- Series:God’s Design, Transcript English
John 8:56
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”
Accepting that God created man, did He create a non-material part within him we call the soul as well as the familiar material body? Of course, the Bible has a lot to say about man’s soul and that following a person’s death, the soul of the faithful will be with God in heaven. However, there are others who regard the idea of a soul as nothing more than a superstition.
Nobel Prize-winner Sir John Eccles probably knew more than any other scientist in the world about how the brain works. He came to the conclusion that man has a non-material part to himself – as he said, “a ghost in the machine that controls the brain.” The brain is seen as the interface between the material world and the non-material world. His unlikely ally was Sir Karl Popper, noted philosopher of science and agnostic who also concluded that man has a non-material part to him. Other influential scientists working on brain research agree and conclude that man has an important part of himself that science cannot study. Some scientists fully agree but accept some rather strange anti-biblical New Age ideas about man’s soul.
While many scientists have believed that man is a completely material creature with no spiritual nature, some of the most knowledgeable scientists in the world do not agree.
Prayer:
Dear Father, in Your wonderful way, You have made it evident that man is more than just a chemical accident. Help me to look forward to being with You forever. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Notes:
John Gliedman, “Scientists in Search of the Soul,” Science Digest, Vol.90, No.7, July 1982, pp. 76-80. Photo: Karl Popper in the 1980s.
