BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Ebbie
Date: 14 Feb 09 - 01:59 PM

Good god, yes.

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Feb 09 - 11:28 AM

OK, so, what is spirit? Is it the same thing as Self, or Core, in the sense of your inner feeling of who you really are? THen yes, since your feelings would be part of that there feeling, I agree with you. Will reread with that in mind, if that's what Spirit is.

Pedant alert: Spirit is literally Breath, as in, respire, etc. This is also where we get inspiration, with the metaphorical Breath of the inner Spirit, versus Perspiration, which is more the literal Breath going through the skin. I think the English phrase Holy Ghost is a slight mistranslation of the Hebrew / Greek Holy Breath / Spirit. So it had more to do with being alive, it was that which disappeared upon death, than to do with the emotions you were having while you were alive. Doesn't mean that's what it means now, though, just because that's what it meant then. Languages are alive and changing and living in New York City, right, as well as elsewhere?

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 10:35 AM

Who?

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:23 AM

Spirit is life, Mrrzy. (in my opinion) You are quite correct to connect it with the breath, because it is the breath, and the heartbeat, and the other cyclical repeating motions such as nerve impulses that indicate life in a living body.

Everything in the Universe seems to be founded upon oscillating waveforms of cyclical back and forth movement that are quite analagous to the breath, if you stop to think about it...and this is true right down to the atomic level. Everything vibrates or oscillates.

In a living biological creature like a human the very obvious vibrations of breath and heartbeat indicate the presence of life...and what is termed "Spirit" in the religious traditions. When the heartbeat ceases, the breathing ceases, and the nerve impulses cease, the Spirit is said to have departed the body....which is the same thing as to say: life has now left the body. The body is now lifeless.

So that's what Spirit is to me. It's life itself.

The fact that vibrations or oscillations are also found in non-biological things right down to atoms has led to some forms of spiritual philosophy that propound the theory that everything is "alive" in some sense...including all the inanimate objects. If that's the case, then they would be "alive" in a very different sense, of course, than an animal or a human or a plant is...and they probably would not possess much, if any, self-awareness or volitional capability.

They would, if so, be "alive" in a passive sense....but not as we are, in an active sense.

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Midchuck
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:34 AM

Everything in the Universe seems to be founded upon oscillating waveforms of cyclical back and forth movement that are quite analagous to the breath, if you stop to think about it...and this is true right down to the atomic level. Everything vibrates or oscillates.

Almost everything, but not quite. Some women just lie there.

P.

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Amos
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:54 AM

Spirit is who you are before you drum up an identity to be.

It is emotional, and the seat of perception and intention, the postulates that makes our lives unfold and govern how the world seems.

It is the Thou of you, if you will.

That's the short version.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: frogprince
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 11:58 AM

And a few people, of either gender, lie about 'most everything.

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:04 PM

"Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."
—Matthew 5:33-37.

Therefore (it seems to me) Bible-believing Christians ought to object to the oath as strongly as anyone.

(Not that I'm a Bible-believing Christian. I only quote that to show that Christians of all stripes obey what they want to obey and ignore what they want to ignore.)

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: frogprince
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:09 PM

Uh-huh; either your word is good, or it isn't; if it isn't, you'll have no compunction putting your paw on something to "prove" that it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:09 PM

They appear to just be lying there, Midchuck, but in truth they are simply vibrating at an extremely reduced level. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: frogprince
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:16 PM

Every once in a while, my room mate gets to vibrating to where I darn near need ear protection. More often she just makes funny vibrating noises that sorta crack me up.

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 03:57 PM

T o get back to the phrase in question, it's often abreviated to "So help me!" in normal use. Or "Swelp me!"

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 05:45 PM

As in "So help me, I'm going to kill that two faced bastard." Or "So help me, I could murder a curry."

Subject: RE: BS: Atheists: No 'so help me God'
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Mar 10 - 07:17 PM

Hard for a believer to even explain himself in here, the nastiness drowns out all.

("You call this nasty?"

Says the assailant to the assailed.)