Posted: December 11th 2008
Reed Braden www
Non-existent!
(Drum riff)
There is no spiritual part of a person. We don’t have spirits. We have minds, but that is the result a chemical process taking place in our minds. Please don’t confuse the mind with magical floaty ectoplsmodic thigy-hoos.
Posted: December 12th 2008
logicel
Some more synonyms than the ones already given by other answerers are: conscience, essence, core, being, and my fave, the one who must be obeyed.
I regard that inner self of mine not so much as being spiritual in itself but as being capable of grasping non-supernatural spiritual concepts such as co-operation between living beings, the vastness of what we don’t know, care of the environment both as a present reality for us and the future reality for the generations to come, gratitude to the many that came before me, and the appreciation of our reassuring yet fragile self-identities and how they come together (or how they clash) in our communities.
Our inner selves start off as young, fresh wines, hopefully they will have a chance to develop into full-bodied ones replete with a rich, profound depth.
Posted: December 12th 2008
SmartLX www
I often throw semantics to the wind and call it the “soul”, while fully accepting that it’s just a part of the ordinary workings of the physical brain. “Soul” is a useful, descriptive word for an aspect of the way we think, along with words like “id”, “ego” and “subconscious”.
Posted: December 11th 2008
Steve Zara www
I call it self-awareness, the feeling that we have a “self”, and that that self is precious. But, I don’t believe there is any spirit involved. I think the existence of that feeling can be explained because it helps us survive and to share this world with others – we can imagine what it is like for other “selves” and how they experience life.
Self-awareness is a vital part of human existence and experience, but there is nothing magical about it. It can be understood as something that has evolved over many millions of years to allow complex creatures like us, which need to have some sense not just of our own existence, but of the existence of others, and even what they think about us.
We don’t understand the extent to with other species have this “inner spiritual part”, this “self awareness”, but we suspect that they do, as they can recognise themselves in mirrors, and so must have some sense of their own existence.
Our self-awareness may seem mysterious and strange, encouraging us to think of “spirit”, but we should not trust our feelings about such things. We aren’t experts about our own minds. There is no need for anything more than activity in a highly evolved brain.
Posted: December 11th 2008