Does Life Have a Spirit?
Reflections on Biology, the Soul, Death, and the Continuity of Existence
(Version One)
By:
Blogger lim ju boo: Chinese name - lin ru wu (林 如 武)
I have no intention to write this article today because I have so many more education and interesting articles I have already written awaiting to be posted here in my blog
However, my learned brother-in-law Ong Geok Soo who is a very senior structural engineer in Singapore always insist he does not believe in any soul. Today in a our WhatsApp chat, again he told us when a person goes “kaput” (dies) all the particles and “black matter” in his body goes back to the environment. There is no soul or life left. He says he is “ignorant” about everything - though a learned and qualified senior engineer.
I just can’t help writing my disagreement here immediately today - though I have better and more interesting subjects to publish here over the next few weeks in stages.
I shall give my view in two versions. I shall air my first version here first - and much later only shall I publish my second similar view. Here’s my first view:
People, including biologists and scientists often ask what makes a person or any animal alive and living, and why do they die after a period of time?
The simplest answer is, they are are alive because of the biochemistry together with the organized physiological functions inside their bodies.
The next question is, then why did the biochemistry and physiological functions stop when they die? . The simplest answer is because there is no life or bioactive biochemical process inside the body anymore?
But in mainstream biology, life is not usually explained as “biochemistry stops because life leaves.” Biology describes death as loss of organized biological function (loss of homeostasis, metabolism, circulation, brain function, etc.). It does not claim to answer whether a soul exists? This does not answer anything at all. We are not getting anywhere trying to answer the question. We are just going round and round the bush trying to evade the question.
In Genesis 2:7 in the Bible it is revealed that when God blew His breath into the non living soil - that has no soul in it, the soil then became a living soul.
In Christian theology, especially based on Genesis, God’s breath is often interpreted as the divine gift of life, not necessarily that humans contain a literal fragment of God’s soul.
This means this phenomenon has nothing to do with the chemicals - or biochemistry or physiology that has not even existed inside a living body. And when the soul leaves the living body, the body dies again and returns as soil. In other words, nothing can be alive until a soul enters inside first, and when the soul leaves, the body dies again
The transformation of dead soil into a living being with a soul is described in theological traditions as the ultimate synthesis of the physical and the divine. This event is clearly reveal to us, but biologically as animals we cannot understand. So we go round the bush unable to answer.
In just a few words, this means we need a soul first before we can become alive? Is that how it is?
However, it is not a simple physical resuscitation, but the moment inanimate matter was permanently fused with the spiritual realm.
Before we came into this world, was our soul already been given to us by our parents during fertilization? Was it our parents, especially our mothers who gave part of her soul (the living flame) to us before we can become alive and living? However, the belief that parents pass part of their soul at fertilization is poetic and theological, not a scientific or mainstream doctrinal claim. It is very hard to show this experimentally, perhaps only through intuition? Yet it is inconceivable to expect a dead sperm ability to fertilize an egg? So we may safely conclude life is like a living flame of a lighted lamp pass on its flame of life onto another oil lamp. We may say the oil in the lamp are the nutrients from the food we eat changed into those (bio)chemicals in the body to lit the flame of life itself. That is the soul of life. This explanation may sound more logical now through intuition, but difficult to prove this objectively.
From a structural standpoint, we are describing the same fundamental truth: life does not simply vanish; it transforms and sustains new life - from one becoming another - probably through abiogenesis. Interestingly, if we remove the letter “i” from the word “soil” and replace it with the letter “u” it become “soul”. In other words, “I” become “you” - we share life together as living souls.
Both science and religion agree that death is not an absolute end, but they explain the mechanism differently. It is merely transformed from one form to another. Hinduism describe this transformation as "karma"
Here is how these two perspectives compare and where they diverge. Both views rely on the principle that nothing truly disappears.
Science fits this into the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy. Atom for atom where our physical body is recycled into the ecosystem.
The scientific view is is material recycling
Science views this process as strictly physical, mechanical, and impersonal.
No Continuity: The individual identity, memories, and consciousness disappear when brain activity stops. The body as building blocks is then broken down into basic elements (carbon, nitrogen, calcium).
In death there is impersonal allocation: The atoms of the body might scatter to a blade of grass, a cloud, and a beetle simultaneously.
Some scientists may not see "life" spark. They do not see "life" as a fluid substance passed from a plant to a deer. They sees life as a temporary biochemical process powered by those recycled elements. They are entitled to their personal views, but I see it differently.
Religion fits this into the conservation of the soul or consciousness. The spiritual essence moves forward into a new vessel. Religious view is conscious reincarnation. Most religious traditions view reincarnation as spiritual, purposeful, and personal and continuity of self: The core essence (soul, consciousness, or karmic imprint) remains intact. Science does not say consciousness disappears with certainty, it says there is currently no evidence that personal consciousness survives independently of brain function.
One-to-One Transfer:
The soul typically moves from one specific vessel directly into another specific vessel (e.g., human to animal, or human to human).
The moral purpose for reincarnation often involves a spiritual journey, learning lessons, or balancing karma. Are they the same? They are metaphorically the same, but literally different. If we define "reincarnation" broadly as the physical recycling of matter to birth new living things, then science absolutely proves it every day. We are physically made of dead stars, ancient plants, and prehistoric animals. However, if we define "reincarnation" strictly as the migration of a single soul or consciousness into a new body, science finds no evidence for it, whereas religion holds it as a core truth.
Ultimately, both eyes are looking at the exact same beautiful reality: life relies on death to continue. Science tracks the dance of the atoms, while religion tracks the journey of the soul.
Let’ s now shifts life through the lens of religion. Here is how Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity view death, the body, the soul, and the mechanism of spiritual transformation.
In Hinduism the believe in the the eternal soul (Atman) and Karma
Hinduism lines up closest with the literal concept of reincarnation driven by spiritual law. The soul (Atman) is eternal, indestructible, and unchangeable.
The Body: The body is merely a temporary garment. The Bhagavad Gita states that just as a person discards worn-out clothes to put on new ones, the soul discards a dead body to enter a new one. The mechanism is, Karma (the law of cause and effect) determines the next life. Good actions lead to a higher rebirth; negative actions lead to a lower one.
The ultimate goal is the cycle of rebirth (Samsara) that continues until the soul achieves Moksha (liberation) and merges back into the supreme cosmic reality (Brahman).
In Buddhism they see rebirth without a permanent soul (Anatta)
Buddhism offers a unique perspective that actually bridges my scientific view of "changing forms" with spiritual rebirth.
Buddhism rejects the idea of a permanent, unchanging soul. This concept is called Anatta (non-self). The body and mind of the individual is a changing collection of physical and mental energies (aggregates).
Buddhism is subtler than “energy moves forward.” Classical Buddhism describes dependent origination: continuity without a permanent self..
At death, the physical body dissolves. There is no "soul" moving from body A to body B. Instead, it is the karmic energy and consciousness that flashes forward to ignite a new life, much like using the flame of a dying candle to light a new candle. The flame is neither exactly the same flame, nor a completely different one.
The ultimate goal is to break the cycle of suffering and rebirth entirely by achieving Nirvana (extinguisher of the karmic flame).
In Christianity is is resurrection and eternal transformation. Christianity rejects reincarnation but strongly believes in the eternal transformation of the individual. The soul is created by God at conception. It is immortal, but it does not pre-exist this life, nor does it get recycled into another earthly body. The body is sacred (the "temple of the Holy Spirit"). Death is a temporary separation of the soul from the body.
Instead of karma, Christianity operates on grace, faith, and divine judgment. After death, the soul enters an intermediate spiritual state (heaven, hell, or purgatory in Catholic theology) awaiting the final day of judgment.
The ultimate goal is the resurrection of the body. Christians believe that at the end of time, their souls will be reunited with their physical bodies, which will be transformed into perfected, glorified, and immortal physical forms to live eternally with God.
Let me summarize the differences
In religion is there a permanent soul? What transfers? Destination?
In Hinduism, the answer is yes (Atman) The exact same soul in another physical body on Earth
In Buddhism, No (Anatta. Streams of karmic energy Another physical or spiritual form. But how does Buddhism explains rebirth if there is no permanent soul I am not sure.
In Christianity, yes (Created once) The soul to a spiritual realm is the final, glorified resurrection body.
There are scientific concepts of energy conservation that echo these spiritual ideas. These are The First Law of Thermodynamics
The scientific anchor for these spiritual ideas is
1. The First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy.
The core rule is energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change from one form to another.
2. The Cosmic Balance: The total amount of energy in the universe remains completely constant. Every spark of energy present at the dawn of time is still here today.
3. How Science Echoes Spiritual Transformation
When viewed through the lens of physics, the journey of the body and its energy mirrors the spiritual concepts of rebirth and transformation in three distinct ways:
4. The Body as Borrowed Energy. Our living body is a highly organized, temporary state of energy. We maintain this state by consuming plants and animals (absorbing their energy). At death, this organization stops. The energy isn't gone; it simply shifts from kinetic and chemical energy within you into heat, soil nutrients, and new microbial life. We return the borrowed energy back to the universe.
5. The "Ghost" Heat Signal. When a person dies, their body heat radiates outwards into the room, the air, and the surrounding structures. In a very literal, measurable thermodynamic sense, our physical warmth leaves our body and disperses into the world, transforming into the movement of surrounding atoms.
5. The Quantum Connection: On a fundamental level, the atoms making up your body today are billions of years old. They were forged inside dying stars, cycled through prehistoric oceans, and passed through countless previous living organisms before forming “us."
The Key Departure: Information vs. Substance:
While the echo between science and spirituality is strong, physicists draw one hard line regarding identity:
Spiritual Views: The information (our memories, personality, soul, or karma) is preserved and moves together as a single packet into the next life.
Scientific Views: The substance (the energy and atoms) is preserved, but the information is scrambled. Our atoms disperse randomly. One of our carbon atoms might wind up in a tree, another in a cloud, and another in an insect.
In short, science proves we are immortal because our energy cannot die. It just disagrees with religion on whether we will remember being us in the next form.
We can also look at life from another angle, if explore how astrophysicists trace our atomic origins to stardust, or how quantum mechanics views the concept of information.
I shall stop here - till the next version.
I hope this helps my highly qualified and learned brother-in-law - Erg. Ong Geok Soo and other readers too understand better.