Murphy’s Bye-Laws

Language Origins

Language is a funny thing. Try thinking outside the bounds of language and one can find that thought, as well as communication, is limited by language. At the boundary of precise language there comes into play a new set of words that are blurry conglomerations of the even blurrier concepts on the other side of this boundary. These blurry concepts aren’t much more than feelings or hunches; one can feel pretty sure there is an “other” side of the boundary between the materialistic and the purely conceptual, but the things on this other side cannot be put to a form – at least not very easily.

The concept of a soul or a spirit is one such word that exists on the blurry conceptual side of this language boundary. Culture is perhaps the largest producer of these ambiguous words and the greatest influence on our individual conceptions around them. Our culture – itself a pretty conglomerated word – could consist of lots of factors from our personal tastes and the personal tastes of those around us to religious and social traditions. The culture of religion and religious teaching that has been ever-present in our history colors much of our language and the concepts behind ambiguous words.

The idea of a soul, especially, has its roots in religion. To a believer in these general religious concepts, the idea of a soul is akin to having an avatar for a person in the unseen spirit world where God, angels and demons dwell. This avatar is lifted to such great importance that the actual physical life of the holder of the avatar is held in less esteem. This avatar then becomes the ante in a high-stakes game of karmic poker. Behave poorly or outside the desired doctrine of a particular religion and that ante is lost forever.

Having rejected the common religious mythology of the soul, I am left with the phrase in the language, but now without an anchor. Read the rest of this entry »

Just like the Penguins closed out their first playoff series win in too many years, I have made the final touches on a dynamite (if I don’t say so myself!) exploration of, or more rightly for, my soul.  This finished post will kick off the virtual mixer where we can discuss our different conceptions of spirit and the soul until we have a few cocktails and the conversation spirals from philosophy into politics and finally settles on the “I love you, man”  drunkenness of a different kind of spirit.  I have my Nadurra all ready to go.

The finished product will post around 4 or 5 pm EDT on Saturday.  This is just a reminder.

Again, if anyone would like to contribute or opine, drop by and leave a comment.  If unable to attend Saturday night, comments could always be posted later or sent to me early to post.  I hope to see everyone there.

Back in January Sunni had a little virtual party wherein many people contributed content and thoughts on one topic. (The actual content posts can be found here and here.) The topic was broad and open to a wide interpretation: “A Spirit Breaking Free.” In a comment to her announcement I voiced concern for not really knowing what spirit was. That was as good a point as any to mark the genesis of this particular mental exploration.

What I’m proposing for a path through this exploration is similar to what Sunni did. I would like for people (or non-people, if you’re reading) to send in their own content to explore what the soul is to them. With any luck, the result will be a discussion of spirituality from multiple points of view.

I would like to have a kick-off party for this event, say, the evening of Saturday, April 19th. I will attempt to keep this post at or near the top (and possibly make a separate page for it) until then, at which point I will post my contribution to kick this off.

Reader content can be placed in the comments section. If there are more than three hyperlinks in the text it will get flagged as spam or marked for moderation, but I will get to it and make sure it goes through. If you anticipate this happening, an email to me ahead of time may expedite the process of getting it through the filter. Also, if for some reason you may not be available to post during the kick-off and would like it to happen then, email me the content and I can post it with attribution or anonymity. Anonymous comments are allowed at Murphy’s Bye-Laws. The email to reach me is <redacted>.

I hope to see everyone there and look forward to this interesting discussion.  Don’t forget to spread the word and invite friends and family!