Dear Rhian,

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens [Ecclesiastes 3:1].

I agree that the world in itself, having come from God, cannot be anything but good. Life is a school, it gives us discipline - how else will we learn? but then if someone (other than the teachers) is still in primary school at the age of 50, then something is going wrong.

The Jewish Kabbalah tells that we enter the worldly sheaths in order to release and elevate those hidden divine sparks within. Those sheaths of which the world is comprised are in fact the emanations of God, so how could they be bad? The only bad thing about the situation, is when we forget ourselves and our divine nature, becoming attached to those sheaths instead.

Thank-you Pogi for a very thoughtful and thought-provoking response. You ask “ Can you establish a logical connection between spirit and culture? Is spirit synonymous with soul? “

"When a choice can be made that is not determined or necessitated by prior events then we can exercise freewill. The will is free when alternative choices could have been made with the same pre-existing conditions."

To exercise freewill in this world we need an existence that is independent of our existence in this world. This is what i mean by spiritual existence: there is a soul that lives on when our bodies have long ceased functioning.

The alternative is to see our choices as responses to material stimuli or randomness and culture as solely “a bonding mechanism for big brained animals”. If there is no spirit, then culture is purely functional with no role for freewill.

Yet I can choose whether I want to conform to a culture. The fact that I’m raised in a culture that worships the tooth-fairy and insists that all men of age should erect a shrine in their gardens, lest the tooth-fairies vent their anger with projectiles in the form of molars, I still have a choice as to whether I conform or not. The ritual is a “bonding mechanism” but still each member of the society is free to choose between accepting or rejecting the practice; if not in words or deed, then at the very least privately in the heart. The culture reflects the exercise of freewill.

If i decide to object openly and I’m thrown off some cliff, then that would be the end of the matter for me but not others who would still be exercising their freewill. If I survive and the predictions of divine retribution do not come to pass then culture may begin to change. In either case, culture can only be an expression of freewill if there is a spiritual existence.

cont...

cont..

If on the other hand, there is no spiritual existence then my ‘choice’ must be ascribed to some stimuli or randomness (perhaps operating at a psychological level). The outcome could be the same but the cause would be different. Is this how atheists understand the radical cultural changes brought about by the humanist movement, for example? I expect not.

So culture serves as an expression of freewill and freewill presupposes a spiritual existence.

Yuyutsu, you still haven't offered evidence for your view that “the Quran as we know it today calls for violence”

Instead you have stated "without sufficient access to the Arabic source, I am not in a position of issuing my own tafsir, so unfortunately I must draw my conclusions from the studies of others."

What studies are you referring to? What are their proofs?

Reading the above posts I have concluded that there are two types of brain.
Type one has a well-developed gullibility centre and thus readily believes the God story. Probably also supports the so called organic food industry and votes Green at election times.
Type two brain has a poorly developed gullibility centre and its owner takes pride in rational and objective thought
The problem for society is to get the owners of the two types of brain to live in harmony. I fear society is not always successful in this objective.

It may be personality types rather than brain types, anti green.
Meyers and Briggs, a mother and daughter developed a classification of the personality types put forward by Jung.
The sensor is a fact-lover, so if something is not detectable by the senses, it is not there.
The intuitive is attracted by possibilities, so may be convinced by ideas.
However, a sensor may consider the bible to be fact, and an intuitive might take up the idea that religion was false, being simply a means to build a power base.
Perhaps whatever our brain or personality type, our beliefs will be governed by our environment and community.
Meyers and Briggs wrote about their work. They believed that a community had approximately the proportion of different personality types appropriate to its needs.