Ink or Information? (Physical and Spiritual 3)

When you see words on the pages of a book, what is the first thought that comes to mind? There are a series of squiggles of ink on the paper or words? This is the third and final article on things that have a physical and spiritual element.

In the first article, I discussed how the heart differs from the soul and the brain from the mind. If you've read those two (which I hope you have) then you probably know the difference in this article.

I know I used ink but I just used that word because of the alliteration. It could be plastic, metal, scratches in the sand, pixels on a computer....anything that conveys the symbols used in language. Like letters and numbers.

The actual substance that make up the letters/symbols can be many different types of physical materials. Take for example this thought:

Case 1: "Jesus Loves You" is scratched into sand on the beach.
Case 2: "Jesus Loves You" is formed by metal wires.
Case 3: "Jesus Loves You" is formed by pixels on a large television.
Case 4: "Jesus Loves You" is formed by the letters in the Bible.

Now I will ask two simple questions:

1. Are all the cases physically different? How?
2. Do the cases all have differing information? Support answer.

Even though each case is of a completely different physical substance, the information conveyed: "Jesus Loves You" remains. Why?

Since I cannot explain in words the difference between the physical and spiritual values of words and sentences, I hope the example I gave to you helped get the idea across. I have one more fun story that also conveys the difference.

Once upon a time, a group of violinists got stranded on a remote island far out in the middle of the sea. As they explored their surroundings, there was a shriek of fear. The entire crew ran towards the person pointing at the sand. In clear letters, someone had scratched this into the sand: A Violist Was Here. The entire group began panicking but the concertmaster told everyone to calm down. "Relax! The waves just eroded this away."

What can we learn from this story? Well for the sake of this article, the main point I would like to point out is that it didn't matter what the squiggles were scratched from-the information that a violist had been there was still conveyed. The information conveyed couldn't be reduced to anything physical, be it the material that formed the information or not.

Hope you guys enjoyed this article!
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Aaaaaaand as always, thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next time!
~Caleb