Posts by Vidqun

609

What is spirit, exactly?

by Viviane in

i've always wondered that.

recently i asked that question on another thread and didn't really get ananswer.

cofty made an excellent point that we often hear what it isn't, but that really isn't useful.. so, what is it?

Teapot and fossilized dragon fire? Seems like you do have some imagination after all. Regarding matter, they have detected most particles that make up matter, even those that were only predicted by their mathematical equations. But then that would not be enough to keep things together, so they predict the existence of something they call "dark matter" and "dark energy." This is so prevalent that they hope to prove its existence in a California goldmine, where these "particles" would collide with concentrated helium, if I remember correctly.

The Universe is full of matter and the attractive force of gravity pulls all matter together. Then came 1998 and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of very distant supernovae that showed that, a long time ago, the Universe was actually expanding more slowly than it is today. So the expansion of the Universe has not been slowing due to gravity, as everyone thought, it has been accelerating. No one expected this, no one knew how to explain it. But something was causing it.

Eventually theorists came up with three sorts of explanations. Maybe it was a result of a long-discarded version of Einstein's theory of gravity, one that contained what was called a "cosmological constant." Maybe there was some strange kind of energy-fluid that filled space. Maybe there is something wrong with Einstein's theory of gravity and a new theory could include some kind of field that creates this cosmic acceleration. Theorists still don't know what the correct explanation is, but they have given the solution a name. It is called dark energy.

What is dark energy? More is unknown than is known. We know how much dark energy there is because we know how it affects the Universe's expansion. Other than that, it is a complete mystery. But it is an important mystery. It turns out that roughly 68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the Universe. Come to think of it, maybe it shouldn't be called "normal" matter at all, since it is such a small fraction of the Universe. From the NASA Science website.

I cannot say with certainty what God, or the angels/demons are made of, but as above demostrates, there's a lot we do not know. So don't discard a form of energy as an option just yet.

25

Hello

by venting in

jw
friends

just wanted to say hello.

i have alot to say, but i'm not good at typeing.

i'm still in the org.

Vidqun

Welcome! This is the place to say your say or forever hold your peace.

609

What is spirit, exactly?

by Viviane in

i've always wondered that.

recently i asked that question on another thread and didn't really get ananswer.

cofty made an excellent point that we often hear what it isn't, but that really isn't useful.. so, what is it?

Vidqun

Here's some repetition for emphasis. It's on p. 11 of the thread. You either missed it or ignored it.

Viviane, here's an attempt to answer your question. At least a partial answer:

Spirit, wind, breeze = forms of energy:

1) spirit, the energy involved, keeping the organism alive (where breathing plays an important part): Spirit is an old-fashioned name, describing the energy needed to sustain life. In scientific terms: ATP > ADP + energy

Wikipedia : Adenosine triphosphate ( ATP ) is a nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism. It is one of the end products of photophosphorylation, cellular respiration, and fermentation and used by enzymes and structural proteins in many cellular processes, including biosynthetic reactions, motility, and cell division (see also Cellular respiration: glycolysis, oxydative phosphorylation, mitochondrial ATP synthase complex).

2) It can also refer to motivational energy of a person, whether internal or external, whether good or bad, e.g., a philanthropist donates money to worthwhile causes or a criminal has the inclination to rape, steal and harm others. The philanthropist is driven by a benevolent spirit (internally). The criminal is driven by a selfish, egotistical spirit (internally). One needs not blame God or the Devil here.

3 ) It can refer to an inanimate force, e.g., breeze, wind. No explanation needed.

4) It can also refer to independent creatures, e.g., angels and demons.

5) It can refer to the substance of God and that which he uses to accomplish his will.

For 4) & 5) one needs a bit of imagination. (I am a great fan of SF, and have an overactive imagination, so that helps.) If physical (single cell or multicellular) organisms can exist, can one rule out that organisms, made out of energy, can exist? What would keep the energy concentrated? I don’t know. Our understanding of natural phenomena is limited. But that does not rule out the possibility that these cannot exist.

Medical terms come and go. But it's always interesting to see where things come from. I am interested in linguistics and the origin of words. If a child asks me where a word comes from, yes, I'll start from the Dictionary definition and work from there. I am afraid "spirit" is here to stay, even if it just refers to the one that you buy in bottles. As Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull sang: "The Christmas spirit is not what you drink."

Snare, seems like you haven't done much in psychology/psychiatry? Like John Chirban, Ph.D, Th.D., a clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School, said in one of his articles: "Leaving Space for the Spirit in Clinical Treatment." You, as Medical Practitioner should also take it to heart. Treating the whole patient, acknowledging their beliefs and spiritual well-being, would contribute to the healing process. By the way, "take it to heart," what does that mean? One should say, take it to brain.

609

What is spirit, exactly?

by Viviane in

i've always wondered that.

recently i asked that question on another thread and didn't really get ananswer.

cofty made an excellent point that we often hear what it isn't, but that really isn't useful.. so, what is it?

Vidqun

Cofty, no you don't get rid of words that easily. They become entrenched in use. Perhaps in a hundred years or so things might have changed. But for the time being faith/superstition (whatever you want to call it) reigns supreme.

609

What is spirit, exactly?

by Viviane in

i've always wondered that.

recently i asked that question on another thread and didn't really get ananswer.

cofty made an excellent point that we often hear what it isn't, but that really isn't useful.. so, what is it?

Vidqun

Snare, I think "spirit" or related words are brilliant words to describe a process little understood 2 or 3 thousand years ago. From there we can see where our current word use stems from. Alive = warm = living soul. Dead = cold = dead soul. That's where our current "spirit" comes from, whether you like it or not. Oh yes, and Snare, may I just say, synthetic life < creator: Dr. Craig Venter. Do you get my drift?