Should you believe in a Spirit?

In our last week's bible study, Joe and I discussed the blasphemychallenge.com project where people (mostly young kids) are stating that they deny the holy spirit (and our thus "damned to hell" as literally read from Mark 3:29). Interesting how a counter website quickly sprang up called challengeblasphemy.com. I have linked to both websites so you can make up your own mind. It saddens me to hear and see young kids, denying the holy spirit because I wonder if they really know what they are denying. Do these kids even know about the great psychologists like Carl Jung (universal archetypes and a collective unconscious) and Viktor Frankl (the unconscious God) that have expressed similar concepts to a holy spirit? Another ramification of this is to consider whether denying a holy spirit implies denying your own spirit.

So, should you believe in a Spirit?
A simplistic view of this would be to ask if you believe in anything beyond the physical world? However, this may be overly simplistic in that clearly thoughts are beyond the physical yet may not be part of one's spirit. For my own take on this, I have always believed since I was in high school in the mystical nature of the number 3. In high school, I wrote a simple poem on Man's three sides - mind, body and spirit. Plato discussed a perfect society mirroring the three parts of being. From Wikipedia, "Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul." Our government is founded on three parts of government: executive, judicial and legislative. Does this form any sort of proof? Of course not; it is just illustrative of a widespread belief that the nature of humanity is more than just physical.

Instead of trying to meet the very high bar required of a formal logical proof, let's examine a few concepts that could be considered evidence or indicators that a Spirit exists and that it is something that should not be denied. In fact, on the contrary, we believe even these basic indicators are strong enough that the concept of a spirit is something to actively promote for our own and other sake. Here are a few indicators for your consideration:

1. Conscience and Objective Truth - what is it in ourselves that makes us upset, guilty or depressed if we have done wrong? C.S. Lewis would claim it is our spirit's awareness of an objective truth that we have violated. The objective ability to denote right from wrong. Our sense of fairness and objectivity outside of our subjective viewpoint. How is this related to the mystery of dreams and the unconscious? How is this related to Jung's universal archetypes and the collective unconscious?
   
   So, do you believe in a conscience? In cartoons, this has been depicted as a little voice that whispers in your ear or a little person that sits on your shoulder.
   Most importantly, is it something from outside yourself?
   
2. Drive to Meaning and Transcendence - Abraham Maslow presented a hierarchy of needs that humans seek to satisfy. What makes us climb this hierarchy? Viktor Frankl presented a compelling case that what drives man is not sex (proffered by Freud) or power (proffered by Adler) but a search for meaning. Interestingly, meaning is often directly in conflict with biological comfort or evolutionary success (many offsprings). Thus is there a powerful drive outside of our physical drives?
   
3. Striving for the byproducts of Love and Joy - in direct contradiction to the United States Declaration of Independence, happiness cannot be pursued directly. That is because it is a byproduct. In that same manner, Love and Joy are also byproducts. You cannot get Love and Joy directly, they only come as spontaneous, indirect gifts as byproducts of other activities. They cannot be forced or taken. And the greatest gift, even among humans, is Love. Love cannot be taken by force. Love is not amenable to physical barbarism. Why do we strive for something that is not amenable to physical means of acquiring it? Is this also not obviously beyond the physical? In fact, is this not possibly the very thing that makes life so worth living?
   Surely, something you would not want to deny.

So, in closing, even if we cannot have strict scientific proofs of a Spirit or a connection to a higher or 'holy' spirit - I would argue that Spirit is the voltage of life. It is not the amperage, not the physical matter pushed through life. It is the voltage or the force that drives us to live life more abundantly.

So, yes, I do believe you should believe in a spirit. I do.

- Mike