alone in being difficult to define.
Some (and I'm not saying anyone here) may use this difficulty to refute that spirit exists, simply because it is difficult to define.
However we have personal experience of other things which are difficult to define (memories - not the causes or effects or even holding places of memories, but memories themselves) yet accept these exist.
The manifestion of spirit at pentecost 33CE was the image of tongues of fire, and the ability to speak in tongues.
This indicates that this type of spirit is a power of some sort. Maybe it is a form of power that we have not yet encountered anywhere else, and therefore struggle to describe it using the limited understanding available to us today.
Splash.
