MASSLESS - THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE NON-PHYSICAL SPIRIT HYPOTHESIS
Matter the physical is contrasted with spirit - the non-material or
non-physical. Spirit is what is real but is not physical. It is not
just an idea.
What is a matter? The obvious answer is that something that has mass and is
detectable if there is a person or machine there to detect it is material.
Yet this is challenged. Matter is thought to be ultimately comprised or composed
of photons which are like spirits - beings without mass or materiality.
The fact is that massless is not the same at all as being spirit and/or
non-material. Reality is not composed of non-material particles!
Spirit is without material component and cannot be measured. Spirit is massless
but it does not follow that the particles that make all things which are
massless are spirits!
If we were able to get small enough we would sense those massless entities so
they are capable of being measured in some way. The particles are material in
some way for they can affect each other. We are talking about interactivity.
This is the main sign that something is of a material non-spirit nature. If
protons and nuclei were spirits they would not need electrical forces to help
them connect with each other
If spirit is real why cannot microscopes observe it like they can protons?
Particles have spin and mass - two things that make them material. It would seem
that any particle that does have only one of these is the nearest to spirit we
can imagine.
Protons like electrons and neutrons can spin. A photon is a particle with spin
but no mass. Higgs boson is a particle that has mass but no spin. Yet it is not
a spirit or anything like it either.
The entities are strange and ghostly but they are still real. There is no need
for the spirit idea. Saying some spirit made all things from nothing is strange
for why not say that massless particles are the ultimate reason why anything
exists?
Nature tells us that you can have what to all intents and purpose seems to be
spirit but is not. Spirit as a hypothesis is totally an accessory. It is not
needed. Nature teaches us about the "substitute" - that is massless particles so
we can assume that spirit is only in our heads!
Science finds consciousness is a mystery. There is a problem understanding how the brain can do this. There is even the sensation that you are living in the brain. It is like you are observing from inside yourself. Consciousness is an observer but that does not mean we know how it does it. None of what we have written means we should regard consciousness as ultimately non-physical.
First of all, once we start talking about non-physical spirit we are talking about what cannot be detected or understood. If it cannot be detected then it could be a different kind of physical we do not detect. Using spirit to get out of the problems of materialistic views of reality does not work and shifts from one problem to a worse one. Ethically it is just cheating.
Secondly, nature at its most basic level is strange anyway so we cannot presume that consciousness is some kind of magic or miracle. What looks like it is supernatural is not necessarily supernatural.
Thirdly, we have a reason for regarding consciousness as a mystery - it lies to us and science can be helpless in the face of lies. It pretends that you are not your body and your body is your house. It is a degrading illusion.
Fourthly, it can be argued that spirit and massless particles have no
important difference. Massless particles cannot have a memory,
understanding, will or consciousness or even any one of these powers of the
human soul which we are told is real by the Catholic Church. For the same
reason, white cheese has the same uses as light yellow cheese and we learn about
one in the absence of the other, we can be sure that massless particles are the
only "spirits" you are going to get. You learn from a non-material soul
about a massless particle and vice versa. If a massless particle cannot
have soul abilities then there is no need for the non-material soul idea and it
cannot have the abilities either. A soul if it existed is only invested
with memory and understanding for believers don't want to believe the will is
without rhyme or reason. Memory and understanding are not mysteries as our
physical brain structures show. A massless particle shows that the spirit
idea is unnecessary. If the concept of spirit was needed by metaphysics
and any thinker in the past it is not today.