The Spirit that Cannot Give Life
Image credits belong to: Free-Photos | Pixabay
This article has been reviewed by Chloe Hajas-Weir. Chloe has a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences and can be contacted on her Twitter page: CLHajas (@CLHajas) / Twitter
We all like to ponder what puts our lives into motion and what sustains us. What is the special spark? Why is it mysterious? Why do we have to care? The Bible claims that the Spirit gives life. Science explains how biological materials give life instead. Allow me to quote the Biblical passages I am refuting:
"But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” [10]
"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life." [11]
I urge anyone to find a laboratory where people have observed and documented a spirit giving life to a body. I cannot find any professional who has accomplished this despite all their probing of things that are invisible to the naked eye. So, what did the ancient Biblical writers see, then?
There appear to be many nuances between the Hebrew word 'ruach' (basic meaning is wind) for the spirit in the Old Testament and the Greek word 'pneuma' (basic meaning can be breath) for the spirit in the New Testament [1].
Bible-believers may wrangle over the implications of these nuances. But the implications are quite the same from the standpoint of psychology, chemistry, and biology. The crux of the supernatural claim is that we have an incorporeal, immaterial, intelligent part separate from the body that gives it breath and life.
Some people say humans are tripartite (body, soul, and spirit), while others say we are bipartite (body and soul/spirit). The Faith and Health Connection Organization recognizes that the body comprises organs and cells with proteins, carbohydrates, and fats but says the soul contains the mind, will, and emotions extending from our endocrine, nervous, and immune systems [2].
Of course, I argue that the immaterial/incorporeal extension is unbacked by observation. Some people who believe in the human spirit may not care about verifying their beliefs through observation and science because they presuppose the human spirit is immeasurable and inexplicable. That is one of their most problematic presuppositions. Without an appeal to measurability and observation, we cannot know if a particular belief deceives us.
What Truly Gives Us Life?
The ancient Biblical writers brilliantly observed that breathing is imperative to live. The Hebrew term "ruach" can be nuanced to refer to the "seat of human experience" and that respiration is impinged by intense feelings. They observed that changes in a person's breathing accompany feelings of sadness, happiness, disgust, anger, surprise, and fear [3].
But they did not have the technology back then to witness atmospheric oxygen's relationship with the carbon dioxide expelling from our body cells and the nerve impulses vitalizing the respiration. If they had the technology, this could have dulled their unnecessary notion that something intangible and intelligent is separate from the body, making it all happen.
If we are going to talk about the "seat of human experience" and what gives us life, what would life be without the resting potential in our neurons and muscle contractions that rely on energy and the work needed to acquire that energy? The sugar and oxygen we accumulate in our bodies will feed on the energy stockpiled in the carbohydrates converted from sunlight in green plants we eat. Anyone with diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can attest to the importance of sugar and oxygen levels [4].
Certainly, your "seat of human experience" will be disrupted if your blood sugar levels skyrocket, to then constrict your blood vessels and obstruct blood flow. That will result in heart failure, stroke, vision loss, et cetera, and not the loss of God or spirit [5].
The ancients were unable to realize that the air from the external environment is sucked into a series of passages (nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx, trachea, et cetera) to eliminate small particles and moisten the air to facilitate gas exchange [4].
All of that is a part of the chemical reactions that jostle around your electrons for your body's sustenance.
Electrons and chemical reactions have never been empirically connected with something sacred and unearthly used as a life-giving agent.
A more plausible life-giving agent would be the redox reactions wherein some atoms and molecules are oxidized (lose electrons), and others are reduced (gain electrons). Redox reactions are important to life since their alterations can exacerbate disease. Redox homeostasis (your cells' ability to manage challenges) is a significant determinant of "development, function, aging, and disease" in your brain and nervous system. Redox reactions are important to neurotransmission (nerve cell messages) and degeneration [6]. No spirit, God, or lack thereof can be observed furthering disease here.
The inhalation of oxygen and exhalation of carbon dioxide (breathing) activates cellular respiration. Glycolysis is the first stage of the process, using enzymes to disintegrate your food components into glucose during digestion. The glucose is combined with oxygen and liberating energy to produce carbon dioxide and water. The glycolysis separates the six-carbon glucose molecule into two three-carbon pyruvate molecules. Midway through, each pyruvate has one carbon excised to generate acetic acid and a carbon dioxide molecule. The energy liberated from every breaking of a chemical bond goes to other cells and is stored in adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The exhalation of carbon dioxide is the waste product after bits of energy were gathered from the chemical reactions. The carbon atoms in the glucose are oxidized, and the inhaled oxygen atoms get reduced. The next phase, called the tricarboxylic acid cycle or Krebs cycle, cannot occur without oxygen [7].
As Romans 8:5-7 advises against setting one's mind on the flesh, it is ironic that oxygen, a fleshly component, and not an immaterial spirit, would be so integral to the Krebs cycle that keeps your energy flowing.
Catabolic reactions (the breakdown of complex molecules) for energy-making from glucose molecules can be written like this:
C6 H12 O6 + 6O2 à 6CO2 + 6H2O delta G = -686 kcal/mol [8]
What are the arranged symbols representing the elements, numbers, atoms, and molecules for the spirit that gives life? None exist to my knowledge. I also reckon that no one could give me a written description for the spirit molecules either, since Christianity will insist that the human spirit is immaterial.
Now let us get back to the loss and gain of electrons through oxidation-reduction reactions. The electron carriers are molecules that accept electrons from glucose and piggyback them to proteins sitting in the inward-folding membrane of the mitochondrion. Oxygen is the ultimate destination for the electrons after moving from higher to lower energy levels in the electron transport chain [8].
The energy liberated from the electron transport chain becomes a launching pad for the hydrogen ions to proceed out of the mitochondrion and to pass through an enzyme called ATP synthase. This is called oxidative phosphorylation, which allows for the making of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through a series of protein complexes. Cellular respiration is the result of this electron transport chain splitting apart the glucose molecules [8].
The electron carriers that shift electrons from location to location are importantly named NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) with a plus sign that means it has lost an electron and FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) which has gained an electron. These little friends are not the cause of energy production itself but are cofactors for helping to break down the carbohydrates and lipids that make energy possible [9].
So, we see that our sentience and spark of life come from the exchange and interactions of our body's biological network with elements that exist in the world around us. Life is built and sustained from tangible material, not supernatural mysteries, that we access directly.
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Works cited:
[1] Spirit Definition and Meaning - Bible Dictionary (biblestudytools.com)
[3] Spirit (in the Bible) | Encyclopedia.com
[4] Every breath you take: the process of breathing explained | Nursing Times
[5] High blood pressure: What is high, symptoms, causes, and more (medicalnewstoday.com)
[6] Redox Biology in Neurological Function, Dysfunction, and Aging (nih.gov)
[7] What Is Being Oxidized & What Is Being Reduced in Cell Respiration? (seattlepi.com)
[8] Introduction to cellular respiration and redox (article) | Khan Academy
[9] ATP, NAD AND FAD (byui.edu)