From Myth #2. Religion Is about the Spiritual (John Morreall and Tamara Sonn):
(excerpt) Closely related to the idea that religion can be separated from non-religious spheres of life is the notion that religion is about what is spiritual. This is another distinction that is prominent in some religions, but not in all, or even most. Dictionaries tell us that the adjective "spiritual" is based on "spirit," and "spirit" is contrasted with what is material. As the first meaning of "spiritual," 'Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary' has: "Consisting Of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as, a spiritual substance or being."
With that meaning of "spiritual," another way to express the claim made in this myth is to say that religions are about what is not material. To today's Christians, this idea looks familiar and fits with the distinction between the material body and the non-material spirit or soul. Christian preachers have often described their work as "saving souls," that is, saving the nonmaterial part of human beings that will spend eternity in heaven or hell.
It was in the Middle Ages that Western Christian theologians developed the distinction between the material body and the non-material spirit or soul. Thinkers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas were influenced by Greek philosophers, especially Plato, for whom the soul was the center of consciousness and the core of a person's identity, while the body was not essential to the person. This view is called 'dualism,' from the Latin word 'duo,' meaning "two." Dualists believe that although our bodies - being material and part of the natural world are subject to change, there is something nonmaterial that gives stability and consistency to our unique identity. Unlike the material body, Plato said, the soul is naturally immortal - it cannot die. Medieval theologians described not just the soul as spiritual, but God, angels, and demons.
With the spiritual/material distinction, Christians could then talk about their "spiritual lives" as distinct from their "material lives." By the seventeenth century, the 'Oxford English Dictionary' tells us, the word "spirituality" had come to mean "attachment to or regard for things of the spirit as opposed to material or worldly interests."
But many religions do not have a distinction between the material and the spiritual. Hundreds of traditional religions of the Americas and Africa, for example, involve animism, the belief that all things are animated by souls or spirits. In these traditions, spirits are all around in objects such as trees and rocks; they are not part of some nonmaterial "spiritual" realm.
Traditional Chinese religions, too, aren't about "the spiritual." For 2500 years, Taoism and Confucianism have taught people how the universe is ordered, how society should be organized, and how people should treat each other, talking about "the spiritual." Taoism teaches about the Tao, "the Way" that natural processes work and that we should follow. Taoists view life holistically without making a radical distinction between what is material and what is not material. The same is true of Confucianism. Confucius taught an ethical system in which people respect and care for each other. The central virtue in Taoism is 'wu- wei,' living m accordance with the Way of the cosmos (the 'tao'), rather than trying to control events. Confucianism and Taoism share a worldview in which Tao is all-pervasive; it is in the things and events all around us, not in a separate nonmaterial realm.
The distinction between what is spiritual and what is material is not even evident in early Biblical literature. Consider the descriptions of God in the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis, the Creator is male. He makes the world in six days and then rests from his work: "The I Lord God formed man from the dust Of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed." (Genesis 2:7-8)
Describing Adam and Eve after they had eaten from the forbidden tree, Genesis 3:8-9 says that: "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the Garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'"
Here God is not "spiritual." He shapes dirt into a human form, breathes into its nostrils to bring it to life, plants a garden, and walks in the garden as the day cools off. In creating Adam and Eve, he said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness" (Genesis 1:26).
Physical descriptions of God continue throughout the Bible. In Exodus 33:20-23, God tells Moses that he won't show him his face but show him his back. In Psalm 18:8, God was angry and "smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth." Joshua 10:11 says that to help the Israelites do battle with the Amorites, "the Lord threw down huge stones from heaven on them." Heaven, God's abode, is a place above us but not a separate realm. It is often pictured as a city ruled by God, who sits on a throne, with the angels as his courtiers (Psalm 103:19-21; Job 1:6). Isaiah (63:15) asks God to "[l]ook down from heaven and see, from your holy and glorious habitation." God is "El Elyon," the Most High, living in the highest place. --50 Great Myths About Religions
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From Nature’s God: An Interview with Nancey Murphy ... As you’ve pointed out, science has made it extremely hard to posit something like the soul that exists independent of the body, or a mind that exists independent of physical processes in the brain. Some would say the dualistic view was never a biblical view to begin with, though it has long been part of Christian tradition. Do you agree?
Nancey Murphy: I follow New Testament scholar James Dunn in holding that the biblical authors were not interested in cataloguing the metaphysical parts of a human being -- body, soul, spirit, mind. Their interest was in relationships. The words that later Christians have translated with Greek philosophical terms and then understood as referring to parts of the self originally were used to designate aspects of human life. For example, spirit refers not to an immaterial something but to our capacity to be in relationship with God, to be moved by God’s Spirit.
It is widely agreed that the Hebrew Bible presents a holistic account of human nature, somewhat akin to contemporary physicalism. The New Testament authors certainly knew various theories of human nature, including dualism, but it was not their purpose to teach about this issue.
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Closer To The Truth excerpt ... Episode: Can Web Believe in Both Science and Religion? (transcript)
NANCEY MURPHY: Well this is a very interesting point of contact between science and Christianity. It may look to the outsider as though Christians have been dualists throughout their history, continue to be dualists…
ROBERT KUHN: Dualists meaning…
NANCEY MURPHY: Believing in not just a body, but some other component, generally called the soul, but the concept of soul at certain points in history is equivalent to the concept of mind. So a dualist is a person has been thought to be essential to Christianity. Now it looks as though the neuroscientists are coming along and they’re saying, ah, there is no soul, in fact there is no substantial mind. It’s actually the brain or the nervous system that does all of the things that were once attributed to soul or mind. So it looks like yet another place where science encroaches and religion has to step back. But in the, in the liberal half of Christianity, those who have a higher degree in theology are almost all phsyicalists.
MICHAEL SCHERMER: Really?
ROBERT KUHN: Physicalist meaning that there is no…
NANCEY MURPHY: We’re just bodies.
ROBERT KUHN: There is no non-physical element required to make us human beings.
NANCEY MURPHY: We’re just bodies. That’s right.
MICHAEL SCHERMER: Now when you’re resurrected, how old will you be?
NANCEY MURPHY: 30.
MICHAEL SCHERMER: Really? You have an answer.
NANCEY MURPHY: Augustine thought about that, that’s when you reach the height of your powers but before you start to disintegrate.
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RELATED: Early use of "religio" referred to having "responsibility in all areas of life"
(excerpt) Closely related to the idea that religion can be separated from non-religious spheres of life is the notion that religion is about what is spiritual. This is another distinction that is prominent in some religions, but not in all, or even most. Dictionaries tell us that the adjective "spiritual" is based on "spirit," and "spirit" is contrasted with what is material. As the first meaning of "spiritual," 'Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary' has: "Consisting Of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as, a spiritual substance or being."
With that meaning of "spiritual," another way to express the claim made in this myth is to say that religions are about what is not material. To today's Christians, this idea looks familiar and fits with the distinction between the material body and the non-material spirit or soul. Christian preachers have often described their work as "saving souls," that is, saving the nonmaterial part of human beings that will spend eternity in heaven or hell.
It was in the Middle Ages that Western Christian theologians developed the distinction between the material body and the non-material spirit or soul. Thinkers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas were influenced by Greek philosophers, especially Plato, for whom the soul was the center of consciousness and the core of a person's identity, while the body was not essential to the person. This view is called 'dualism,' from the Latin word 'duo,' meaning "two." Dualists believe that although our bodies - being material and part of the natural world are subject to change, there is something nonmaterial that gives stability and consistency to our unique identity. Unlike the material body, Plato said, the soul is naturally immortal - it cannot die. Medieval theologians described not just the soul as spiritual, but God, angels, and demons.
With the spiritual/material distinction, Christians could then talk about their "spiritual lives" as distinct from their "material lives." By the seventeenth century, the 'Oxford English Dictionary' tells us, the word "spirituality" had come to mean "attachment to or regard for things of the spirit as opposed to material or worldly interests."
But many religions do not have a distinction between the material and the spiritual. Hundreds of traditional religions of the Americas and Africa, for example, involve animism, the belief that all things are animated by souls or spirits. In these traditions, spirits are all around in objects such as trees and rocks; they are not part of some nonmaterial "spiritual" realm.
Traditional Chinese religions, too, aren't about "the spiritual." For 2500 years, Taoism and Confucianism have taught people how the universe is ordered, how society should be organized, and how people should treat each other, talking about "the spiritual." Taoism teaches about the Tao, "the Way" that natural processes work and that we should follow. Taoists view life holistically without making a radical distinction between what is material and what is not material. The same is true of Confucianism. Confucius taught an ethical system in which people respect and care for each other. The central virtue in Taoism is 'wu- wei,' living m accordance with the Way of the cosmos (the 'tao'), rather than trying to control events. Confucianism and Taoism share a worldview in which Tao is all-pervasive; it is in the things and events all around us, not in a separate nonmaterial realm.
The distinction between what is spiritual and what is material is not even evident in early Biblical literature. Consider the descriptions of God in the Hebrew Bible. In Genesis, the Creator is male. He makes the world in six days and then rests from his work: "The I Lord God formed man from the dust Of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed." (Genesis 2:7-8)
Describing Adam and Eve after they had eaten from the forbidden tree, Genesis 3:8-9 says that: "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the Garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'"
Here God is not "spiritual." He shapes dirt into a human form, breathes into its nostrils to bring it to life, plants a garden, and walks in the garden as the day cools off. In creating Adam and Eve, he said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness" (Genesis 1:26).
Physical descriptions of God continue throughout the Bible. In Exodus 33:20-23, God tells Moses that he won't show him his face but show him his back. In Psalm 18:8, God was angry and "smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth." Joshua 10:11 says that to help the Israelites do battle with the Amorites, "the Lord threw down huge stones from heaven on them." Heaven, God's abode, is a place above us but not a separate realm. It is often pictured as a city ruled by God, who sits on a throne, with the angels as his courtiers (Psalm 103:19-21; Job 1:6). Isaiah (63:15) asks God to "[l]ook down from heaven and see, from your holy and glorious habitation." God is "El Elyon," the Most High, living in the highest place. --50 Great Myths About Religions
- - -
From Nature’s God: An Interview with Nancey Murphy ... As you’ve pointed out, science has made it extremely hard to posit something like the soul that exists independent of the body, or a mind that exists independent of physical processes in the brain. Some would say the dualistic view was never a biblical view to begin with, though it has long been part of Christian tradition. Do you agree?
Nancey Murphy: I follow New Testament scholar James Dunn in holding that the biblical authors were not interested in cataloguing the metaphysical parts of a human being -- body, soul, spirit, mind. Their interest was in relationships. The words that later Christians have translated with Greek philosophical terms and then understood as referring to parts of the self originally were used to designate aspects of human life. For example, spirit refers not to an immaterial something but to our capacity to be in relationship with God, to be moved by God’s Spirit.
It is widely agreed that the Hebrew Bible presents a holistic account of human nature, somewhat akin to contemporary physicalism. The New Testament authors certainly knew various theories of human nature, including dualism, but it was not their purpose to teach about this issue.
- - -
Closer To The Truth excerpt ... Episode: Can Web Believe in Both Science and Religion? (transcript)
NANCEY MURPHY: Well this is a very interesting point of contact between science and Christianity. It may look to the outsider as though Christians have been dualists throughout their history, continue to be dualists…
ROBERT KUHN: Dualists meaning…
NANCEY MURPHY: Believing in not just a body, but some other component, generally called the soul, but the concept of soul at certain points in history is equivalent to the concept of mind. So a dualist is a person has been thought to be essential to Christianity. Now it looks as though the neuroscientists are coming along and they’re saying, ah, there is no soul, in fact there is no substantial mind. It’s actually the brain or the nervous system that does all of the things that were once attributed to soul or mind. So it looks like yet another place where science encroaches and religion has to step back. But in the, in the liberal half of Christianity, those who have a higher degree in theology are almost all phsyicalists.
MICHAEL SCHERMER: Really?
ROBERT KUHN: Physicalist meaning that there is no…
NANCEY MURPHY: We’re just bodies.
ROBERT KUHN: There is no non-physical element required to make us human beings.
NANCEY MURPHY: We’re just bodies. That’s right.
MICHAEL SCHERMER: Now when you’re resurrected, how old will you be?
NANCEY MURPHY: 30.
MICHAEL SCHERMER: Really? You have an answer.
NANCEY MURPHY: Augustine thought about that, that’s when you reach the height of your powers but before you start to disintegrate.
- - -
RELATED: Early use of "religio" referred to having "responsibility in all areas of life"