“The latter part of the first sentence doesn’t at all follow necessarily from the first. The second sentence merely asserts something about the soul that, in Christianity at least, is ontological nonsense.”
Spirited: Whether it makes sense or not depends upon one’s worldview. From the perspective of Christian theism it makes perfect sense while from any monist perspective it does not.
The writer points out that to be “created in the spiritual image of God the Father” is for each soul to be individually endowed with “thought, memory” and will. Therefore, for these spiritual attributes to be reduced to matter (this is materialist monism), the idea of soul becomes incoherent in that (a) it follows that if mind must be reduced to matter, so too must soul, and (b) soul without mind is meaningless.
If one’s worldview is founded on Eastern monism, then individual souls/minds cannot exist in that Eastern/neo-Platonist monism declares that all that exists is Absolute Spirit (or by other names such as christ-consciousness, the Force, Overmind) and everything that is is but a part of Absolute Spirit. In this view, the material realm is but an epiphenomenon of Absolute Spirit while soul/mind is but a spark of the Absolute Spirit. There is no individuality nor free will but rather collectivity (oneness). The author quoted Rob Bell’s monistic teaching as an example of Eastern/neo-Platonist monism.
aruanan: One could claim based on this, and some do, that since unborn infants don’t have thought, memory, or will, abortion merely returns the soul to God.
Spirited: Within Eastern monism that claim is correct. Upon the abortion of the baby its’ spark either reincarnates (transmigrates) into another body which may or may not be human depending on its’ karma, or again depending on its karma and in tandem with its’ evolutionary spirit-progress over millions of years, it may simply return to and be reabsorbed into the spiritual one-thing.
America was founded on the mind/body dualism unique to Christian theism. Only mind/body dualism allows for self-government and individual rights. We are however losing our individual rights because America is transitioning away from Christian theism and toward the collectivity of Eastern/neo-Platonist monism.
Communism by the way, is a system of “government” built upon the idea of collective-oneness.
ping to #64