IS THERE A GOD GENE? (VANITY)

Look first to Genesis ... 'breathed into him and he became a living soul'. The life was aready on the Earth when God created the next level of His ongoing creation.

Right....
...but this passage is about Man, as you note.

I don't see any indication of how this establishes any kind of Transcendence (above the electro-chemical Material world) on the part of animals.

?????

Do you seek something upon which to focus your faith, or do you seek some proof to be gleaned from the scriptures?

Yes, its called a "sleeper" gene. It only becomes active when our EGO is beaten into total submission. Till then it just "sleeps"

Do you seek something upon which to focus your faith, or do you seek some proof to be gleaned from the scriptures?

As you know, my Faith is already Focused... (grin -- see #36).

My interest is whether or not there is any Biblical evidence for an "animal-soul" which Transcends the electro-chemical.

If there is, it could arguably serve as support for the Tripartite view of Man's Personhood.
If there's not, that tends to argue for the Bipartite view of Man's Personhood (which already seems, IMO, to enjoy more Biblical support.

Since the Bible is my Sola Fide Regula, I have to inquire therein as to whether or not there is any Biblical evidence for an "animal-soul" which Transcends the electro-chemical. I thought about the possibility of Balaam's donkey, for example; but then when I cross-referenced that example against the fact that God said He could cause even the rocks to offer up Praise, it seems to argue against the idea of any native Transcendence on the part of Animals... in both cases, what we see in a Divine introduction into the Object, of a Transcendent quality which is not naturally there.

Ergo, is any Biblical evidence for an "animal-soul" which Transcends the electro-chemical?

As it stands, I don't see any.

best, OP

Ergo, is any Biblical evidence for an "animal-soul" which Transcends the electro-chemical?

Well, the Biblical animal references are constrained to a region which had no familiarity with the higher primates, namely African, nor with sea mammals such as whales, dolphins, etc.

Then again, Egypt had done much soul/spirit investigation and none of that is mentioned, either.

Are you trying to pinpoint where earth animals (including us) seemed to take on a hyper-electro-chemical soul?

I'm still here; maybe I should have asked if there is a biological need for God.

If one were to decided to make a committment to God via formally joining church services, how would one decide which church to join considering relatives being Presbyterian, father and grandparents being Catholic and friends being Catholic and Luthern?

I'm still here; maybe I should have asked if there is a biological need for God.

OK, this is my final answer: In 5% of the populace (since recorded history), there is an innate spiritual longing for a God.

That is, 5% of us are willing to try to prove the existence of God that we feel in us and around us to the remaining 95% who view God as a somewhat of a constraint upon their natural proclivities but who will, nonetheless, internalize the premise of said God for psycho-socio-emotional reasons.

Put another way, a large chunk of humanity is happy to cloak themselves in the lovelier aesthetics of their religion but few are impassioned enough to explore, quantify and prove the existence of their God.

Am I getting close to what you're looking for, yet?

Well, the Biblical animal references are constrained to a region which had no familiarity with the higher primates, namely African, nor with sea mammals such as whales, dolphins, etc. Then again, Egypt had done much soul/spirit investigation and none of that is mentioned, either. Are you trying to pinpoint where earth animals (including us) seemed to take on a hyper-electro-chemical soul?

No, I think that the fleshly soul is electro-chemical.

I'm simply observing that uniquely in Man, is the spiritual capacity to interact with the Divine.

IOW, the electro-chemical constitution of Man is spiritually-inspirated.

If one were to decided to make a committment to God via formally joining church services, how would one decide which church to join considering relatives being Presbyterian, father and grandparents being Catholic and friends being Catholic and Luthern?

I think that the first thing to do is survey the local Congregations in the area. Ultimately, if you want to be intimately involved in the Life of your Local Church, the amount of time you'll spend on "Denominational" matters will be a fraction of the time your spend on "Congregational" matters.

Think about it -- if you had to choose...

good

mediocre

mediocre

good

The criterion by which you should evaluate the Local Congregations in your area is simple: how Faithful are they to the Biblical Doctrines of Christianity, and to eachother as Christian Brethren?

For myself, for example, I am (obviously) partial to Orthodox Presbyterian churches -- one of the neat things about being Orthodox Presbyterian is that, even if I had to relocate, there's no such thing as a theologically-liberal Orthodox Presbyterian Congregation. They just don't exist. That's quite a comfort!!

HOWEVER, the OPC is not a huge denomination; if no OPC (or PCA, which is similar) congregations were available, I'd be happy to survey the Christian Reformed, Reformed Baptist, Reformed Episcopalian, and Conservative Lutheran churches in the area before I would join a liberal "mainstream" Presbyterian USA church out of some sort of "denominational loyalty". For myself, I would not survey the local Roman Catholic churches, on account of differences between the Biblical Doctrines of Soteriology and the Roman Catholic doctrines thereof; but within the Protestant community, I think that membershipping myself to the most Biblically-faithful and brotherly Local Congregation I could find would tend to supercede Denominational pride.

Make any sense?

Well, even the plants have the electro-chemical, but it was the life in the fig tree that Jesus cursed when he found no fruit.

Well, even the plants have the electro-chemical, but it was the life in the fig tree that Jesus cursed when he found no fruit. 71 posted on 11/03/2002 8:05 PM PST by MHGinTN

Plants wither. Natural, materialistic, electro-chemical process.

Jesus caused this one to wither immediately, but I don't see anything in this passage about the fig tree itself that "transcends the material world". If anything, a purely-materialistic, natural process was (miraculously) radically accelerated.

I'm not saying that invalidates your theory, I'm just pointing out that I don't see any evidence for it here.

best, OP