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Do Religion and Prayer Benefit Health?

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Submitted By stephaniemontez
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Body, Soul and Spirit
One of the heated arguments of Christianity is: Are Human Beings composed of two elements or three? Are we body and spirit or are we body, spirit and soul (which includes our mind, will and emotions)? This argument has been going on for centuries.
In our modern America, another theory has been formed. We are only made up of one element. We are just glorified animals. We have just evolved and become more advanced than the other animals. There is no such thing as an everlasting spirit. When we die, we cease to exist. This theory, of course, is only accepted by a very few. Those who believe this theory believe that they are so elite, so intelligent, that they are the highest creature that could ever exist. Thus, there is no such thing as a god or eternal spirit that could exist.
With very, very few exceptions, all people and all religions believe that we have an eternal spirit that lives on after we die. We believe this, because it is built into us. Our spirit is a part of who we are. It is the part of us that reaches out to God. Even if we don’t know who God is, we know that there is something out there that is calling to us.
God Created Us
The Bible teaches us exactly how God created human beings. Genesis 2:7 (NIV) says: “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The King James Version says that he became a Living Soul. The word translated “soul” (in the KJV) comes from the Hebrew word “naphash” which, in effect, means the essence of a living being, everything that that living being is. We are a living soul.
Here God takes two elements. The first is physical, the dust of the ground. The second is spiritual, He breathed the breath of life into him. In other words, God placed a spirit into the physical element. When these two elements were

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