The Soul and the Body
Biblical Perspectives
Review
• Naturalism, science, and the modern view of the
nature of man
• Randal Koene
• Historical developments in churches views on the
nature of man
• Trichotomy vs. dichotomy (up to mid 1800’s)
• Immaterial & material vs. material (mid 1800’s-present)
Biblical Perspectives on the Nature of Man
• Berkouwer
• the general judgment [of theologians] is that the
bible gives us no scientific teaching about man,
no “anthropology” that would or could be in
competition with a scientific investigation of man
in the various aspects of his existence or with
philosophical anthropology.
Biblical Perspectives on the Nature of Man
• Bavinck
• [the Bible] does not furnish us with a popular or scientific
psychology, any more than it provides us with a scientific
account of history, geography, astronomy, or agriculture….Even
if own wished to try it, it would be impossible to draw from the
Bible a psychology that would in some way meet our need. For
not only would one be unable to give a complete account of all
the various data, but the words that the bible uses, such as spirit,
soul, heat, and mind, have been borrowed from the popular
language of the Jews of those days, ordinarily have a different
content than that which we associate with those terms, and are
not always used in the same sense. The Scriptures never use
abstract philosophical concepts, but always speak the rich
language of everyday life.
Biblical Perspectives on the Nature of Man
• Principal #1: Man is a soul…
• Dualist implications of nephesh and rūach
• New Testament evidence:
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Philippians 1:22-23
Luke 23:43
2 Corinthians 5:6-8
Matthew 10:28
Revelation 6:9
Hebrews 12:22-23
Biblical Perspectives on the Nature of Man
• Principal #2: …but man is also a body
• The value of the body
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Murder
Care
Redemption
Resurrection
• Romans 8:22-25 - For we know that the whole creation groans and
suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this,
but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption
as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been
saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what
he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with
perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Objections
1. What about a trichotomist view of man?
-Interchangeable use of ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’
-Hebrews 4:12 & 1 Thessalonians 5:23
2. What about medical case studies of altered
personalities?
-Based on a Platonic/Cartesian view of man
-Union of body and soul results in some mystery
-Scientific evidence debatable within Biblical principles
regarding the nature of man
Randal Koene
• Neuroscientists are 99.9% percent convinced that the
brain is a mechanism. It is something that computes,
something that carries out functions. If you can figure out
how it works, you can build a replacement for it. The idea
that you can take a small piece of the brain and build a
replica for it is very mainstream and well understood. Why
not do that with the whole brain? And then why not
upload that to a computer so that we can process more
data and store it better, the way a computer does,
organizing thoughts into folders that we can access
whenever we choose?
How do you map the essence of who we are? How do you
translate identity to a series of codes?
All of this has something to do with the connectome; the way that neurons
connect to other neurons. When you're trying to make a decision, the
activity in your brain is being shunted from one place to another. The way
these synaptic connections function and the fact that they're made in a
specific place will give you a type of memory. The popular conception of
what a memory is differs to the engineering or scientific definition, which is
"a previous action that affects a future action." That goes much further
than having a memory of the face of your grandmother or what you said
two minutes ago. It goes into all the details of why a concert pianist plays
in a certain way, or why an executive would make a particular business
decision. The reason is because they have previous experiences alongside
a basic layout that's there from their birth, due to their DNA. That does
really affect everything about your personality—all the characteristics that
make you, you.
What about things like humor or empathy?
• If you have an exact copy of the entire brain and you
aren't leaving out the parts that are involved with
emotions, then why wouldn't you have humor, why
wouldn't you have empathy? You would have the same
sense of humor in your substrate independent mind as
you do in reality. Having a sense of humor is just a
certain way of processing activity that goes through
your brain, just like the concert pianist who plays
Beethoven in a certain way.
Science, Media, and the Modern view of
man