The Spirit Feels, Believes, or Disbelieves

This article covers some characteristics of the spirit. The spirit feels, believes, or disbelieves.

Man is a being who has innumerable, complex feelings. He loves or hates, rejoices or becomes grieved, feels happy or sad, hopes or becomes desperate, cherishes ambitions and imagines, feels relieved or bored, and so on. Also, he likes or dislikes, appreciates or disregards, and he fears or becomes timid or he becomes encouraged and feels enthusiastic, and he repents, becomes excited, and longs. If we look through a dictionary, we can come across hundreds of words used to express man’s feelings. And there are great differences among human beings with respect to feelings also. Besides, he may reflect on events happening around him or on beauty in creation and development in learning. He also makes comparisons and reasons, and then comes to believe in the Creator of all things. Then through worship and following His Commandments, he develops morally and spiritually and becomes a perfect man.

Miracle Win

Are we only physical bodies? If we are only a physical entity of blood and bones, flesh and tissues, and attribute all our movements to biochemical processes in the brain, why should we obey any laws? We have established that our physical body is renewed every 6 months. If we were tried for a murder we committed a year ago, would not the following conversation be entirely logical, given the above understanding?

Judge: When did you commit the crime?

Defendant: One year ago.

The judge announces the verdict: Since the murder was committed a year ago and the defendant’s cells, including those of his trigger finger, have been completely replaced, and since it is therefore impossible to punish the actual murderer, the jury has voted for acquittal.

How can anyone be no more than a physical entity, just their movements, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and decisions the results of the brain’s biochemical processes? Such assertions are untenable. The main part of our being is our living and conscious spirit. This part of our body feels, thinks, believes, wills, decides, and uses the body to enact its decisions.

By M. Fethullah Gulen