Dear Dolapo Akinola-Omojola,
"All issues emanate from the spiritual realm, only the spirit has answers to all things. Wisdom is a spiritual exercise that is translated to the mind and the ability of the mind to interpret its message is understanding-which is a function mind/mental function. All messages transmitted to the brain start from the mind, and those that go to the mind is created from the spirit realm. The spirit understands all things because it transcends brain and comprehension otherwise you and I will understand the source of the sun and moon and what keeps life consistent on earth. All things have their source in the Spirit."
Dolapo Akinola-Omojola, November 28th 2011
Permit me to ask you some few questions regarding your comment to Rolu’s earlier comment, which I will reproduce as I go on.
There appear to me the time-tested argument on ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘soul’, ‘brain’, and ‘body’ argument, which no philosopher has been able to answer in your comment. In fact, it will be a great one for me to refrain from thinking that you are in a great confusion (you may not even know) as to where all these existential phenomena are in the human frame. For instance, there is the simple error that because the brain is in the head, the mind is in the heart or other parts of the body, which would technically elicit another question: where is the soul in the human frame? In relation to all these, one can also ask: which of these body parts, if we agree that they are inside of man, is the seat or abode of the spirit?
For anything to be spiritual, it must come external to the human body, as the human body is governed by the mental part of man, which technically relates to all body parts as against the Yorùbá/African mentality of ORI, head, as the governor of the body. Science has told us that dendrites, neurons, pupils, and motor nerves pick data from the outside the human body either through touch, sight or feel and transmit them at more than the speed of light to the brain for processing, where they become information. Because all these begin and complete in split seconds, we take no notice and we confuse everything that emanates from man as necessarily the activities of the brain or head. Hence, the Yorùbá would say: ‘Ori re kop e”, even if it is your eyes or hair that failed to transmit the right message and thereby getting wrong results out of your brain. We can pardon the confusion, especially because until the body is brain-dead, science will not also declare a body dead, a situation which can be confused as the verdict from the most important part of the body. Despite science’s seeming error in this, I want to tell you that until the brain cannot pick data from other body parts, it cannot die.
I think if you apply this analysis to your comment, you will see how confusing those beautiful words of yours are. For instance, if all matters emanate from the spiritual realm and we cannot say, in particular, in which parts of the body is this spiritual realm; then we will run into two more troubles. One, is this spiritual realm within the body? If so, how much of its functions and activities are guided by insights from other parts of the body? Like the brain, which depends on other body-parts for its activities, is the spirit insulated from other body parts? Unless you want to preach, I see no yes or no answer open to you. If we argue that the spiritual realm is external to the body, then we will sacrifice human agency in all matters and man would stop being moral agents, responsible for their actions. Yes, we have evidence of these in our daily lives. When Bode George stole our money, he also said ‘ise esu ni’ and so also Cecilia Ibru and you and me. Once, we are caught, pant down, in our evil ways; we pass the bulk. I remember other variants of this: ‘awon aye lo nse’ and by extension, ‘amuwa olorun ni’. So, where is this your spirit realm and how does it link up with man? Don’t play Okotie here by telling me 'through the spirit'. It won’t sell.
Second point of your intervention is that: “Wisdom is a spiritual exercise that is translated to the mind and the ability of the mind to interpret its message is understanding-which is a function mind/mental function.” What is wisdom? Simply put: the application of right knowledge at the right time. How can this be spiritual? By your name, I gather that you are Yorùbá, but your comment is in English language; did you learn English Language in the spirit or in school? Were you told in the spirit to respond to Rolu’s comments? To worsen the matter, you just committed a blue murder by asserting that wisdom is spiritual, as it is tantamount to saying that only the spiritual are wise. Please, be corrected: knowledge gives wisdom and enlightenments and it is not a function of any spirit. It is just application of right knowledge and at the right time.
Your third gaffe is that “All messages transmitted to the brain start (sic) from the mind, and those that go to the mind is created from the spirit realm.” This is a big lie. Sensory nerves, dendrites, motor nerves, neurons, etc. are the means through which messages (even if you want to play the pastor by saying spiritual messages) are transmitted to the brain. You are confusing ‘brain’ and ‘mind’ again. Our ‘hearts’ are not our ‘minds’ and the heart is not the seat of the mind. Your argument can only sell if the mind is also external to the body or an abstract place elsewhere in the space. But if we agree that they are in human beings, but we don’t know where they are, we can then raise the argument of who invented those words in the first place. Because of our fear of the unknown, we have invented heaven and hell, mind and soul, etc. and these human inventions, which have no basis in reality, cannot be greater than man. To argue otherwise is to commit heresy, as I will quickly point you to God and man!
The last point on the above deals with the equally confusing binaries: message /understanding and mind function/mental function. Message and understanding are clear and ease to grab, but allocating them to different sphere in human-created mind and mental states is ridiculous. Is mind-message responsible for mind-function? Is mental-message responsible for mental-function?
What I see here is that we fail to understand the process through which human brain processes and stores information. Those finer thoughts that we ascribe to ‘mind’ and ‘mental’ are all products of our brains. While we sleep, it keeps on working and storing away information for retrieval whenever the need arises. So, when we think what we say, write, or do is out of the body; the brain simply picked from its stores those ‘knowledge’ it stored away when we least know for our use. These are what we christened mind-messages and mental-messages. Those idiots that say there is no God missed this critical point on how the brain functions, which is synonymous to how the universe is ordered.
The last two points in your comments are not as kind as those I have mentioned and analyzed above. Stop making us imbeciles, please. We cannot be daily assaulted on the roads, malls, churches and mosques and still won’t be allowed the necessity of cyber-space by preachers-without-borders. How can you think and say that we cannot understand the source of the sun and moon? Haven’t people landed on the moon? Remember that the Bible credited Joshua to have stopped the sun from setting when he was killing and maiming and raping Jews enemies! But today we know that it was a lie and that the earth, not the sun rotates. What else do you want to hear? Man has done so much with their God-given mental capacity and the sheer fact that you cannot reason out of the box is not enough to limit others’ capacity to transcend mundane pastor’s homilies. If the spirit transcends understanding and comprehension, then you who are led by it are doomed. But thank God, we, who are of this world, can comprehend God and His creatures. What better way to comprehend God than inventing airplanes, computers, laser surgery, etc. Other than empty words and sexed miracles; what has the spirit-filled, spirit-comprehending pastor/imam invented?
Perhaps your last point is the most ridiculous. “All things have their source in the Spirit.” Like rape, murder, stealing, or what? I fear you don’t even know the meaning of what you just said. If all things have their sources in the spirit, then human beings should not be punished or praised for anything, whether bad or good. We should just praise or blame the spirit. Even if I don’t know anything, I know my illiterate great mother knew and taught us that nothing has its ‘source in the spirit’. She will tell us: ‘aigbo ifa, la now oke, ifa kan ko si ni para’ and also ‘oni iya, ni yo je gbogbo e’. God bless her soul! She knew that it is the delusion that religion impose on us and our mentality. It is the simplest dungeon that humanity is cast; only a few will get out of it in their life-time.
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