Full article at: We Have A Soul, Consciousness Found In Brain Dead Patients | World Events and the Bible
I watched this video the other day with Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor. He explained how scientific studies have shown people have consciousness, even when they are clinically brain dead. He explains, this proves the existence of a soul. What is important to understand is our mind is not defined as our brain, our mind is who…
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That was very interesting. I appreciate that. Thank you.
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I agree with Kevin, it was a very interesting video.
I’ve had a good friend from childhood who I once classified as a materialist. He made it clear to me years ago that he didn’t believe in the bible because he just couldn’t understand how all that ghost and spirit stuff could possibly work. I knew he understood a little about computers and so I came up with this somewhat over-simplified example for him to chew on. This isn’t perfect but it seemed to have worked because we’ve had many conversations about the bible since then. I will be sending him the link to the video.
This is basically taken from an email I sent him years ago. Sorry for the length; I did shorten it up; I hope it’s still understandable. Crude as this is, it helped turn my friend’s thinking from materialism to dualism.
To my friend:
The bible speaks of four different parts of our being, the spiritual body, the soul, the spirit, and the flesh body. In First Corinthians chapter 15 Paul explains how we resurrect, verses 40 and 44 let us know we have two bodies. 1 Corinthians 15:40, 44
The delineation between soul and spirit is sometimes obscure; it may help if you think of your spirit as the intellect of your soul. For example, if your soul were a book, your spirit would be the writing on the pages; or if your soul was your brain, your spirit would be your thought process. Hebrews 4:12 lets us know that they are two distinct parts— since they can be divided.
Now let’s compare the four parts of our being to a simple computer network; in fact, let’s make it the simplest possible network, which would be two computers. Let’s say our main computer is a desktop PC which is synced 24-7 to a mobile device.
Here then are the computer parts and how we will relate them to the parts of your being. Remember this is only a simplified analogy — no need to over think it.
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Let’s make the “Spiritual Body” equivalent to the main computer, which includes all the hardware such as the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and tower etc., everything except the hard drive.
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Now let’s make the “Soul” equivalent to the hard drive. The hard drive of any computer is pre-programmed with information necessary for the computer to function, think of it as the computer’s brain; it is also capable of storing new information (Random-access memory, RAM).
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The “Spirit” will be equivalent to Data. Data is information entered and stored in the memory.
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And lastly, the “Flesh Body” is equivalent to a mobile device, (I.E. laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.). Remember this mobile device is synced continuously to the main computer.
Now let’s put it all together.
So, at some point God created your “Spirit Body” (When is not written.), remember it is equivalent to the main computer minus a hard drive, but just as a computer is useless without a hard drive, so is a spirit body without a soul; so God added your soul/hard drive which He preprogrammed with enough information to make you functional as a new being. You can now gather, store, and process information. So now you have your spiritual body, complete with your soul, and you are now capable of doing whatever spirit beings do; at this point in our creation, we were all equal.
However, God also gave us “freewill” which eventually caused individual souls to move apart to the point where they were no longer equal. Some spiritual beings may have been content to sit around doing nothing, while others couldn’t gobble up information fast enough. The information (data) you have gathered makes up your “spirit”, how you process and act on that information determines what kind of soul you are, good, bad, or in between. For example, one soul may use the information it has gathered to do good, and another soul may use the same information to do evil.
It is the spirit that interacts and can affect other souls. For example, as you read this message, it is the spirit of the writer that is reaching out to you. This is the same when you read a book, watch TV, listen to the radio etc. A person’s spirit can affect others long after that person has died. For example, somebody may leave a will which states that a benefactor must fulfill certain requirements before receiving an inheritance. If the benefactor acts to fulfill requirements, which they may not have done had they not been required to do so, then the dead person’s spirit has affected the life of a living person.
Your “Flesh Body” is equivalent to a mobile device and all the data entered into it is automatically uploaded to the main computer. Now imagine that somehow your mobile device (flesh body) is destroyed, or it just happens to ware out. All that is lost is the actual device; no data is lost because it has all been stored in the memory of the main computer. The same is true of your flesh body when it dies, nothing is lost because your spirit, which is your thought process and all the information you have gain over your lifetime, has already been stored by your soul which resides within your spiritual body.
This is so helpful to have on deck. Very grateful to have learned of this updated info from someone/scientist/neurosurgeon, whom believes in the Lord. This info will be important that my 11 and 20 year old can be aware of as they may need this info to better stand with the Lord and for the Lord as their journey in life will be filled with opposite beliefs in many life situations ahead.
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I love analogies, the sign of a thinker. Old timers I knew as a kid were real good about explaining the basics of something by associating it with something he knew I understood. Once I had the basics I could take it from there and chew on it until the details were revealed with experience.
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I’ve thought a lot about this subject over the weekend. How powerful the mind is, it is our will. Like when our brain tell us we can’t do something, too high, too heavy, too far, too dangerous. But the will of our mind say’s we can, we must. Also in our lives when our mind perceives something is bad wrong and we suddenly feel dread, we don’t know what it is, and we don’t know if it has already happened, or when it will happen but we know it’s not good. Sometimes soon after we sense it we top a hill and see a horrible accident or the phone brings the bad news within minutes or sometimes it may take a day or two after we have shrugged it off and almost completely forgotten about it. I think most people have experienced that, but most people are uncomfortable talking about it for a number of reasons. So yes I think the mind is your spirit and not limited to only what it can touch and see.
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Wow, that is a fantastic analogy! 
What a thing to read right before going to sleep…now I’m going to be thinking about this all night!
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One of the hidden treasures within that video is really on mind. So scientists are basing their studies on a shakey foundation. You have good hearted scientists out there that don’t realize that what they were taught in college was NOT based on facts. I believe there are a lot of so called “proven” theories have not been proven at all.
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