+- Rogue-Nation Discussion Board (https://rogue-nation.com/mybb)
+-- Forum: Spirits and the Spiritual (https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=81)
+--- Forum: Religions and Matters of Faith (https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=84)
+--- Thread: The Spirit and The Human (/showthread.php?tid=2606)
The Spirit and The Human - F2d5thCav - 02-18-2025
As a bit of disclosure, I am not much of a spiritual thinker. I believe myself to be Catholic but am not one who attends Mass on a regular basis. So take this for what it is worth. It is a jumble of thoughts to be sure.
If one assumes that humans have an eternal soul, it is a curious arrangement when one really considers it.
Some believe the soul cycles through multiple lives on earth as part of a spiritual learning process. This implies the soul is not an integral part of the human body but rather something apart from it even if it "co-habitates" our existence as long as we're alive.
Further assuming the soul itself is of The Source, one ponders what seems to be a parasitical arrangement. "Parasitical" is a harsh word, yet we must recall the host (the human in question) was hardly in a position to grant permission for this union of spirit and flesh. It just happened that way, and is such a mysterious process that many go through their entire lives without realizing there may be "more than one" of them.
The explanation that this part of the soul's education or training is fine as far as that goes, but that explanation avoids discussion of the ethics of what, for humans, is a supernatural force binding to them without so much as a "if I may" ... hardly in line with the old "Prime Directive" of the Star Trek TV series.
The other thought along these lines concerns the lives of individual humans. Would we have ultimately been more content with our lives had we remained without that spark of The Source within? That is, if we had all remained ultra-primitive people of the bush and the grasslands, rooting around for bits of food ... living a more animal life ... would we be less burdened psychologically and fundamentally happier even if our lives would be harder, shorter, and, on occasion, more brutal than what we now know?
And why did we get selected as hosts anyway? Why not chimpanzees or orangutans? Again, one considers the issue of this being forced on the human animal as part of a process that seems to mostly, if not solely, benefits the soul's spiritual progression.
beer.jpg (Size: 2.19 KB / Downloads: 26)
RE: The Spirit and The Human - Ninurta - 02-18-2025
I'll just throw in my concept of "soul", and folks can take it or leave it - I'm no one's spiritual advisor.
I conceive if the soul as the animating force of life, animating a body that would otherwise be inert, a "meat suit". It's kind of like a car and driver, with the soul being the driver and the body being merely a vehicle. It's the soul itself that is actually "you", rather than the body. Or maybe the combination of the two at some level is what constitutes "you", but then that would raise the question of whether the soul is still "you" once it has separated from the body at death.
So, in that view, the soul really doesn't need a "by your leave" to inhabit the body, for without it the body would just be a corpse, a meat suit, an inanimate object.
It naturally follows from that that all living things - people, animals, even plants - have what could be called a spirit, because if they had it not, then they wouldn't be living things. They would just be inanimate objects in a tableaux of what could be, but isn't.
.
RE: The Spirit and The Human - Michigan Swamp Buck - 02-19-2025
Spirit and soul are two different things. I propose that a spirit is the essence of something, like the Christmas spirit.
A soul can be a living soul and doesn't have to be dead to be a soul.
A ghost is more like a shade, shadow, echo, or reflection.
An eternal soul is independent of any mortal physical body and the mortal soul seems to be the body and soul combined.