Conceptually, the spirit does not exist other than as a reflection of, or belief in, the words of others, or as the result of ones own contemplations. However, this picture is at best abstract, and more likely pure fantasy than anything else. Whether one is a theist or atheist, if the spirit is only a concept, it might as well not exist for all the true relevance it has in their lives, although they may be impacted by the admonitions of those claiming spiritual knowledge (more likely to be religious dogma).
I agree with your statement that, in lieu of spiritual experience "Pleading irreducible complexity and elevating the spirit to something mawkishly chimerical -- or even more unsatisfactory, "divine" -- is a massive leap of faith." However, to one who has experienced spirit, life without it is inconceivable. One should not buy a car until they have taken it for a test drive in my opinion. Similarly, one should not have faith but hold out for the experience. Again, this is why the mass acceptance of religious teachings is so perplexing to me. On Jul 31, 7:55 am, Ian Pollard <[email protected]> wrote: > 2009/7/31 deripsni <[email protected]> > > > > > Why some do not ever recognize the spirit within is something that I > > cannot answer. > > I recognise the spirit as concept, but probably not in the same sense a > theist would. The "spirit", to me, is a lazy, but useful, collective term to > describe a whole gamut of chemical, psychological, and anthropological > variables operating upon an individual. Pleading irreducible complexity and > elevating the spirit to something mawkishly chimerical -- or even more > unsatisfactory, "divine" -- is a massive leap of faith. > > Ian --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
