Spirit

Many religions and religious philosophies say that ultimate reality is a kind of primal energy (such as qi, mana, manitou, teotl, pneuma, and so on). This energy is often described as a vital power animating living things, as a spiritual force directing the organization of matter, or as a divine cre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Steinhart, Eric (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Netherlands [2017]
In: Sophia
Year: 2017, Volume: 56, Issue: 4, Pages: 557-571
IxTheo Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
NBD Doctrine of Creation
Further subjects:B Thermodynamics
B Ontological Argument
B Energy
B Spirit
B Striving possibles
B Information theory
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Many religions and religious philosophies say that ultimate reality is a kind of primal energy (such as qi, mana, manitou, teotl, pneuma, and so on). This energy is often described as a vital power animating living things, as a spiritual force directing the organization of matter, or as a divine creative power which generates all things. By refuting older conceptions of primal energy, modern science opens the door to new and more precise conceptions. Primal energy is referred to here as ‘spirit'. But spirit is a natural power. A naturalistic theory of spirit is developed using ideas from information theory and thermodynamics, such as the maximum entropy production principle. Spirit drives the evolution of complexity at all levels of existence.
ISSN:1873-930X
Contains:Enthalten in: Sophia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11841-017-0573-1