What is spirit, exactly?

by Viviane 609 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • snare&racket
    snare&racket

    Vid......ATP... lol.

  • KateWild
    KateWild

    FHN and Kate have both offered this one. I think it is a very common opinion that there is some sort of force that animates living things. It is also a JW doctrine. - Cofty

    Hey cofty, thanks for chiming in. I needed a intelligent debater to chat with. You have an excellent point there. Whilst contemplating what siprit is and reconciling it with my beliefs of a Creator, I did fully accept it was a JW doctrine. So maybe I am still hanging onto JW beliefs.

    Although we know how living things grow, it doesn't mean we can't use the term spirit in describing the animation of living things. I like to use this term and it's commonly understood by the general population as it is a dictonary definition, so although "the spark of life" is a JW term, it can also apply to the genral public who have never been JWs.

    All in all you have a good point and I may well be clinging to my JW beliefs. Something for me to consider. But I am satisfied for now with my beliefs.

    Thanks for your input in this thread

    Kate xx

  • KateWild
    KateWild

    Vid......ATP... lol - Snare

    What ??????????????????? LOL!!!!

    Snare, have you been up all night posting again? What do those abbreviations stand for mister? Kate xx

  • cofty
    cofty

    The realisation that life is a process and that there is no "lifeforce" was an "aha" moment for me.

    I think it's one a lot of ex-JWs are still to experience. Many more resist the fact because it threatens the possibility of an afterlife.

    By the way Kate, your judgement of Kate as damaged or attention seeking is out of order.

    I have asked the same question in the past and received the same irritated response from believers.

    It's good to see a thread on the topic. It is a valid question and the total lack of sensible answers is very telling.

  • snare&racket
    snare&racket

    I couldn't sleep.....

    You should know ATP kate, shame on you.

    As for life and animation, what do you all belive happened when Dr Craig Venter artificially created a living functioning bacterium in a lab?

    It actually came to life and started working as a normal bacteria.

    He has now created synthetic life that manufactures fuel as it's waste product.

    Do you all feel that god is keeping up with Craig's lab work ready to breathe magic into the finished products?

    How come you are ignoring the scientific world that have already figured out that this is simply machinery at work, so much so we have made it ourselves.....

    http://www.ted.com/talks/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life

    It is just machinery! That is it! ATP simply spins a turbine in mitochondria, or triggers actin and myosin in muscles... it is a molecule that is easily charged at ATP, and can be recharged from ADP (di being two phosphates, tri being....yeah you get it).

    It is all mechanical...and guess what when it is all brought together, like a fine harley....ok wait, like a fine Honda... it starts to work!

    Why are you adding magic, mystery or woo?..... seriously? It works without it!

    When the machinery breaks down, the mecanism ceases to animate, to live! The ATP in the muscles do not recharge, hence rigamortis! They don't recharge as they have no fuel to add the third phosphate, no air or sugar, they have no air or sugar because the blood has stopped circulating, because the pressure has dropped in thr blood vessels, because the heart has stopped, because the hesrt tissue has failed because the cells are old and deteriorated because the dna used to replicate those cells has deteriorated becase the telomere molecule that protects the dna every time it is copied has deteriorated over 80 years....

    It is all mechanical.....

  • Vidqun
    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?

  • cofty
    cofty

    So Vidqun do you agree that we can safely dispose of the word spirit in the same way as we stopped saying "aether"?

  • snare&racket
    snare&racket

    Nope.

  • Vidqun
    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.

  • snare&racket
    snare&racket

    About 5,000 years ago the egyptians figured the circumference of the earth using geometry and were performing cataract surgery.

    Now this we can work with.....

    I have studied Medicine for 6 years and never once heard the term 'spirit'.

    Looks like everyone else moved on and nobody sent you a memo.

    "Reigns supreme" < reality

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