We’ve heard from atheists that humans are nothing more than bags of chemicals, the stuff of the planet. Quite a good analysis except for the “nothing more”. We are indeed bags of chemicals, with bodies forever metabolising one compound into another in efforts to keep the body in homeostasis. Homeostasis refers to the body’s remarkable capacity to keep all its systems within narrow ranges of fluctuation. Examples of homeostatic control include tight control of body temperature, pH levels, blood glucose levels and more. But the body can only work with what it’s given in the way of food, drink, exercise and lifestyle so is amenable to change, over a period of time, for better or worse despite its genetic makeup. Epigenetics, concerning the role of the cell’s environment on gene expression, came to the fore in the 20th century. The cell’s environment amounts to its contents and those of its surrounding fluid, and is the result of prior diet and lifestyle choices. We, with our wills put into effective action, have the power to influence the course of our own body’s earthly destiny.
In chemistry and biochemistry, compound-change is enabled by indispensable enzymes. An enzyme catalyses or speeds up reactions. In one of my biochemistry lectures, biochemistry being taken as part of my nutrition degree, the lecturer was explaining cofactors and their being essential for enzymatic reactions to move forward. Without a particular enzyme’s cofactor, we were told, an enzymatic reaction could taker longer than our lifespans to eventuate. What good is an enzyme if it is missing its vital cofactor? The staggering thing was when the lecturer, almost uneventfully, simply stated that vitamins and minerals serve as cofactors. I was stunned. I had no idea why vitamins and minerals were “good for us”. Our human bodies cannot synthesise certain vitamins on their own. Vitamin C is one example of a vitamin we cannot synthesise but most animals can. Not that animals can manufacture all their needed vitamins; they can’t. Humans, just to be clear, can also manufacture certain vitamins. These bodily-manufactured (endogenously produced) vitamins are considered non-essential or conditionally essential. That is, we don’t need to get them from food because the body produces them. We label indispensable vitamins and minerals that the body cannot manufacture as “essential”.
Nutrition is a relatively new field. Vitamins were first discovered across the 19th-20th centuries. The field of nutrition science has since then continued to grow. The discovery of vitamins allowed for correct treatment of diseases that were, before their discovery, generally thought to be caused by germs. Germ theory itself had also been a recent discovery, having been clearly established by the 19th century. Some researchers of the 19th century were mindful of possible factors other than germs being responsible for these seemingly mysterious diseases and conducted research accordingly. Some attributed the diseases, in particular, pellagra and berri-berri among other vitamin-deficiency diseases, to germs; others, to deficiences in the diet. What exactly was missing, or perhaps toxic, in the diet or the environment? If you have barely heard of these diseases you can be thankful for the discovery of vitamins. Pellagra and berri-berri, rare now but a problem in the 19th and 20th centuries even in western countries, were eventually proven to be treatable, respectively, by reversing deficiencies in vitamins B3 (niacin) and B1 (thiamin or thiamine). These are but two of several diseases that were discovered to be reversible through ingestion or injection of particular vitamins.
All this to agree with atheists that yes, we are indeed ‘bags of chemicals’. Christians affirm the material world. We affirm it as having been made by God. We attribute its existence and workings to God. Atheists might claim that here we have made a leap in the dark. We have not. We believe in God for many perfectly acceptable and logical reasons. I have written about this here. It is just that we believe that the material world is only a part of the full reality. All humans believe SOMETHING. Atheists believe there is no God. Christians believe that God exists.
Now turning to the spiritual aspect of human beings, I wish to draw your attention to a recently released film from Angel Studios, ‘After Death’. It explores the topic of near-death experiences (NDEs) through the testimonies of people with after-death experiences (ADEs), as some think of them, or NDEs. The different terms reflect different views of what has actually gone on in the spirits…or minds of those who have died or nearly died. In an interview on YouTube with Dr Mary Neal, an interview that I am not sure is in the film because I haven’t yet seen it, she strongly expresses her belief that what she experienced was actual death. It appears as yet unclear whether scientifically established measurements for final death are fully accurate; whether they need refining to detect life that they can’t presently register. Think of kitchen scales that can’t register below a certain weight. Sharon Dirckx is a former neuroscience researcher and current writer and speaker and adjunct lecturer with the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. She wrote in her book that people have not ACTUALLY died who have a NDE.
For Christians, if NDEs are real, they do not suggest a one-size-fits-all truth to the afterlife. They are describing what happens as a person approaches death or is in the very first few moments of reversible clinical death, which is different from full, irreversible biological death.
Dirckx, Sharon. Am I Just My Brain? (p. 59). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.
Here is one feasible explanation for what may have gone on. The people’s testimonies are another. I look forward to seeing the film, not necessarily to accept its message holus-bolus but as an amazing exploration of NDEs. These people are describing a reality they went through. In the preview that I watched, no one claimed to see God face to face. If they did, I would dismiss their experiences out of hand because no one can see the face of God and live. This is clearly stated in Exodus 33:20. So what has gone on in these people’s experiences?
Jesus told His followers:
Luke 10:27 (NASB) 27 …“YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
He is quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5 which mentions only heart, soul and might. Apparently “heart” in the Old Testament includes “mind” in its meaning whereas Jesus interestingly adds the word “mind” in his quoting of this verse, perhaps underlining this dimension of human makeup. I don’t think it is an extrapolation but more a simple, honest reading of the passage that Jesus sees these features of humans as separate. They are separate yet integrated realities that describe the life in each person. The spirit or soul of a person does not stay residing in their bodies when they die, otherwise Jesus would not have told the thief on the cross next to His:
Luke 23:43 (NASB) 43 … “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
The thief’s dead body was to remain on the cross until it was removed and buried or entombed while some part of him, as Jesus promised, was to be with Him in Paradise on that very day. Christianity teaches the ultimate resurrection of the body on the last day but the resurrection of a transformed and glorious body.
So where does all of this leave us? With imponderables? No, with ponderables by observation and by faith. We have material bodies on the one hand that depend on the stuff of planet earth including its atmosphere to keep us alive. On the other, we know of great variation in the intangibles of being human – emotions, states of mind and states of spirit. How do we know these intangibles exist? By observing them in ourselves and others. Some would still argue that biological substances that the body produces are responsible for these states of mind…or brain. The existence of insanity in some people, a losing touch with reality, indicates that perception is involved in people’s experiences because others experience the same external reality differently. The more the experience and perception comport with reality, the more sane the person is. So what? Isn’t it just the brain that is responsible for these variations? The existence of a mind is not indicated? That is the debate in “Am I Just My Brain”. I believe that experience and perception do indicate a mind. How about demon possession? Does not its existence point to a spirit in the person? Note that even though epilepsy, for example, manifests similarly to demon possession as convulsions, epilepsy is a changed state in matter, the brain, whereas demon possession is a changed state of spirit. The Bible makes this delineation clear if you read it carefully. How about depression as an example of mind and emotion? Here is a truly beaten up state, this time attacking the person via the emotions, the mind and perhaps even the spirit. You might retort that medications are used to “treat” depression. It would appear that depression is often worsened by so doing and this is behind out-of-control shootings and other incidents that we have witnessed over recent decades. You might say that this proves that biology IS therefore all that there is if medication influences what a person does. I would imagine that something inflammatory has been introduced by the medication, sending the patient out of control. This inflammatory state is quite separate from the initial presenting problem, adding fuel to the fire. The mind, spirit and emotions are influenced by the material world but what makes some people more vulnerable to these conditions in the first place?
We are aware of the existence of varying states of mind, spirit and emotion in people. The negative experiences just listed exist in variation among humans, from nil to extreme, so can we say that humans are ’nothing more than bags of chemicals’? Christians concur with atheists that we are bags of chemicals. We, or I, do not question that. But I also believe that human beings are so much more. I say this by observation of myself and of others and by faith, believing that God really did “breathe into (man’s) nostrils the breath of life”, and that this life breathed into each of us is a soul or spirit :
Genesis 2:7 (NASB) 7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Our World Our Faith 