Body and Soul

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Eternalist theory of time...the idea that time does not pass...it just is. This is also known as the B-Theory of time.

If this theory is correct, then Reality is media. I proposed that it is media built (by the Holy Spirit) for the activity of Souls (who redeem the Creation by deriving meaning from it and are lead by their exemplar, Christ).

In this post, I want to write about the quirky things that happen if you believe that your soul is you...that it is the spiritual portion of your identity...that it is (for example) female, because you are female.

Bodies and Souls...there are three possibilities:

• ALL bodies have souls.
• SOME bodies have souls, but some do not.
• NO bodies have souls because bodies are part of the media and souls are essentially outside the media.

Let's start with SOME...since it is the standard position of most Christians. (i.e., one human body has one soul...dog bodies do not have souls...when we resurrect, we do so as body and soul.) And then the children, wisest of us all, begin to ask those ridiculous/profound Sunday school questions that can only be answered with tortuous twists...Ptolemaic epicycles. 

What exactly is a human? Did the Neanderthals have souls? When does the soul join up with the body? At birth? At conception? Did the soul exist before it got assigned to a body? What was it doing while it waited? What about when babies or even fetuses die? Do their souls get judged? Do the good ones go to heaven and the bad ones to hell? How can they go to heaven at all since they have not been baptized?

Okay...okay...it is (truly) not my goal to beat up on Christianity...especially not with this approach. BUT...bottom line, the Christian notion sees the body as a prerequisite for a soul. To me, this feels like speciesism or materialism...and both are poor choices for the justification of Christian ideas.

Which leads me to the next possibility...ALL creatures have souls. This idea probably originated with people who really love their pets. Eastern thinking...and especially "New Age" Eastern thinking...also played a role. And of course...the Sunday school questions begin again.

We are supposed to be happy in heaven, but how can I be happy without my dog? Have you ever looked into the eyes of a Gorilla (dog, whale, horse)? Of course they have souls!

But the problem is in knowing where to stop. Easy enough to extend the soul franchise to mammals. and ummm...well yes, birds are quite smart and Cockatoos are adorable. But what about lampreys and thousand-leggers and termites and ticks? Do they have souls? This all gets quite silly.

NO bodies have souls? This is what I believe. Bodies (and minds, biographies, egos) do not have souls. Souls have bodies. All time exists all the time. For me, this is what makes the idea of non-physical consciousness so believable. Nothing happens in a movie. A movie is a large collection of static photographs. None of them move and none of them think and truly, there are no people in those photographs. There are no Hobbits or Orcs. There are only patterns of light and dark.
In order to experience the illusion of time, you have to bring in pure consciousness from outside the movie itself. Only a feeling consciousness (soul) can add meaning to those patterns of light and dark. Only a soul can redeem them.

How else is it possible for you to love Frodo? How is it possible for you to hope that everything turns out well...even after the fifth reading? Do you love ink stains on pressed wood pulp? Or do you love a heroic Hobbit of the Shire? 
This is how the soul loves you.

May I re-state the vow of the Bodhisattva?

In her wisdom, she sees no beings. In her compassion, she vows to save them.