Death and resurrection from the point of view of the cell-theoryBjörklund, Gustaf
Religion
Death and resurrection from the point of view of the cell-theory
Björklund, Gustaf
Biology; Future life
But if the soul is potentially present in the cells it is only through
them that it can arise to a higher life. We have already shown in another
connection that a direct transposition would be useless and meaningless.
Endowed with his present organs adapted to earthly conditions, a man
suddenly translated into the glories of a higher world would with
seeing eyes yet see nothing, with hearing ears hear nothing and with
feeling senses would feel nothing. To comprehend what there exists and
happens, man’s own organism must have undergone a corresponding radical
transformation. He must have new, more perfect senses, higher spiritual
and bodily faculties, differing from his present as far as the objects in
this higher world differ from those on earth. This transfigured body can
only be organized by the same beings that built it here in time. The soul
is inseparably united with these beings and is where they are.
Here in time man commences with a cell and with a cell he must begin
in a future life. This first cell with which man enters his next
form of existence cannot logically be any other than the first dying
cell-individual. As no atom, so no elementary unit of the living
spiritual body is annihilated. Viewed from our present existence death
cannot mean anything to the departed cell-generations but the cessation
of life and activity in the world responsive to our senses. In reality
they rise to a higher evolution under different conditions and this
evolution must be identical with the upbuilding of the glorified body man
shall possess in a future life.
This form of death and resurrection, natural because it is founded on
the idea and nature of the organism, is common to all living beings and
must so be, as they are all built according to the same general plan and
therefore essentially subject to the same evolutionary processes. The
birth and death of the lower individuals in whole generations is known
to be a universal phenomenon in every organism and we will now endeavor
shortly to explain this process.
If the soul enters as a real part in every individual cell, it does not
belong differently to the first generation than to the last or to the
whole series of intermediary generations. But here in time man lives only
in the generation existing at the present moment. The generations that
in the past successively formed the spiritual substance of his body have
already gone out of time and those that are coming have not yet made
their entrance. Man’s entity is thus split or distributed upon a series
of successively existing moments, each of which contains only a certain
limited part of the organism, and the latter has therefore in reality a
far broader extent than is seen at present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account