Do you think theres inanimate spirit just like theres inanimate matter?

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we know that in the material world, there is matter that is alive (plants., animals,) and matter that is inanimate (rocks, dirt, etc). however there MUST be inanimate spirit as well! think about it, take for instance the abstract world of mathemtics or ideas or concepts, these are all part of the spiritual realm, but they are not alive. this lead me to the conclusion that the spirit realm also contains dead and living things. living spirits: (angels, God), non-living spirits: ( ideas, concepts, abstract things) and which further leads to the conclusion that life is something not intrinsic to spirit or matter. what do you think?
 
someperson555 said:
we know that in the material world, there is matter that is alive (plants., animals,) and matter that is inanimate (rocks, dirt, etc). however there MUST be inanimate spirit as well! think about it, take for instance the abstract world of mathemtics or ideas or concepts, these are all part of the spiritual realm, but they are not alive. this lead me to the conclusion that the spirit realm also contains dead and living things. living spirits: (angels, God), non-living spirits: ( ideas, concepts, abstract things) and which further leads to the conclusion that life is something not intrinsic to spirit or matter. what do you think?
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I think you have generalized some the terms of this proposal so much that one can demonstrate things that are not true as if they are. Take your statement “there MUST be inanimate spirit as well!” It seems to me this requires that “spirit” means something different than its ordinary meaning. In a Catholic context spirit and soul are sometimes used synonymously. Given that, dead things cannot have a spirit, because it is the departure of the spirit that causes a living being to become dead.
 
someperson555 said:
we know that in the material world, there is matter that is alive (plants., animals,) and matter that is inanimate (rocks, dirt, etc). however there MUST be inanimate spirit as well! think about it, take for instance the abstract world of mathemtics or ideas or concepts, these are all part of the spiritual realm, but they are not alive. this lead me to the conclusion that the spirit realm also contains dead and living things. living spirits: (angels, God), non-living spirits: ( ideas, concepts, abstract things) and which further leads to the conclusion that life is something not intrinsic to spirit or matter. what do you think?
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It looks to me like you are trying to make the case for what is sometimes called Platonic Realism or Exaggerated Realism.

Recommended reading:

oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Nominalism%2C_Realism%2C_Conceptualism
 
davidv said:
I think you have generalized some the terms of this proposal so much that one can demonstrate things that are not true as if they are. Take your statement “there MUST be inanimate spirit as well!” It seems to me this requires that “spirit” means something different than its ordinary meaning. In a Catholic context spirit and soul are sometimes used synonymously. Given that, dead things cannot have a spirit, because it is the departure of the spirit that causes a living being to become dead.
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well, isnt the spiritual realm the immaterial realm. because all spirit is immaterial, meaning: lacking in matter and body. there exists a material and spiritual world. spirit cannot animate by itself otherwise ideas and concepts would be alive too. the bible makes a distiction between soul and spirit. soul (nephesh) is literally translated as “life”. while spirit (rauch) is used separately. this means that soul and spirit are two different substances.
even dead things have a spiritual aspect since a rock is just a collection of atoms, but what makes it a rock is the idea behind it…no?
lol this is just my idle speculation by the way.
 
someperson555 said:
well, isnt the spiritual realm the immaterial realm. because all spirit is immaterial, meaning: lacking in matter and body. there exists a material and spiritual world. spirit cannot animate by itself otherwise ideas and concepts would be alive too. the bible makes a distiction between soul and spirit. soul (nephesh) is literally translated as “life”. while spirit (rauch) is used separately. this means that soul and spirit are two different substances.
even dead things have a spiritual aspect since a rock is just a collection of atoms, but what makes it a rock is the idea behind it…no?
lol this is just my idle speculation by the way.
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Is the realm of an idea the same as the realm of an angel? If not, then the immaterial and spiritual realms are not equal and we do ourselve a disservice by not distlinquishing between them.
 
The play on words made me laugh at first, because the Greek generally used for soul or spirit would be “anima,” literally, that which gives life to a thing. So for an inanimate thing to have a spirit doesn’t seem to make sense.

The comment on Platonic philosophy being taken too literally here seems to be the case. Within the spiritual realm, intelligent beings (God, angels, human souls) understand ideas, concepts, etc. Do they exist as separate things that float around in this spiritual realm? This seems to be materializing the spiritual realm, as if there are things like ideas which take up space in a realm which is utterly different from our world of space and time.

Ideas exist in the human mind, they can be communicated and passed between intelligent beings. They all certainly exist in the mind of God, so to speak. But, do they really exist as independent things in some spiritual realm, as inanimate spirits? Doesn’t seem likely…just my two cents. I don’t think it has serious implications or effects, but it was an interesting little mental exercise to think about 🙂

In Christ through Mary,
Frank
 
Inanimate spirit is, in a sense, a contradiction in terms, as spirit is what “animates”.

Spirit is, literally, breath (the word comes from spiritus, in Latin, meaning breath, whence we get words like respiration and inspire). Just as the breath in your lungs holds life in your body, the Spirit is God’s breath that creates life. Beings that have spirit are alive and become souls: become “animated” (anima = soul in Latin).

So “inanimate spirit” is equivalent to “dead life.”

ICXC NIKA
 
someperson555 said:
we know that in the material world, there is matter that is alive (plants., animals,) and matter that is inanimate (rocks, dirt, etc). however there MUST be inanimate spirit as well! think about it, take for instance the abstract world of mathemtics or ideas or concepts, these are all part of the spiritual realm, but they are not alive. this lead me to the conclusion that the spirit realm also contains dead and living things. living spirits: (angels, God), non-living spirits: ( ideas, concepts, abstract things) and which further leads to the conclusion that life is something not intrinsic to spirit or matter. what do you think?
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I think there’s a spiritual component that is neutral ie. neither good nor bad. When we talk about spirit, we usually mean either human spirits, God, angels, Satan, demons etc.

However I suspect there’s a neutral component which might be necessary for communication in the spiritual world. When an angel wants to communicate with another for example, how does he do so?

The thing that brought this to mind is the old Aboriginal bush telegraph. Jacky broke his leg in Alice Springs, and by sundown, Harry knew about it in Darwin, thousands of kilometres away, without any use of telegraphic aids.

What was the transmitting medium?

Of course this is only conjecture, but that’s what I think anyway.
 
And I suppose there is the question of God’s throne, the city which is indicated in the imageery of Revelation etc.

These things would appear to be the spiritual equivalent of inanimate matter.

In my own case, I’ve said often enough my father turned up in my room the night he died. He started with an apology, we argued and talked, and at the end he gave this almighty scream.

It was obvious he could see, hear, talk and think.

What I’m curious about though is what was the transmitting medium? He had no brain, no voice box, no neural network, no functional ears etc. They were all on or in his dead body in another suburb.

Yet to all intents and purposes we carried on a “normal” conversation. What was the means of transmission, since I was talking in a physical world, and he was tlalking in a spiritual world?
 
Bob_Crowley said:
And I suppose there is the question of God’s throne, the city which is indicated in the imageery of Revelation etc.

These things would appear to be the spiritual equivalent of inanimate matter.

In my own case, I’ve said often enough my father turned up in my room the night he died. He started with an apology, we argued and talked, and at the end he gave this almighty scream.

It was obvious he could see, hear, talk and think.

What I’m curious about though is what was the transmitting medium? He had no brain, no voice box, no neural network, no functional ears etc. They were all on or in his dead body in another suburb.

Yet to all intents and purposes we carried on a “normal” conversation. What was the means of transmission, since I was talking in a physical world, and he was tlalking in a spiritual world?
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that is why for a long time i was always skeptical about these “out of body experiences” and “near death experiences”, but ive forumlated a theory on how human spirits are able to communicate sometimes after or on the verge of death. its possible that in these “near death experiences” the person is basically dreaming but s/he is still in his/her body with all his senses intact. and human spirits who are dead now but in heaven (the saints) use christ’s senses to communicate, i believe i heard the term that those in purgatory are “asleep in christ” meaning they are unconsciouss since they lack their earthly bodies, but the saints are “awake in christ” meaning they can sense through chrtist’s body. but thats just my crackpot theory.
 
davidv said:
Is the realm of an idea the same as the realm of an angel? If not, then the immaterial and spiritual realms are not equal and we do ourselve a disservice by not distlinquishing between them.
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but if the realm of ideas are separate from the realm of angels, then that implies God created 3 different substances. matter, spirit, and ?
 
someperson555 said:
but if the realm of ideas are separate from the realm of angels, then that implies God created 3 different substances. matter, spirit, and ?
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This doesn’t answer my question, and answering yours does not help answer it. Besides, I don’t understand your question.
 
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