I've been in this funk for two days now. Not sure what it is about. But as I had my quiet time with the Lord yesterday morning I was struck by the word "soul". I started wondering where does the soul of person reside while in our earthly bodies.
I ruled out the heart because people have had heart transplants and artificial hearts and that did not change who they were at the core. So I decided the sole must reside in the brain. After some internet searching I concluded that there is no evidence to support that conclusion, just lots of various and contradicting theories. Some said the soul resided in our consciousness...but where does that reside? There was no answer to that question.
Then I began to think that perhaps the soul is somehow mixed into our DNA. That is what makes us unique and individual. But I remembered a CSI episode (again, getting my knowledge from a TV show might not be ideal) where they stated the statistics of 2 people having the exact same DNA. Apparently it is possible and yet these people would be distinctly different.
So I was left with no answer. I did a word search for "soul" in the Bible and about 400 verses in various translations came back. I read them all. It was very interesting and nothing led me to the answer I sought. What was clearly evident is that the soul and our spirit are eternal. Which got me thinking about being eternal. While I know I will live again after I die and I'll be with the Lord I thought about the fact that I am not eternal in the sense that God is eternal.
God always was, is, and will be. My existence had a beginning but it will have no end. So while I'll live in eternity I have not always been eternal. All this thinking makes me tired.
WELCOME!
T - i - double G - grrrr
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3 comments:
You might find this website interesting regarding where the soul resides in humans.
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/jag8/chardin.html
A lot of it is difficult to understand, but it is food for thought.
Of course Chardin's view is a pre-commitment to evolutionary thinking...and a basic rejection of any mind-body dualism. I think this rejection is misguided. For a substantial treatment of the issue, read JP Morelands "Body and Soul."
The soul is not a substance. I guess you could say it is "supra-substantial." When we try to talk about it in materialistic terms, we either end up like Chardin or create conundrums we can't satisfy.
I believe that the soul is a complex of faculties. Faculties, in turn, are clusters of related abilities. These abilities are functions of the soul, not the body. It is difficult to describe certain human experiences in terms of physical description: self awareness, consciousness, intention, etc. This is because they are not physical things, they are processes of mind--which is a faculty of the soul.
There is not a locus of the soul. It rests with and throughout the body, but is not the body. From the Christian perspective, when the body completely decays, there is still as soul. It is the person, though a person in some sense is complete with a body (again, from the Christian perspective).
The "soul tiredness" that you talk about, Barb...describes soul experiences. You can be physically well rested, but still "tired" in another sense (2 Cor. 2:13). I believe this is another indication that man is more than physical (regardless of Chardin's explanations of emergence).
Spiritually speaking, God ministers to man's soul (Rom. 8:16; Gal. 6:18; Eph. 4:23; Phil. 4:23). The rest you need is spiritual, not physical. This comes through various channels of grace, often administrated by what we call "spiritual disciplines."
All Chardin et all could tell you is to take a nap.
Thanks Gary for your comments and the JP Moreland suggested reading.
The Chardin article was a difficult but interesting read I think the nap idea is really a good one! :)
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