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  • Writer's pictureBible Brian

Consciousness defies natural explanations


It's always ironic when atheists claim there is no evidence for the supernatural, because the very fact they are able to make such a claim is evidence for the supernatural.


We live in a very natural world. Indeed, the belief that God created and sustains a predictable reality is the very assumption that lead to the philosophy of experimental science. But there is something about us that defies this. We, unlike the rest of our universe, are conscious.


Everything in the world around us is predictable. We can perform the same experiments over and over again and expect the same result. Nature doesn't have the power of choice. There is no free will in nature. Nature cannot perceive anything.


Consider this: If a rock is unstable, and falls onto a person and kills them, this is seen as a tragic accident for which no one is held accountable. If that same rock is unstable, but it is pushed, the one who pushed it is held accountable for the murder of the one they killed. The murderer has free will, the rock does not.


Choice is not natural. Not even a plant makes choices. Some plants move, such as the venus fly trap. This movement is not voluntary. You won't see a fly trap randomly chomping at the air. No, the traps trigger in response to specific stimuli. You can even "trick" a trap into closing, and it will not refuse. It snaps, and even though a false trigger is unhealthy for the plant, it is powerless to resist.


We, ourselves, are familiar with this concept, for our very bodies are natural. I even sneezed as I wrote the previous sentence. A sneeze is an involuntary movement. I did not decide to sneeze, my body sneezed naturally.


It is possible you are familiar with other involuntary movements. Personally, I own some muscular training pads. These pads attach to certain muscles, and through tiny electric shocks, force the muscles to flex. I have no control over this. If I was wearing one right now, it would be impossible to type.


By contrast, without the pads, I have a choice about whether to type or not to type. Nothing is forcing me to type this message. Neither is anything forcing you to read it. By reading this message, you are demonstrating choice. If you choose to stop reading, you are also demonstrating choice. Choice that is something we have, but we can be grateful nature does not.


When a body possesses a spirit, the spirit overcomes the nature of the body. With our spirit, our body perceives nature, and can react to it in any way it chooses. Of course, there are some restrictions, two of which I have already explored. There are no views of free will that suggest we can choose to defy our physical constraints. But the reason you can control your body more than a fly trap can control its leaves is because you are more than the mere clump of cells you will one day become.


And indeed, you will one day become that clump of cells. Your body, without your spirit, is pure nature. When the spirit leaves the body, the body dies. But where does the spirit go? Science cannot assess that claim. The spirit is supernatural. By definition, it is beyond the realms of science. One can no more study the spirit than we can bottle the number 3.


But the same God who created our body and our spirit has told us where our spirit goes when it is divided from the body. By His word, it stands before Him in judgement for all the things we did while we were still alive. There are two possible results. The first is that we go to Hell for all eternity. The second is that we go to Heaven for all eternity. Hell is a place of torment. Those who did evil go there forever to be punished. Heaven is a place far greater than the Earth. The righteous go there forever as a reward for righteousness.


Here's a problem: No one is righteous. Every single one of us has sinned, and so we deserve Hell. But praise be to God, although everyone deserves to go to Hell, God doesn't want anyone to go to Hell. And so He provided a way out. Rather than sending sinners to Hell, God sent His Son, Jesus, to live as a righteous man. Jesus never did one thing wrong in His entire life. He deserved no punishment, and earned all reward. But Jesus died. He was crucified, receiving the full wrath of God, not for His sin, but for ours.


Because Jesus received our punishment for sin, we can receive His reward for righteousness. Everyone on Earth can be counted as righteous because Jesus died to make it so. There is but one condition: Faith. See, Jesus didn't stay dead. Jesus rose from the dead. All who confess Jesus as Lord, and believe He rose, will rise with Him and receive an eternal inheritance in His Kingdom.

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