Theological Terminology

SOUL

What is a soul? This is not as easy a question as one would first think. Dualistic transcendental religions, such as Christianity, say that it is some sort of invisible, intangible, undetectable, immutable, immortal thing that exists on some conjectured transcendental astral plane.

But I’m not a dualist, I’m a monist. I’m not a transcendentalist, I’m a mundanist. But don’t get the impression that I disbelieve in a soul. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What are the properties of a soul? In my judgement, a soul entails all thought, intellect, emotions, memories, hopes, dreams, aspirations, suffering, loves, joys, hates, sorrows, regrets, creativity, spite, knowledge, learning, understanding, empathy, sympathy, pity, greed, lust, desire, initiative, and instinct of each and every human. More so, of every organism that has mental faculty.

A soul is an emergent phenomena of a being’s mental faculty. And mental faculty is an emergent phenomena of the brain’s neural network. Every living organism with a neural network has some degree of a soul. From ringworms to humans.

Given this natural definition of a soul, what can we say about a soul? For one, it is mortal. It exists while we exist, and when we die it perishes. It is ephemeral. For another, it is in constant flux. Always growing, changing, learning, and adapting; until the day it dies.

spirit, body

SPIRIT

What is spirit? Like soul, this is another tricky question. Many religions leave this vague and ill-defined. Some think of angels or demons. Others think of transparent, shining ghosts, with sunbeams giving them a nimbus glow.

But a spirit has to be something, if it exists at all. And I do think it exists. It is the difference between a walking, talking human being, and a pile of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. It is the difference between a living human being, and a moment later a dead human being.

So what is spirit that encapsulates those two criteria? One is structure. The structure of any human being. The structure of each molecule in the human body. The location of each molecule. But there is more than that, otherwise what accounts for the difference between a living human being one moment, and a dead human being a moment later.

The processes are also important. In addition to the structure, the processes of a working human metabolism which is called life. So spirit is the structure and processes.

The spirit is not energy. The spirit is only structure and processes. Energy, as in how energy is used in the physics sense, is something different. q.v. body.

There is human spirit. A human spirit is the form and anima of a human. Saying human entails human spirit. The human spirit is intrinsic to human-ness.

There is canine spirit. Like human and human spirit, being canine entails canine spirit. The canine spirit is intrinsic to canine-ness.

Every living organism has spirit, that is, has structure and processes. Every non-living organism has spirit as well. That is, absolutely everything has structure and processes.

Moreso, the whole planet has a structure and has global processes – the Earth has Earth spirit. All human spirits and part of the Earth spirit. All canine spirits are part of the Earth spirit. Because all of us humans are part of the Earth. With the momentary exception of those few astronauts and cosmonauts who took our race’s first baby steps from our home.

Even grander yet, the entire universe has structure and processes. As with all spirits, the totality of the cosmos is always in a state of flux, always changing, always becoming. And spirit of the entire universe is what I call the Holy Spirit. And remember, we are all part of universe – we are all part of the Holy Spirit.

Spinoza would term this mode (the structure part, at least).

soul, body

THE HOLY SPIRIT

q.v. spirit.

spirit

BODY

What is the difference between body and the spirit and soul? Given soul and spirit in this documents context, the body is not the shape and structure. The body is the matter, the molecules and chemical atoms. It is all of the chemical bonding energy, the matter (mass) energy, the thermal energy, the kinetic energy. In no particular shape.

The body is immortal, since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed. And matter is but one form of energy. The form that we’re most familiar with, to be sure.

Well actually the inviolability of energy is not entirely true. At the quantum level, energy is popping into and out of existence all the time, known as the Zero Point Energy Field or the Casimir Effect. And at our macro-level of human existence, exotic matter, also known as negative energy, combined with matter will utterly annihilate, since matter is positive energy. Similarly, exotic matter combined with antimatter will also utterly annihilate, since antimatter is also positive energy. But fortunately exotic matter is rare stuff.

Spinoza would term this substance.

soul, spirit

GOD

What is god? According to the religious scholars, god is whatever it’s believers say it is.

But I’m a little bit of a stickler. I don’t like to have such a wishy-washy definition. Sure, it’s a good definition when you are comparing untenable religious authoritarian dogma. So you can talk about Christiandom’s Trinity, Jew’s Jehovah, Viking’s Odin, Hindu’s Brahma, Roman’s Jupiter, Egyptian’s Amen-Ra, Greek’s Zeus and Islam’s Allah.

But all those gods have one thing in common: they don’t exist. They’re all pretend. And I cannot pretend to make-believe in an imaginary god.

So for me I need a god with a little more substance. Something actually exists. And, it has to be something that is worthy of being deified. It needs to be divine. Deserving of being exalted as a god.

I don’t find the wise men worthy of apotheosis. I cannot proclaim Moses as god. Nor Jesus Christ (Rabbi Y’shua). Nor Budda (Prince Siddharta). Nor Mohatma (Gandhi). Nor Nichiren. Nor Mohammad. Nor Augustus. Nor Tutankhamen. Nor Heracles. Nor Julius. Actually, I cannot deify any human being. I can respect their wisdom, and I see it as being illustrative of the possible heights a human can attain. Worthy of admiration, and as a role model.

But a god? No, I need something that surpasses a mere human being, or even all human beings collectively. Although, it would be nice if whatever is worthy of being deified could incorporate all human beings.

And those imaginary gods of revelation and holy scriptures: Trinity, Jehovah, Odin, Brahma, Jupiter, Amen-Ra, Zeus, and Allah? Jealous gods. Vengeful gods. Spiteful gods. Angry gods. Petty gods. Make-believe gods. They have neither my respect, nor am I self-deluded enough to think any of them exist.

I demand that my god meets a few criteria, or I just will have to forego having any god at all. My god needs to be real, it has to demonstrably exist, all-powerful, eternal, immanent, consubstantial with everything, have aseity, and a strong impact in my life, and have created the universe. What has all those thing?

How about the sun, Sol. It’s definitely very powerful, it has enough energy that could fry the Earth to a crisp. It’s not quite eternal, but it existed long before me, or even before the Earth, and will exist long after I die. Long after the Earth has been destroyed as well. Its energy nourishes the whole Earth, without which we would all perish. It’s not consubstantial, but it’s radiant energy is within every living thing on the Earth. It has had an enormous impact on my life, often taken for granted, for I wouldn’t have a life at all if the sun didn’t exists. But it doesn’t have aseity, and it definitely didn’t create the universe.

Hmmm. Well, what about the universe itself! It has all those attributes. It’s all-powerful, nothing is more powerful than everything. It’s eternal, for the universe itself defines all of time and space. It’s immanent, for everywhere and everywhen is part of the universe. It’s consubstantial with everything that exists. It has aseity, and continues to show it’s aseity in quantum mechanics. It’s had an enormous impact in my life, and I definitely wouldn’t have a life at all if the universe didn’t exist. And there are several plausible scientific theories that the universe spontaneously created itself, maybe on the same principles of the universe’s quantum mechanic aseity.

All of those attributes are arguably sustainable, except the last one. The last one is a bit of a stretch, because we currently do not know with any good scientific certainty what mechanism caused the universe to come into being. Perhaps by the death of the previous universe in an endless cycle of closed universes. Perhaps from an improbably energetic boson spontaneously created, as allowed by quantum mechanics. Perhaps by an improbably energetic boson spontaneously created in the remnants of some previous universe in an infinite eternity of universes.

However, among the plausible scientific theories, based on facts and empirical data, each of those theories imply that the universe created itself in the big bang. Yet there may be good theories that have yet to be conjectured. But the jury is still out. We just don’t have enough information for a conclusive verdict. We’ll have to take that one provisionally. Denoting the universe as god may need reconsideration, at some future point in time when more information becomes available.

Our universe, my deified universe, is god. God is totality, reality, nature, truth, everything-that-exists, and the cosmos in toto. All objects, energy, space, time, thoughts, concepts, logic, and mathematics.

God, the cosmos, is marvelous. Wondrous. Awesome. Beautiful. Splendor. It has a certain je ne sais quoi, but I cannot put it into words.

So let’s pause for a moment and consider the ramifications of the universe as deified as god. What does that mean for the human drama and condition? For good, and evil? For right, and wrong? For love, and hate? For justice, and inequity? For mercy, and punishment? For joy, and suffering?

Well, on pro side, our god-the-cosmos is all-good, all-right, all-love, all-justice, all-mercy, all-joy. All those things are part of god, part of everything-that-exists. Humanity itself is part of god. As well as all human actions, thoughts, works and virtues.

I am part of god, minuscule in the big picture, but not insignificant. I am significant to myself, my family, my friends, my associates.

But on the con side, all-evil, all-wrong, all-hate, all-inequity, all-punishment, all-suffering are also part of this god-the-cosmos. Now that’s a bit upsetting and somewhat disappointing. How can a god allow such evil, wrong, hate, inequity, punishment, and suffering?

The universe, god-the-cosmos, does not have intention, will, volition, awareness, nor consciousness. The universe, god-the-cosmos, is vast, powerful. It is chaotic, yet ordered. Random, yet reliable. Filled with serendipity, happenstance, luck, and synchronicity, as well as misfortune, exigency, accident, and calamity.

But god, the cosmos, is not responsible. It is not culpable, liable, nor accountable. The universe as a whole is without malice, hostility, animosity, and malevolence; it is incapable of those sentiments. The universe is. What is, is.