What is life?

[andykelly]

I'd like to start a thread asking members to open metaphysic related discussions.

Metaphysics (Greek words μετα [meta] = after/beyond and Φυσις [phusis] = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with giving a general and fundamental account of the way the world is. Metaphysics is thus like the sciences in that it tries to describe the world, but it differs from these disciplines in its scope and fundamentality. Whereas the biologist is concerned with the nature of organisms and the physicist with the nature of bodies, the metaphysician is concerned with the nature of all reality. A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what categories of things are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts to clarify the notions that figure fundamentally in our understanding of the world; these notions include existence, objecthood, property, space, time, causality, and possibility.

[Justin]

What is our life?

Interesting subject and there was a response listed below that I found quite interesting and I'll post it here:

Originally Posted by de Silentio

When Adam (or whom ever) decided to break the covenent he had with God, he set aside his immortality with God and let nature take over (death). So, what we inherit from Adam isn't an evil, it is the abitility to die.

Now, what is life? After that, what is death? Did you know that the least known of all the sciences is the science of man? We have everything else figured out but the most important science of all.

It's my understanding that man or life is spiritual. We are spirits living in a body or sometimes referred to as our temple. So, if man is not body and man is spirit, then spirit cannot die. From dust our body was created and to dust we will return but if our body is simply a combination of chemicals and water, then man is soul and spirit, not body.

In understanding the make up of a man's (or woman) body is indeed water and chemicals then mind is spirit and not physical.

Therefore if we are all spirits and our soul cannot die, then what is death?

I'm doing some work for the University of Science and Philosophy and have had the opportunity to look at some of the works of a not-so-well-known philosopher and scientist, Walter Russell. He has written about reincarnation and also states that man is not of body but of spirit. His books are very good, although not the easiest to read... These aren't novels by any means. If you'd like to see some of the books written, go to www.Philosophy.org and you can see them there.

With that being said and if we are spirits, and the spirit cannot be killed by our way of thinking, then what's the next step?

Could it possibly be that we (mankind) are spirits created by the mind thought energy of one creator, God? So if we are created by one mind and one energy, doesn't this mean that mankind is connected through mind thought energy? Maybe this is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 25:40 where it says:

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.”

I'm not trying to pin this in the religion catagory because Religion, I believe is made by mankind just as we make our own hell. However, life and the science of mankind is tied to a creator.

What are your thoughts?

[pilgrimshost]

This is a very interesting topic. you have some good points, well constructed but i have to argue it may have some problems.

Firstly nobody can use the holy bible,old or new testiments to support these types of theories because it would only be selective! the bible does have flaws i.e:the 'begats' as i call them. the 'adam to noah' begats for example. the bible has been 'twisted' in one way or another over the last 3000 years either by the jewish priesthood since esra or around the time of the adoption of the religion by the romans and the council of nieseen( spelling mistake known). And the bible can be used to support anything anybody wants it to, just look how many denominations there are quoting from the same verse telling a different meaning!

If reincarnation is true then what about the fact that there are more people alive today than there has been in history altogether. how many people have claimed to had been the same person in a past life. regretion also is a problem, as hypnotism is well known to generate false memories, alien abductions for exsample. To go back to the bible, it does say that man is only to live once then die once. and were does alien life fit in? because thats a whole other debate.

Though i do believe in a creator God (YHWH, as its translated from hebrew), i do have many answers that elude me from the truth.Can we even be sure we even have souls and spirits? It cant be proved they dont excist, but can they be proved to excist? I have a deep interest in this subject and understand that everything has to be taken into account, even if it cant be explained away and seems to be too far fetched.

This is my very first entry to this forum. i am only trying to add to the debate in order to find some sort of conclusion. so dont feel i am atempting to ruine a theory with my own preconsieved woffle. I hope it may have given another point of veiw atleast.

[NoAngst]

And in this way metaphysicians invite us to look at the universe in much the same way that poets invite us to look at daffodils and rainbows. But is that knowledge? Fact is, we know no more about aesthetics, ethics ad nauseum than we did 2500 years ago. Heard of any breakthroughs in "the meaning of life" lately? Any recent developments in "What is beauty?", "What is justice?" or "What is 'The Good'?" To what point, then, do people engage in metaphysical pursuits? Likely for contemplative value rather than practical value, which is again like poetry an unlike science. Metaphysicians from Plato and Aristotle onward are to me like the little tailor in The Emperor's New Clothes, each insisting that the finely knit raiment they describe is really there. Trouble is, there's no way to tell whether it is or it isn't.

[pilgrimshost]

I believe your statment is very true and I wander, would you say its pointless, a lost cause or even a way of creating a belief in somthing that isnt or maynot be there?

[NoAngst]

If it provides you only objects of contemplation for which no practical application is intended, I cannot see the harm. However, if it provides for you practical prescription for the conduct of life, then I'm afraid a good deal of harm can come of it. The metaphysical foundation of the world's religions is a case in point. Whether you take your prophet to be Jesus or Mohammed hardly matters as regards truth value; but truth value does matter when you take your chosen prophet beyond the church or mosque and into world politics. Then, according to choice of metaphysics, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and everyone has God on their side. And so it has gone for thousands of years.

[pilgrimshost]

To be completly honest i dont think i understand what metaphisics even means. it may ring a bell if you explained it briefly but in a way im just ingaging in a topic that im familier with! when you say what your saying it is very collected and meditated, and i agree. im just not quite sure if your talking in reference to my first comment or are you just openly saying what you feel about metaphysics?

[NoAngst]

Originally Posted by pilgrimshost

im just not quite sure if your talking in reference to my first comment or are you just openly saying what you feel about metaphysics?

I was talking in reference to both.

[pilgrimshost]

personly I need a pratical application in this area, based on what is concluded! sadly its what I and many billions of people strive for,a meaning to the madness. if anything,it must be the most important thing in our lives to understand the reality of our existance, because when we come to the end, not only 'will it be the end' but what else may we face that will be determined by what we did in life. Its not worth even thinking about otherwise, if its just a pointless chat about some irrelivent nonsence-which would be all that it was in that case.

In many ways I feel comfort in even the possibility of finding these answers(thogh deep down I think i will not), either way I would know what to expect, or at least(if nothing) work on what id leave behind when im gone. For me if there is nothing in that is beyond our everyday world- then life is truely insane.

Why would people like myself go through this 'slavery' of our lives spending our existance engaged in perilous toil when we came from the dust, given the ability to contemplate the stars then just drop dead just to rot.sorry.

[NoAngst]

But it is your lament, after all. To someone who finds a good deal in this life to make it alone worthwhile, your lament will not be an apposite and felicitous counterpart to their experience. How can that be? Well, it happens all the time when one confuses how things are with how one feels about how things are. This is not to say that what someone else thinks is true and what you think is false; it is to say that you both are merely stating what is "true for you". Unfortunately, what is "true for you" is not the same thing as what is "true in fact". So what is "true in fact"? In this case, I'm afraid the answer is imponderable. Not only that, what would count in support for either case is itself imponderable. That in what you find no solace another takes delight is exactly the problem here. Put another way, the problem isn't in finding an answer to the meaning of life; it is in finding an answer to the meaning of life for you. Big difference. And my only point is that you consider that difference when you attempt to look from without for an answer.