# Do you have a spirit? What is it? How do you know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 8, 2023, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245 "2023-08-08T12:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/61 "2023-08-09T20:53:17Z")
My spirit is the software that my brain runs. There is no persistent copy of it so when I die it’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/62 "2023-08-09T21:09:12Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Well, spirit exists. I assume you are not referring to the type of spirit we had in high school when cheering for our football team. So what do you mean by “spirit,” and how do you know it exists? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/63 "2023-08-09T21:37:17Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > My spirit is the software that my brain runs. There is no persistent copy of it so when I die it’s gone. This is closest to my beliefs, although I suspect like a lot of things, it would be the combination of hardware and software (to continue the analogy) that makes up ‘me’. But I have no reason to believe that either exist separate from the other, and if that a ‘software emulation’ of me were to be run on other hardware (the ghost in the machine body porting meme) it wouldn’t be -me- either. The belief in a spirit that can influence things outside of it’s own body (either pre or post death) hasn’t been demonstrated in any confirmable way despite decades now of most everyone in the technologically affluent world having a still or video camera in their pocket provides considerable evidence against any such spirit being able to interact with ‘our’ world for that matter. So, at best, it’s moot. The spirit cannot affect the material/real world. Anything else is the realm of religion, and there are so damn many that a rationalist (note, I do not say intelligent, just rationalist) individual cannot find any reason to accept one set of claims over another. So believe what you want, just don’t require others to obey your chosen rules. Easy. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/64 "2023-08-09T21:44:40Z")
I don’t know how I know. Nor do I know what it is. I don’t think it is comprehendible by our mote-like human consciousness. Far less can it be described. Whatever you describe it as, that isn’t it. But I sense it everywhere and I always have, since early childhood, and it has never left me. I find places that it hovers more clearly: all natural environments, some churches and other sacred places, and it gathers around some humans, in Christianity some of these people are called saints. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it answers to every name. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/65 "2023-08-09T21:48:14Z")
It has been with you since early childhood? > [@Ulfreida](#): > > It doesn’t matter what you call it, it answers to every name. like “Indoctrination”? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/66 "2023-08-09T22:00:05Z")
You see, and meaning no personal offense, that entire post is empty of content as far as I’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/67 "2023-08-09T22:36:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > like “Indoctrination”? No one ever told me anything about it. I was raised a strict atheist and very few people could have grown up in the USA knowing less about any religion than myself. Whatever I sense and whatever I believe, no one, no creed, and no institution is responsible except myself. I call myself a Christian because I found a congenial home there in my thirties. I was a Zen Buddhist for many years before that. But to me those are cultural practices, they circle around the core of it (Zen practice is one circle, Christian mysticism is another overlapping circle). Both recognize that they are not the truth, but signposts only. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/68 "2023-08-09T22:36:26Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > You see, and meaning no personal offense, that entire post is empty of content as far as I’m concerned. yep. I get that. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/69 "2023-08-09T22:42:54Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > yep. I get that. So are we any closer to understanding each other? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/70 "2023-08-09T22:47:41Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > So are we any closer to understanding each other? My understanding hasn’t changed about my beliefs, your beliefs, or your beliefs about my beliefs. I’d be happy if adamant rationalists would just stop with the dismissive contempt. I don’t wish to change anyone’s mind about what works for them. We have different apprehensions of reality and that’s the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/71 "2023-08-09T22:57:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I’d be happy if adamant rationalists would just stop with the dismissive contempt. I don’t wish to change anyone’s mind about what works for them. The feeling is mutual. The difference is that atheism and rationalism are being publicly attacked daily, often by publicly elected officials. Dismissive contempt is not exactly at the top of the list when it comes what is happening in the good ol’ U.S. of A. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/72 "2023-08-09T23:02:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I’d be happy if adamant rationalists would just stop with the dismissive contempt. Didn’t you say something fairly strong upthread about generalizations? Oh yes. > [@Ulfreida](#): > > I should have said, believers who are not fundamentalist idiots (of any faith). That would be a _subset_ of believers, useful for attributing every idiotic and cruel thing they do, say, and think to the tens of millions of other believers. Using a word like “adamant” in front of the word “rationalist” is, in my view, pejorative. Speaking only for myself, fantasy ideation in place of rational thinking is responsible for a huge amount of damage in the world, from individuals to nations. I’m not talking only about religions and mysticism and spiritualism, I’m talking about any belief that flies in the face of available evidence, or that makes things up out of wishes and feelings. I could go on and on, but lately my views have hardened considerably, as the religious get more political power and use it to step on the rest of us. So don’t boo-hoo to me about contempt from rationalists, rationalists aren’t trying to erase your existence. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/73 "2023-08-09T23:06:24Z")
As far as spirits are concerned, if it can’t be described and it can’t be measured, it won’t be something I will waste my time contemplating. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/74 "2023-08-10T00:14:52Z")
There ya go. We’re different! That’s okay! ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/75 "2023-08-10T00:25:32Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Using a word like “adamant” in front of the word “rationalist” is, in my view, pejorative. Not so, there are lots of rationalists, some are a lot more tolerant than others. It’s the adamant contemptuous kind that I refer to here, and by the way they are rife on this board. Likewise, there are many many believers who have no beef whatsoever with others’ personal views as long as they are not harmful to others. But if you would be so kind as to refer to those Christians who are threatening not just your, but my life as well, as “radical extremist fundamentalist Christians”, not just “Christians”, that is all I ask. I’ve asked it a dozen times on this board, but it falls on deaf ears. If you think I condone, accept, or understand white nationalist bigots who think they are doing God’s will, you think exactly wrong. They are despicable and dangerous, and I do not appreciate being lumped with them. At all. And neither do millions of other people who are also Christians and are appalled by them. And by the way, fantasy ideation is not the sole province of believers, nor are believers the only people who do enormous damage. It’s quite spread around. But that is really the subject of some other thread. Not one I am going to start, or contribute to. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/76 "2023-08-10T00:25:44Z")
**Do you have a spirit?** Yes. **What is it?** Canadian Club. **How do you know?** It says so on the label! Any deeper than that, I suppose it’s primarily just a matter of faith. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/77 "2023-08-10T01:04:10Z")
Will you people stop arguing with each other, and not post until Clueless-me-in comes back and clarifies? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/78 "2023-08-10T01:08:28Z")
I vote in the meantime we continue the jokes though, for example: I’m spirited to try [Spirytus](https://thehustle.co/04242020-liquor-spirytus-rektyfikowany/), a spirit, but my spirit deserts me at the thought it would turn me into a spirit! ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/79 "2023-08-10T01:19:25Z")
I have had that. It is basically azeotropic ethanol, best sipped gingerly, do not try to chug it. It’s not really meant to be imbibed straight; it’s more for (e.g.) infusing fresh fruit in to make your own flavoured liquor. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245/80 "2023-08-10T01:33:20Z")
Oh, you mean Body Thetans! A totally real and in no way made up, bullshit, thing that doesn’t actually exist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-spirit-what-is-it-how-do-you-know/988245.md?page=5)