Deal Vilemar,

not knowing who gave us life, we can not know what the primum mobile is.

"The Primum Mobile, the largest and swiftest sphere in Dante's cosmology, is the physical origin of life, motion, and time in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic universe. This heaven, the supreme physical heaven in the universe, is enclosed only by the Empyrean, the mind of God. Enkindled in the Empyrean are the love which turns the Primum Mobile and the virtue (or creative power) that the Primum Mobile pours down onto the lower spheres. "  

This is another intepretation ...

Greetings

Without blood, can't think of life!

I think of genes, dear Vilemar.

I think of perpetuation of species, of regeneration, of healing, and inevitably, I think of warmth, and spirit...

And there you'll find the intimate relation between life, science and biology, and human religion.

You cannot artificially synthetize blood. 

Deal Vilemar,

not knowing who gave us life, we can not know what the primum mobile is.

"The Primum Mobile, the largest and swiftest sphere in Dante's cosmology, is the physical origin of life, motion, and time in the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic universe. This heaven, the supreme physical heaven in the universe, is enclosed only by the Empyrean, the mind of God. Enkindled in the Empyrean are the love which turns the Primum Mobile and the virtue (or creative power) that the Primum Mobile pours down onto the lower spheres. "  

This is another intepretation ...

Greetings

My views on how life is represented in our body: life is composed of body and soul, both are integral part of each other. None will exists without the other. 

I think water (H2O) is, dear Vilemar!

Blood allows to all the cells of our body to remain alive. That is biologically true and is written in the Bible. But live is much more than just the blood flowing in our body.

Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD (Ezekiel 37: 5-6)

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2: 7)

Every wise sayings kept the truth. Truth makes no difference - we reject the truth or not.

Body cells need oxygen.  Blood is vehicle to bring oxygen to cells.  Without blood (e.g. a creature is killed by blood dripping out) causing no oxygen sent to cells, then cells died follow by the creature.  Hence, blood is precious as equivalent to life.

Dear @Vilemar, yes, according to the book of Leviticus 17:14, the life of each creature is in the blood! This is an interesting comparison, see picture attached! We see almost the same molecular structure of chlorophyll and blood...!

http://thekeyofknowledge.net/Religion/N_ScriptNotes.html

For the followers, as suggested by dear @Marg : Poetry of the Universe by Robert Osserman!

http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Universe-Mathematical-Exploration-Cosmos/dp/0385474296

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/poet-of-the-universe-20120205-1r0eu.html

Everyone knows that we can't live without blood. Blood is essential for good health because the body depends on a steady supply of fuel and oxygen to reach its billions of cells. Even the heart couldn't survive without blood flowing through the vessels that bring nourishment to its muscular walls. 

Yes indeed I agree that life is a blood. The body lives perfectly by having a heart subsidizing the blood to all organs. Meanwhile  I agree with those say a human life is made by body and soul. I add with the mind.

There are religions that prohibit blood transfusions. Do you believe that this is the correct interpretation of scripture or a smple distortion of the concept?

@Lawrence, do you want better explain the relationship beetwen tubeculosis and red meat? 

@Vilemar: thank you for your very interesting question. Although i frequently pondered the same question, because i am not a doctor or a biologist, i am afraid that i cannot offer a convincing answer on why life is in the blood. But i am sure that without blood there is no life.

Moreover, if we check Genesis chapter in the story of Caine, then it seems blood can also communicate with earth and then with God himself. Or in philosophy terms, the blood may have transcendent character. But that is my opinion, what do you think?

Dear Friends,

If we analyze in a biological point of view, to my mind, the "old" books (holy or not) seems to have some empiric knowledge: in fact, as said by Sayed, the more little 'unit' of a "living" organism (compared ie to stones) is the cell. In Nature, monocellular organism are "living" (bacteria), and the process is biologically defined by the different reactions  inside the cells. We (human, animals, vegetable ...) are pluricellular organisms, and in evolution, circulatory systems appeared very early, as nervous and immune system. And we can find the role of circulation, because the main process of biological life need oxygen. So Blood in a pluricellular system is necessary to give oxygen to all cells. I could say that "life"is not necessary "located" in blood, but blood is necessary to perpetuate life in our organism by this function (among others) of providing oxygen.

For  vegetable, trees, Ljubomir is right to compare the sytems, and in this case, photosynthesis and chlorophylle in chloroplasts have the same function than red blood cell and oxydo-reduction reaction of all cells  with O2. So, we could say that blood, and RBC ... are  a necessary condition for our "kind  of life" , but not sufficient in a non biological point of view. A proof could be that with our possibility of rescucitation in medicine, even if a physician provide oxygen and  its transpor to cells by artificial circulation, if the brain dies, after several days, all the cells die. So blood and oxygen are necessary, but not only  to maintain life.

The best

Didier

Dear Vilemar,

We need three bodily organs to function in order to sustain our lives: the brain, the heart, and the lungs.  The circulatory system constitutes a vehicle for nourishment to travel to, and waste to travel from, these three organs.  Therefore to sustain that life lies in the blood is to take the part for the whole or to put the cart before the horse. 

I do not feel that Leviticus 17, 11 makes any statement about human anatomy (an invention of the Greeks).  Instead, a symbol is here involved, a metaphor. The equation of life to blood enables the Lord to prohibit the eating of blood so that blood be used not for nourishment, but only for sacrificial purposes to atone for sin. 

Life is itself, blood or not.  While blood might sustain our own lives, it does not define life itself.  It is an ingredient, but not the whole.

Victor Cristianto thanks for your answer. You gave us a wonderful definition when you said that blood may have a transcentent character. Your answer is biologically and theologically correct. Blood is much more than just a transporter of oxygen and nutrients and much more than a tissue where life can be found. Thanks for your enriching answer to this question.

Dear Lawrence,

You gave a good description of Mediterranean diet. We follow that in Portugal, yet not free from colon cancer. In my Country, Other factors are also implied.

Dear Vilemar, IMHO, the society to which these words were addressed isn't a scientifically literate society.  If it were a society of RG researchers, different words could have been used.  Do you agree?

But they were an observant people.  They may observe blood flowing out of a lamb and the life of the creature is gone!  I believe the Almighty is dealing with us according to our ability to understand and obey His commands. AMIN AND AMEN.

@Maria,

Mediterranean diet suggests to assume red meat twice in a month. As Lawrence correctly highlighted even in America suggestions of Mewditerranean diet have been perceived.  Of course, diet is one of the factors affecting colo-rectal cancer development, another relevant for sporadic cancer is familiarity. On this last point the main screening programs of prevention are focused.

If I may take a contrary view to some of the views expressed here, and still hope to not peeve or distress anyone - which is certainly not my intention - I think blood is simply one link in the constituent chain that sustains life, and nothing special per se at all. The Bible has no claims whatsoever to scientific truth of any kind, so I'm not sure why we should draw this ancient book into a science discussion.

In purely scientific terms; you'd have to define 'life' first - which is not a binary concept. If we do have free will and are not unwittingly mindless robots, then the Free Will theorem applies and life may then begin at the tiniest physical level (other scientists had historically made the same claim despite not knowing about the FWT - such as Jean Charon, who had been much scouted for it)

The emphasis on blood stems from its obvious visibility, as Miranda notes (although some other traditions see life more embedded in breath or 'prana' - indeed, many words meaning soul or life, such as 'prana', anima, and spirit, originally meant breath or wind.)

The unfounded and unscientific belief in some alleged mystical role for blood I find especially dangerous - it is what gave rise to the infamous 'Blut und Boden' (blood and soil) philosophy of yore, for instance, and, perhaps unavoidably, to all its ridiculous consequences such as a focus on the slapstick concept of the 'purity' of blood. To this day, some Jehovah's Witnesses prefer their kin to die rather than accept transfusions. A sorry state of affairs in an age we would love to be that of enlightenment, and at the very least a stark misplacement of where spirituality should dwell - i.e., not in bits of biochemistry.

Yes Sayed.

For living organism on earth, water is essential for life and life developped thanks to water.

It doesn't  exclude the possibility of other form of life in universe not based on this "system" : our uses carbone as basic brick for  structure, O2 for cellular reactions, also for utilization of nutriments; and "fortunatly" , that's the contrary for  plants: they use CO2 and produce O2 ; one of the reason to protect them for our own survival (80% of earth O2 "was" produced by amazonian forest, and the other 20 % by sea planctons: two sources which are vanishing).

We are composed of about  70% water, compared to a  jelliefish = 98%;

H2O is a very particular molecule with its 3 physical states (gas, liquid, ice ) possibly existing  at our mean earth  temperatures  (by contrast with other molecules) , and in organisms, water molecule is able to establish strong reversible boundage in chemical reactions (hydrogen link, Van der Walls one ...), reversible character being essential.

But as said by Chris: the most difficult is to define "life", on earth, and in a general manner (to imagine possible other lifes in cosmos): we have not special problem to distinguish mineral, stones from  living organisms, but if we used too simple criteria like reproduction, transmission of informations between organism and environment, movments , or other example of criteria , these  could also be applied  to other "orders" in nature: ie a cristal grows (reproduces ?), sub-atomic particles can "commmunicate" by exchanging energy (transformation-generation of photons);  hadrons are linked by other particles like gluons, muons ...even if we , living organisms are composed of this particle, in this case, this particles would be "living" independantly of the pluricellular organisms they are part of.

To my mind, it exists  no absolute criteria to define life; more, criteria used  can be  "fragiles", and influenced by our mind, our thought on the subject. So, this   can lead to other possibilities in the way to analyse or define  life than only sciences: philosophy, metaphysic, and it appears natural that religions could give also their "definition".

As discussed in an another topics (on ATP used by cells as source of energy), if we are open minded, we could imagine another biological and chemical system, another sort of "life" which could conduct to  the  same result: on a chemical point of view, carbone can be  replaced by silicium and oxygen by fluor: and you obtain  ie an "allien" with a  cristal body , breathing fluorhydric acid vapors :-).

Friendly

Didier

Yes, "Without blood there is no life." Blood is the internal environment of the human being. That is, the blood reflects the essence of the person. It is necessary to teach a child to understand the meaning of human blood in a humane attitude towards each other.

From anatomy subject, blood drives the essential constituents of minerals, vitamins, proteins, hydro carbonates etc....to the different organs and cells of the body for nourishing them. Is it essential for life? sure it is!! but it is not the life, as many other organs and millions of cells are essential for it : heart, brain, etc..... Every component of the body is essential to the life and the more essential one is the soul!. without soul there is no life!!

Soul is the undefined life. It is geans and the nurons. as per the yogic philosophy there are 7 junction points (so to say) controlling the evolution of the body and soul.

Happy Purim Day to all Jewish community!!!

If I may pick up some points from H Chris Ransford: "I think blood is simply one link in the constituent chain that sustains life, and nothing special per se at all. The Bible has no claims whatsoever to scientific truth of any kind ..."

When the author of Leviticus said "the life is in the blood" he was not making a "scientific" point (obviously an anachronistic idea!) but a moral one.  Namely that the life force (whatever that is - it is intuited by everyone but known by no-one!) is God's gift and cannot be appropriated by anyone.  The blood is to be poured out on the ground,  and God,  who sees all,  will avenge the innocent.

The Bible makes a claim to truth,  and truth is undivided.  One can however speak truth without making any kind of scientific assertion.  Such assertions actually cover only rather a small subset of all true assertions.

Also Chris,  you fall into a trap to say "blood is simply ...".  If there is one thing the biochemistry of life is not,  that is simple!  It is also a truth of any philosophical discussion that whenever a protagonist claims "A is simply B",  then he is engaging in propaganda.  Statements of essence,  even where they are identities,  or even tautologies,  are never simple.  Schroedinger's equation is an identity,  and Euler's equation is a tautology,  but both touch very deep physical and mathematical truths.

I share your horror of "blut und boden" ideas,  but I think you miss the point by condemning the "unfounded and unscientific belief in some alleged mystical role for blood" which you "find especially dangerous".  At this level,  "belief" is always founded on worldview and must necessarily be pre-scientific.  To say such belief is "unscientific" is a category error since science itself is necessarily founded on belief.  Essence is,  indivisibly.  A thing is what it is.  Blood is.  What is its significance?  Clearly very much,  the apprehension of which for us reaches back to the mists of time.  I am not myself particularly mystically minded,  but anyone who can appreciate poetry (including the poetry of the Bible) must see that the mystics are trying to express something of substance.

Limbic system. We say, all is in our blood, or genes of our ancestry, or historical memory, national self-consciousness - collective unconscious and individual experience, which a human being has acquired, testing own values in the situations of choice.

And at the same time, there are a lot of terrible associations: "an eye for an eye, a life for a life, a tooth for a tooth:, genocide, brotherhood wars, Holy innocents". Iskander:"Such an insult is washed away by the blood, and only by the blood, of the offender" Lermontov: "Nor all your black blood serve to wash away// The Poet's righteous blood"