The Nature of Spirits
The Nature of Spirits
By Punkerslut
Whenever we read the great tales of ghosts and goblins, of gods
and their helpers, of priests, lore, and magic, we are always
struck with the idea that these spirits have emotions, that they
are suffering from human frailties, and that they have a will
power. The origin of the idea of the soul, of the spirits and
the gods, all comes from the most human desire: immortality,
freedom from fear of death. As it so happens to be natural,
humans desire to avoid pain, suffering, misery, and death. The
idea that death or the end of life is not really the end of
life, and that a misery-less future awaits those who die, this
idea is a relatively attractive one. With an afterlife, there is
no death, so it is easy to see why one might enjoy such a
theory, regardless of the lack of any evidence whatsoever. Since
this idea in an afterlife flourishes considerably, there is are
other popular ideas about spirits, souls, and other items that
exist in this afterlife theory.
Our memories, our experiences, our thoughts, ideas, notions,
character, attitude, and feelings are all stored within the
mind. Science, or at least all honest investigative studies,
would tell us that our mind is located within the physical brain
of the body. So far, no other theory has come up with any
verifiable evidence to the contrary. Another theory, with much
less evidence, does exist. It is the idea that the mind is a
part of the soul -- that when the body dies, the mind leaves the
body with the soul. Some individuals have offered evidence on
behalf of such a trite idea. They have argued that since it is a
part of the spiritual realm, one which tools and devices and
technology cannot reach nor see, that it is out of their
jurisdiction of judgment. An interesting idea, I admit. One
might as well claim that they have invented, discovered, or
uncovered something that is wonderful and beautiful, but that is
completely unsensible by human senses. (i.e. we might have a
tourist trap with the holy grail, only to find a plaque "If you
have sinned, you cannot see or feel it, but you must believe it
is there.")
One might be so educated and thoughtful enough to feel that the
theory of a soul is so discredited, that it needs no further
examination; it becomes a moot point. However, there are some
things in this field that might want to be considered, just in a
hypothetical point of view at most. So it indeed happens that
every folk story and every old religion regards spirits as
vibrant and powerful beings. In Greek mythology, the gods often
came down from their clouds, to mate with earthlings, or kill
them, or have dealings with them. In the stories of these gods,
they all seem to have the exact same characteristics of any
human being. They have desires, wants, fears, hopes, beliefs.
They react to their environment. When they are informed that
their plans have failed, they react with disappointment, and
maybe rage or violence. When they are informed that their plans
have succeeded, they react with happiness, and maybe feasting or
gloating. The gods are essentially the most human of any
theoretical being, and this is no surprise when we think of
their creator.
I cannot, for the life of me, suppose any idea or theory as to
why any of the gods are endowed with desires or wants anyway.
When I think of the origin of such psychological phenomena in
humans, or any other organism, my question is immediately
answered. Humans are endowed with a complex brain because it is
necessary towards survival. The same can be argued for any other
living creature. Desire motivates, it creates movement. When a
predator, either a crocodile or a lion or any other for that
matter, is hungry, it hunts to satisfy its desire. In this
situation, the component of the brain that creates desire and
want, especially for satisfying hunger, this component is
essential. Those predators that were born without this
capability could not hunt or eat as effectively, and could not
fight for breeding rights very well either, since they could not
want them. And, so, it would die, leaving no offspring, leaving
no other organisms on this planet with their DNA -- DNA which
contains a lack of desire. We can apply this to other organisms,
too. Prey that is born without a desire to flee its natural
predator, for example, will not live long enough to reproduce.
The same can be said of prey that does not want to eat to
satisfy its hunger, either. It will waste away to weakness and
then be taken by its predator.
Desire definitely plays a strong and important role in the
psyche of all consciousness-endowed organisms. However, it is
not the only important part of consciousness. For example, there
is also pain, the physical affliction, or misery, the mental
affliction. An animal can suffer, and it is this suffering that
they will forever be afraid of. Their fear and their suffering
gives them something to desire: happiness and security. Without
pain, an organism will not react negatively to another trying to
kill it -- at least, if instincts were gone as well. Without
happiness, an animal would not know whether it was doing
something right or wrong. The social instinct, to be in a
collective of like organisms, is natural to almost every mammal.
When wolves hunt in packs, they are more effective killers. When
humans band together to form societies and civilizations, the
fruit of their labor increases. When zebras feed and mate in
packs, all of their stripes form a natural defense, by
disallowing predators from knowing where one zebra starts and
another ends. The social instinct has given each organism a
strong advantage in survival. And, when organisms survive, they
can reproduce, and more organisms like themselves, with the same
emotions and mental faculties, will be produced.
Let us not forget the importance of the mating instinct. The
sexual arrousal caused by flirting or foreplay plays a
significant role in the mating act. The orgasm itself and the
sexual drive to achieve are important to every creature. It
seems that in every group of thoughtful organisms, there is not
competition for the right to reproduce, some how or some way.
Often, it is the male competing for the female, but this is not
the only case. In some cases, there is polygamy, and in others,
there is polyandry. Every rule of behavior that we can think of
for other organisms will always have exceptions to it. The
underlying fact that sex plays an important role in the mental
faculties of conscious organisms is important to my thesis. The
mind is full of complexities and faculties that make it
conscious. All of these emotions, these feelings, play a strong
sense in the conscious organism.
Now that I have covered a great deal on the complexities of
conscious organisms, one might be curious as to why I brought up
this subject in the discussion of spirits. First of all, all of
the components of the mind that I mentioned above -- desire,
fear, social instinct, sex -- all of these components have a
reason for existence. By this, I mean that they all exist
because of the natural and perpetual struggle that goes on in
the natural world. Without desire or fear or sexual impulses, an
organism would not reproduce, and therefore, no other organisms
with that mentality would be created, except by chance of
reversion, which is very unlikely. My question is this: why is
it that spirits and souls are endowed with these psychological
aspects?
In all of the stories I have read of the gods, I have uncovered
all of these impulses. I have encountered the sexual urge of the
gods of Greece and Rome. I have discovered the ability to desire
and feel accomplishment or disappointment in the gods and
spirits of Animist cultures. It seems that there is no god,
excepting the god of Deism, that has no interest in being
involved with the people who believe in him. The Christians
believe their god will save them. The Hindus believe their god
will reincarnate them. The Jews believe that their god has
smashed societies and cultures for the tiniest of reasons. Every
religion remains identical in this fact.
Okay, so, we have spirits, souls, and gods, many of them
endowed with human mentality. I am quite curious, though. Why is
it that no playwright in ancient Greece ever described one of
the gods as rubbing his belly and hungry? Why have I seen no
spirits that get hungry? Some cultures feed their spirits, but
that's even more absurd. They leave only enough food for a few
days or a weeks. And why leave any food at all? Will the spirits
decompose and go to the state of the after-afterlife? The sexual
urge that seems so prevalent in so many religions, from the god
of Christianity violating a virgin meant to be married to the
Greek gods that committed such fornication on a regular basis --
just why does the sexual urge prevail? Of what use is it? Are
the gods going to mate and then produce spiritual offspring?
What seems a thousand times more odd is that the gods are
lacking those parts that make sexual activity useful, for
procreation or recreation. The penis and the vagina, these two
parts that are responsible for producing the pleasure of sex,
are non-existent on ghosts. If a human loses such a part, it is
impossible to engage in sexual activity. And, it seems that
these ghosts have lost all their bodies. Yet, the urge to have
sex is prevalent, while their sex organs are not prevalent. One
may argue with me, "But the gods and ghosts have physical bodies
that they can use!" If this is true, then it shouldn't be even
slightly difficult to get evidence of god. Whenever pressed for
evidence, the religionist usually claims, "But they are
noncorporal entities -- they are not physical, they are
spiritual." No thoughtful spiritualist will claim their god is
actually physical, because in doing so, they have opened the
doors to dispelling their beliefs in a heartbeat.
The need to eat is as absurd as the desire to have sex for the
gods. Other things, such as the social instinct and any desire
at all, seem to also be quite absurd. Why animals and other
conscious organisms are equipped with desires and the social
instinct is easy to understand. With regard to the social
instinct, it has helped organisms to survive against the natural
elements, or predators, or aided in obtaining their prey. When
organisms had a social instinct, they were more effective at
survival, and that means they were more effective at
reproducing. When organisms had no social instinct, they died
rather quickly -- not able to reproduce something like
themselves, leaving the world destitute of such types of
species. (And while there may be exceptions to this rule of the
social instinct, the previous description is how Evolution
works: those unfit, do not survive.) Why would the gods ever be
needing of the social instinct? Why ever should the gods band
together with other gods? In all honesty, I am bankrupt of any
answer. The gods cannot die, they cannot suffer afflictions
caused by natural disasters, they cannot be wounded. Everything
that makes the social instinct desirable and useful is
nonexistent with the gods. Banding together does nothing for
them. One might argue "It cures loneliness," but loneliness may
in fact just be that instinct to band together unsatisfied.
Then there is the idea of desire. In all my studying of
literature, I must say that the mythology of Greece, Egypt, and
the entire Fertile Crescent is full of gods with more desires
and wants than any sane man. Since it seems very easy to believe
that the gods are simply an image of mankind, exaggerrated in
many aspects, so it seems that these gods are endowed with many
supernatural wants, needs, impulses, desires. Sometimes the
drowning of an entire civilization in blood is not enough to
quell the heart of the least dominant deity. I am also curious
here... Why is it that the gods have been endowed with this
ability of desiring? To what use is it really, when one is a
god? It has no use. For, if god, or the gods, are capable of
doing anything, then they would not desire, but simply have. I
can see the use of the desire ability in organisms and animals
on our own planet. When there is hunger, or sexual lust, or
gaining security in society, all of these desires push and
motivate the organism to do what is necessary to live and to
reproduce. And, once reproduction has occured, the cycle can
happen all over again. When an animal is not fit enough to
reproduce, or cannot live to that stage, then the genes that
cursed it to a sexless life will not be found again, exception
in the rare instances of reversion perhaps.
Many of the Freethinkers and philosophes of earlier years, and
even our own day, have attacked the idea of religion. God
created man in his own image was a questioned idea, and we
reversed it: man created god in his own image. This would seem
to be the more credulous case of the matter. We find gods in
each civilization, taking the race and species of its people.
This has varied in some cases, where gods take on the forms of
reptiles, mammals, and birds. However, there is one thing in the
nature of gods, spirits, and souls that seems to be consistent
in every religion we investigate: they have wants, desires,
lust, hunger, and needs. Where every human being -- no, where
every living creature is the same, in having a consciousness, we
find that same consciousness in a rather inplausible place: in a
god, or a soul, or a spirit. It is clearly understood, then,
that these gods and spirits are based on human ideas, that they
come from the minds of men, that they spread by our mouths. And,
it must also be clearly understood, that the gods are nothing
more than an imperfect creation by the hands of man.
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