The Book of the Spirits (eBook)
80 Seiten
Aroha (Verlag)
979-8-3078-9560-3 (ISBN)
Allan Kardec (1804-1869), born Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, was a French educator and the founder of Spiritism. His works, such as The Spirits' Book, systematized spiritual beliefs about reincarnation, spirit communication, and moral development. Kardec's writings laid the foundation for modern Spiritism, influencing spiritual studies worldwide.
Allan Kardec (1804–1869), born Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, was a French educator and the founder of Spiritism. His works, such as The Spirits' Book, systematized spiritual beliefs about reincarnation, spirit communication, and moral development. Kardec's writings laid the foundation for modern Spiritism, influencing spiritual studies worldwide.
“Even if you could, what in turn would be the cause of those properties? There must always be a first cause.”
To attribute the first formation of things to the innermost properties of matter would be to mistake the effect for the cause since such properties are themselves an effect that must have had a prior cause.
8. What about the idea that attributes the first formation of all things to an accidental combination of matter, i.e. to chance?
“Another absurdity! How could anyone with any common sense believe that chance is an intelligent agent? Moreover, what is chance? Nothing.”
The harmony that governs the forces of the universe reveals certain set combinations and designs, and thus an intelligent power. To attribute the first formation of things to chance would be nonsense because chance is blind and cannot produce intelligent results. An intelligent chance would no longer be chance.
9. Where may we see in the first cause a Supreme Intelligence, superior to all other intelligences?
“You have a proverb that says, ‘The workman is known by his work.’ So, look at the work and you will find the
‘Workman’! Pride is what creates disbelief. Human pride believes in nothing above itself, and that is why people think they are so powerful. Poor beings! A mere breath from God could blow them over!”
We judge the power of an intelligence by its works. Since no human being could create what nature produces, it is obvious that the first cause must be an intelligence superior to humankind.
Whatever may be the marvels accomplished by human intelligence, such intelligence itself must have a cause; the greater the results, the greater the first cause must have been. No matter what name you give it, that intelligence is the first cause of all things.
The Attributes of the Divinity
10. Can human beings fathom God’s innermost nature?
“No, they lack the aptitude to comprehend it.”
11. Will they ever be able to fathom the mystery of the Divinity?
“When their spirits are no longer eclipsed by matter, and when they have finally purified themselves enough to be able to approach God, then they will see and comprehend God.”
The inferior nature of their faculties makes it impossible for human beings to fathom God’s innermost nature. While humanity is in its infancy, people often confuse God with God’s creatures, imputing to God their own imperfections. However, they ponder the nature of things more deeply as their moral sense develops and thus they acquire a truer – though always incomplete – idea of God that conforms more to reason.
12. Even though we cannot fathom God’s innermost nature, can we get an idea of some of the divine perfections?
“Yes, some of them. Human beings comprehend them better only as they progressively overcome matter, but they can at least get glimpses of them through thought.”
13. When we state that God is eternal, infinite, immutable, immaterial, one, all-powerful, and supremely just and good, don’t we have a complete idea of God’s attributes?
“From your own point of view, yes, because you believe that in so stating them you therefore have named all of them. Nevertheless, you should understand that there are things that transcend the intelligence of the most intelligent person, things your language cannot define, because it is limited to your ideas and sensations. Your reason tells you that God must be perfect in those attributes to the nth degree, for if God lacked any of them or was not perfect in them to the nth degree, God would not be superior to everything else, and thus would not be God. In order to be superior to everything else, God must not be subject to any change and must not be imperfect in any way imaginable.”
God is eternal. If God had had a beginning, then either God would have had to have sprung from nothing or would have had to have been created by a being that existed previously. Reasoning in this way, we arrive little by little at the idea of eternity and the infinite.
God is immutable. If God were subject to change, then the laws that govern the universe would have no stability.
God is immaterial. This means that God’s nature differs from everything we call matter; otherwise, God would not be immutable but would be subject to the transformations of matter.
God is one. If there were several gods, then there would be no unity of design or power in the organization of the universe.
God is all-powerful because God is one. If God were not powerful above all else, it would mean that there was something more powerful or at least as powerful. It would mean that God might not have created all things, and those that God did not create would have had to have been the work of some other god.
God is supremely just and good. The providential wisdom in the divine laws is revealed in the smallest things as well as in the largest, and this wisdom makes it impossible for us to doubt either God’s justice or goodness.
Pantheism
14. Is God a distinct being, or as some believe, the result of all the combined forces and intelligences of the universe?
“If the latter were the case, God per se would not exist because God would be an effect and not a cause. God cannot be both cause and effect at the same time.
“You cannot doubt that God exists and that is the point that matters. Believe me and do not try to go any farther.
Do not get lost in a maze from which you will not be able to exit. Trying to go farther will not make you any better; instead, it will probably just add to your pride by leading you to imagine that you understand something when you actually understand nothing at all. Therefore, put all theories aside regarding the matter. You have much more important things to be concerned about, beginning with yourselves. Study your own imperfections in order to get rid of them; that will be far more useful to you than trying to penetrate the impenetrable.”
15. What should we think of the opinion holding that all the bodies in nature, all the beings and globes in the universe are components of the Divinity, and taken all together comprise the Divinity itself; i.e. the pantheistic doctrine?
“Since humans are unable to make themselves God, they would like to at least be a part of God.”
16. Adherents of this theory claim that it demonstrates some of God’s attributes: since there are an infinite number of worlds, then God is infinite; since a void or absolute nothingness is nowhere, then God is everywhere. God being everywhere, because everything is an integral component of God, God infuses all the phenomena of nature with God’s intelligence.
What can refute this viewpoint?
“Reason. Reflect on it carefully and you will have no difficulty in seeing how absurd it is.”
The pantheistic doctrine views God as a material being, who, even though possessed of supreme intelligence, is nevertheless only a larger version of us. Furthermore, since matter is continually changing, then God would have no stability and would be subject to all the changes and all the needs of humanity. God would thus lack one of the essential attributes of the Divinity: immutability.
The properties of matter cannot be linked to the idea of God without impairing how we think about God, and all the subtleties of sophistry will never be able to solve the issue of God’s innermost nature. We do not know all that God is, but we do know what God cannot fail to be. Pantheism contradicts the most essential divine properties by confusing the Creator with the creature. It is like regarding an ingenious machine as being an integral component of the machinist who invented it.
God’s intelligence is revealed in God’s works, just like an artist’s is revealed in his or her paintings; but God’s works are no more actually God than the painting is the artist who conceived and painted it.
CHAPTER II
The General Elements
of the Universe
• The Knowledge of the Origin of Things • Spirit and Matter • The Properties of Matter • Universal Space
The Knowledge of the Origin of Things
17. Can humans know the origin of things?
“No. On earth, God does not allow everything to be revealed to them.”
18. Will they ever be able to grasp the mystery of things now hidden from them?
“The veil is lifted as they become more and more purified, but in order to understand certain things they need faculties they do not yet have.”
19. Can’t humans grasp some of nature’s secrets through scientific investigation?
“Science has been given to them for their advancement in all matters, but they cannot go beyond the limits set by God.”
The more humans are allowed to grasp such mysteries, the more they should admire the power and wisdom of the Creator. However, whether through pride or through weakness, their own minds often render them victims of illusion and they pile theory upon theory. Every day they see how many errors they have mistaken for truths and how many truths they have dismissed as errors. These realizations are further blows to their pride.
20. Outside the realm of scientific investigation, can humans receive communications of a higher order regarding matters that go...
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 12.3.2025 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Ciudad de México |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität |
| Schlagworte | Afterlife • Allan Kardec • ethics • Mediumship • Metaphysics • Philosophy • Reincarnation • Soul. • Spiritism • spiritual communication |
| ISBN-13 | 979-8-3078-9560-3 / 9798307895603 |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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