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We present in this issue the topic #62 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.
If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson.
Questions
1. What are the organs of the living beings made of?
2. How are mineral compounds formed? What about organic compounds?
3. What are germens?
4. How did the living beings appear on Earth?
5. What does Spiritism teach about the formation of worlds?
The structure of the living beings is not as simple as the minerals
1. In the worlds like Earth, besides material bodies that form Earth crust, the sea and the gases from its atmosphere, there are beings that show an existence cycle, it means, they are born, grow, develop and reproduce, get old and die. They are called living beings – vegetables and animals. In their bodies there is no simple and homogeneous structure of a mineral, but the heterogeneity of a complete organization, organs that are in systems, playing their role in the complex vital functions.
2. The organs of the living beings are formed by specific tissues, which, result of the association of tiny cells. The living beings are characterized by their cellular organization, there are also those called unicellular ones, it means, formed by only one cell. This is the vital unity in which they accomplish, through cellular specters, all the functions that characterize the cycle of life, since birth till death. The formation of living beings obeys the same chemical laws that regulate the formation of mineral substances, which means that the organic substances that take part in the constitution of plants and animals are constituted of the same principles or chemical substances and they obey, in their formation, the same laws that regulate the constitution of inorganic substances.
3. It is known how the mineral compounds are formed: the elements combine and obey, first of all, the existing affinities among them and deriving from the specific structure of their atoms, and, secondly, the laws of chemical combination, among those stand out the conservation of matter (Lavoisier) and the defined proportions (Proust).
4. When, in given conditions, the elements combine to form a determined compound, the matters which took part keep a record of those relations. For example: hydrogen and oxygen show great chemical affinity and, in proper conditions, combine to form water. As they combine, their matters keep themselves an invariable relation that, expressed by numbers, is of 1 for 8. We could multiply the examples by the binary combinations of oxygen and metals, in which we have the metallic oxides, the fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, forming fluorides, chlorides, bromides and iodides etc.
The living beings always derive from a germ
5. What we want to point out is that the organic compounds are formed from the same chemical elements that enter in the composition of the inorganic or mineral compounds and obeys the same laws of conservation and proportionality. The organic compounds show only the particularity of deriving from carbon, and then, in order of importance, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen [1] and, then, sulfur, phosphor, iron and many other elements. By saying, though, that the organic compounds are made of the same elementary principles and obey the same laws, we refer to them considering only them, isolated, or like individual and specific substances, not as participants of the biological sets, in the cells, tissues, organs and in plants and animals, because then these substances appear in a functional integration to form a living unity, which requires, evidently, an integrating force, inherent to a subtle substance that is called the vital principle. And this principle communicates to the plants and animals the organic life, allowing them the exercise of all vital functions.
6. The living being, however, never shows since the beginning of its existence as we know it as adult. Plant or animal, it always derives from a germ. The germs are tiny organic systems in which functional potentialities are found in latent state, holding out for proper conditions of heat, humidity, environment, to thrive, determining the growth, development and cellular multiplication, so that from the germ we have the embryo, and from the embryo the being itself.
7. Because of these germs life appeared on Earth. In the beginning all was chaos; the elements were mixed up in a state of confusion. Gradually those elements settled into their proper places, and then appeared the orders of living beings appropriate to the successive states of the globe. The germs of these were contained in the earth itself, awaiting the favorable moment for their development. The organic principles came together on the cessation of the force which held them asunder, and those principles formed the germs of all the living beings that have peopled the earth. Those germs remained latent and inert, like the chrysalis and the seed of plants, until the arrival of the proper moment for the vivification of each species. The beings of each species then came together and multiplied.
Nothing would exist in the Universe, if it were not for the Divine Will
8. Once formed from their germs, the living beings brought in themselves, absorbed, the elements that could serve for their own formation and transmitted them, according to the laws of reproduction. The human species came about the same way on Earth, where the germs would be in the atmosphere itself or on the crust, as we can suppose from the answers given by
the Spirits of High Degree to Kardec, in the items 44, 47 e 49 of The Spirits’ Book.
9. We know, by revelation from the Spirits of High Degree, that God, as He created the cosmos or primitive matter, also established laws to regulate its transformations. These laws are, in fact, mere diversifications of a greater law that covers them all. All in the universe is attraction and magnetism. The universal gravitation governs the movement of the worlds, keeping them in their orbits, as the gravity conditions the weight of the bodies, attracting them to the center of Earth. The force of cohesion attracts the molecules [2] of the substances, keeping them united to form the matter of the bodies, and the law of chemical affinity leads the attraction among the atoms of different elements, keeping them connected, combined in the chemical compounds.
10. Nothing would exist, however, not even the cosmos, if it were not for the Divine Will, wise actions that accomplish everything. The absolute start of things, according to Galileo (Spirit), goes back to God. The successive appearances in the domain of existence make the order of perpetual creation. We cannot advance any further, only that the cosmic matter is the source where God, by His thought and will, create the worlds and beings. The primitive cosmic matter possessed and still possesses all material, fluidic and vital elements of all worlds that were formed and keep on being formed, because the creation is endless.
11. Kardec asked the Spirits of High Degree: “Can we know how worlds are formed?” and they answered: “All that can be said on this subject, within the limits of your comprehension, is this: Worlds are formed by the condensation of the matter disseminated in space.” The Compiler also asked if the worlds, once they were formed, could disappear, disseminating in the space the matter that composes them, and they informed: “Yes. God renews worlds as He renews the living beings that inhabit them.” We can see from that the worlds have their own cycle of formation, evolution – so that they can turn into proper place to the ones who are going to inhabit them – and disappearance, when the condensed matter which makes them will desegregate, back again to the fluidic state and returning, then, to the primitive source where they came from – the cosmos.
[1] In the past, in the time where the Spiritism started, they had another name for nitrogen, but this is the commonly used now.
[2] In chemistry, a molecule is defined as a sufficiently stable electrically neutral group of at least two atoms in a definite arrangement held together by very strong chemical bonds.
Answer Key
1. What are the organs of the living beings made of? A.: The organs of the living beings are formed by specific tissues, which, result of the association of tiny cells. The living beings are characterized by their cellular organization, there are also those called unicellular ones, it means, formed by only one cell. This is the vital unity in which they accomplish, through cellular specters, all the functions that characterize the cycle of life, since birth till death. The formation of living beings obeys the same chemical laws that regulate the formation of mineral substances, which means that the organic substances that take part in the constitution of plants and animals are constituted of the same principles or chemical substances and they obey, in their formation, the same laws that regulate the constitution of inorganic substances.
2. How are mineral compounds formed? What about organic compounds? A.: It is known how the mineral compounds are formed: the elements combine and obey, first of all, the existing affinities among them and deriving from the specific structure of their atoms, and, secondly, the laws of chemical combination, among those stand out the conservation of matter (Lavoisier) and the defined proportions (Proust). The organic compounds are formed from the same chemical elements that enter in the composition of the inorganic or mineral compounds and obey the same laws of conservation and proportionality. The organic compounds show only the particularity of deriving from carbon, and then, in order of importance, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen [1] and, then, sulfur, phosphor, iron and many other elements.
3. What are germens? A.: Plant or animal, it always derives from a germ. The germs are tiny organic systems in which functional potentialities are found in latent state, holding out for proper conditions of heat, humidity, environment, to thrive, determining the growth, development and cellular multiplication, so that from the germ we have the embryo, and from the embryo the being itself.
4. Como apareceram os seres vivos na Terra? R.: In the beginning all was chaos; the elements were mixed up in a state of confusion. Gradually those elements settled into their proper places, and then appeared the orders of living beings appropriate to the successive e states of the globe. The germs of these were contained in the earth itself, awaiting the favorable moment for their development. The organic principles came together on the cessation of the force which held them asunder, and those principles formed the germs of all the living beings that have peopled the earth. Those germs remained latent and inert, like the chrysalis and the seed of plants, until the arrival of the proper moment for the vivification of each species. The beings of each species then came together and multiplied.
5. What does Spiritism teach about the formation of worlds? A.: All that can be said on this subject, within the limits of your comprehension, is this: Worlds are formed by the condensation of the matter disseminated in space. God renews worlds as He renews the living beings that inhabit them.
Bibliography:
The Spirits’ Book, by Allan Kardec, items 38, 39, 41, 44, 47 e 49.
Genesis, by Allan Kardec, items 4, 6, 7, 10, 17, 20 e 22.
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