2005.03.23
Vacancy and Occupancy
One of the continual debates in religion is: What is the Soul? The raw definition is specific and vague at the same time.
1. The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.
2. The spiritual nature of humans, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state.
3. The disembodied spirit of a dead human.
Death seems to be regarded as the point at which the Soul leaves the body, but what if the Soul is one’s conscience? One’s awareness of the world is at least part of what makes us human above and beyond any biological definition. What happens when you have no more awareness of the world around you? What if your Soul vacates your body even when it’s still alive?
The case of Terri Schiavo has been dominating the news. The religious pundits calling for her feeding tubes to be reconnected say it is immoral to let her die, but what isn’t being asked by anyone in the religious community is what if her Soul left her body 15 years ago? If the occupancy of her body by a Soul is required for their continued support it is a question they should ask. I think her Soul, if there is one, has ascended and her body is now a sad shell that the living grieve over and won’t let go.
Personally I am disgusted with the behavior shown by these people who are Pro-Life before birth and now, suddenly, Pro-Life after a person is physically alive yet spiritually dead, yet who conveniently ignore every stage in between. What about the starving, the diseased, the mentally and physically disabled? I know it’s a generalization to lump all Pro-Life folks into this lumpy soup, but the lumpy soup is where most of them are.
It’s not that I don’t care about their issues or even whole heartedly disagree with them, but if I were in Terri Schiavo’s position I would be squirming in my living grave because my family refused to grieve and let me go. I would hope that if our positions were reversed my family would have the decency to eventually remember me not as a vacant body but as a loving memory.
Categorized: thoughts
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2 Responses to “Vacancy and Occupancy”
- NHK says (March 23rd, 2005 at 12:18:35 )
Crap
What’s most disgusting (at least to me) is the way certain members of the U.S. Congress and GWB have stepped into the ring supposedly ‘on behalf’ of Ms. Schiavo. Like they give a rat’s ass about her! Terri Schiavo=Potential opportunity to quickly pass dirty legislation/set self-serving legal precedent.- dugh says (March 23rd, 2005 at 21:49:09 )
True
I guess I wasn’t explicit enough with the second to last paragraph where I talk about those that disgust me. The President and the Harpies in Congress are on that list. This is a pathetic effort at political gain at the expense of a family in turmoil. Now that the courts are rejecting the changes they want expect to hear a lot of groaning about Activist Judges.
