By Greg Koukl
A few years ago Time magazine made a stunning announcement. In an extensive article on the mind they wrote, "Despite our every instinct to the contrary, there is one thing that consciousness is not: some entity deep inside the brain that corresponds to the 'self,' some kernel of awareness that runs the show."
According to Time, everything about human consciousness--thoughts, desires, pains, pleasures, motives, emotions--can be explained in purely physical terms. A mother's love for her children is only certain c-fibers firing in her brain. The virtue of kindness is nothing more than genetic structure. Your hopes for the future are simply so much chemistry. Brain and body work together as a sophisticated, biological machine with no help from a ghostly, immaterial thing called a soul.
How do they know this? "After more than a century of looking for it, brain researchers have long since concluded that there is no conceivable place for such a self to be located in the physical brain, and that it simply doesn't exist."
In other words, scientists are convinced an immaterial soul can't exist because they can't find it with their instruments and there's no room for it in the brain. That's like saying you don't believe in the invisible man because you've never seen him. You can't measure an immaterial soul with instruments. You have to look for it in a different way.
How to Prove an Invisible Soul Exists
Suppose I came to you seeking advice in settling a dispute with my neighbor. I think he stole something from me, but he denies it, so I ask you for your opinion.
Here's the situation. We both have decks in our backyards built according to the exact same plan. The only difference between his deck and mine is that I used a beautiful new wood-polymer product which doesn't splinter, rot, warp or split. My neighbor's deck is made of old, weather-beaten cedar. Mine looks great and his looks pretty beat up. At least, that's the way it used to be.
One day I noticed that some of my beautiful planks had been removed and replaced with worn out cedar boards. When I looked over my fence, I saw that my neighbor had shiny new planks in the exact same spots that my deck had the old cedar. I started getting suspicious.
A few days passed and more planks had been transferred. When I returned from a week out of town my entire deck looked different. It was old and weather-beaten, just like my neighbor's deck used to look. His deck, however, was brand new, with the same wood-polymer material I used to have that doesn't splinter, rot, warp or split.
When I confronted him he admitted he'd exchanged the boards, but argued that the deck in my backyard is still the same deck I had built. "It still has the same shape," he said. "It's located in the same place. Sure, it looks different, but its looks changed little by little, piece by piece. Therefore, it's still the same deck you had before--your deck--even if it now looks a lot older."
"Listen," I said. "If I have a lawn chair made of the exact same parts that yesterday were in your lawn chair, even though I disassembled it on your property and reassembled it piece by piece on my property, it's still your chair, right?
"Just because this deck was reassembled in the same place--my backyard," I continued, "it can't be the same deck. It's made out of completely different stuff--your junky wood. You want me to believe that just because the beautiful thing you now call your deck is in the same place as your old one, that it's still the same deck. You want me to believe that because it was transformed over time piece by piece, it's still the very same deck, even though it looks different, and therefore you own it?"
"You're nuts," I said. "Anyone can see that if you change all of the parts on my deck, it's no longer the same deck. It's a different deck. Period. I'm studying philosophy. I know how these things work. You can't pull the wool over my eyes."
Did My Neighbor Steal My Deck?
Here's my question to you. Do I have a case? Whose deck is in my backyard, mine or his? If you were a judge presiding over this dispute, would you rule that my neighbor stole my deck? I think you would.
This illustration teaches an important lesson about the existence of the soul. It demonstrates that if you change any of the physical parts of a thing, it's not really the same thing it was before. If you change all of its physical parts, there can be no question that you now have something completely different. That's why it was no longer my deck in my backyard. I had my neighbor's deck and he had mine.
A few years back, the famous Dunes Hotel, for decades a Las Vegas landmark, was slated for destruction. A crew of specialists planted explosive charges at key structural locations, cleared the building, and pushed a button. There was a thunderous blast followed by a crash and a huge cloud of dust. When the air cleared, the Las Vegas Dunes was no more. The once popular hotel had been replaced by a pile of rubble.
Notice that the hotel was gone even though all of the physical pieces of the building still remained. When the explosion disassembled the structure, the hotel simply went out of existence. All the parts were there, but the Dunes was gone.
The hotel's identity, like all physical things, was determined by its precise physical makeup. Replace the parts (as with my deck) or alter the parts (as with the Dunes Hotel) and the thing becomes something else.
What Your Birthday Teaches You About Your Soul
If you're clear on this, then I want you to consider the question I asked an angry student when I gave a lecture at a local college. He completely rejected the idea that any religious claims could ever be justified--including the existence of the soul--because they weren't scientific, so I asked him when he was born.
"1975."
"What day?"
"May 1."
"So you were born on May 1, 1975?"
"That's right."
Then I asked my follow-up question. "Is the body you possess today the same body you had on May 1, 1975?"
He balked at first, but it's clear that his physical body was quite a bit larger now, had a different appearance, and many other different qualities. More to the point, it was made up of different physical stuff. The molecules in our bodies are almost completely exchanged every seven years or so. At age 21, this young man had had at least three entirely different physical bodies. Just like my deck, his body was not the same body anymore, even though its parts had been replaced piece by piece.
I then pointed out the conclusion that was beginning to dawn on everyone in the gallery, including him. "If you were born on May 1, 1975, and the physical body in front of me right now did not even exist as a physical body in 1975, then you are not your physical body, are you?"
Here's the Important Question
What is it about human beings that allows us to maintain our identity over time--such that we can say we're still ourselves--even when we go through such radical physical changes that we can have entirely different bodies over a period of years?
It can't be anything physical. Why? Our bodies are changing constantly. All our physical parts are replaced piece by piece over the years. If this student can possess completely different bodies (physically speaking) over time and still be himself, then his real self cannot be physical.
It isn't my memory, either. I don't remember being conceived or being born. My first recollection is of my second birthday when I got bumped by a pick-up truck and broke my leg. But my existence didn't begin on my second birthday when my memories began. Further, if I lost my memory tomorrow, would I cease to exist? If I had a Vulcan mind-meld and got your memories, would I be you? If so, then who would you be?
Our souls are the non-physical things that sustain our identities over time, even though our physical bodies grow up and grow old.
Here's the important point: If there is no soul, then you aren't the same one who was born on your birthday. There is a different you at every moment, with every change of your physical body. But you know you've been the same self for your entire lifetime. Therefore, you must be a soul and not a body.
Why Is the Soul Important?
First, if Time magazine is right, then Christianity is finished. If you are just your physical body, then when your body dies, you die. That's it. End of story. No heaven or hell. No final judgment. No sweet rewards. Nothing.
This is why it's so important to be able to show--with reflections about decks and birthdays, for example--that there's more going on here than meets the scientific eye. What science is not capable of finding with chemical analysis we can discover with sensible reflection.
Second, a lot of time and effort goes into the development of our bodies, but how much attention do we give to our souls? When you die, your body is left behind, but you continue on. What kind of spiritual body will you take with you? Some people never miss a workout at the spa, but when it comes to the fitness of their souls, they are virtually couch potatoes.
Paul wrote Timothy, "Bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" [1 Timothy 4:8]. Paul's point was that soulish growth endures for eternity, and this growth has something to do with what happens in this life, not the next.
The writer to the Hebrews hints at this idea, I think, when he says, "Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Hebrews 11:35).
Do humans have souls, or are we simply sophisticated computers made up of a brain and central nervous system? Your ability to answer that question will make a difference in how well you answer for your faith, and also how well you live your own life.
Not only does your soul exist, but developing your soul now has eternal consequences.
Stand to Reason - Training Christian ambassadors in the areas of knowledge, wisdom, and character - www.str.org
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