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Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000110S
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00:01 - Today we're going back to a 17th century philosopher
00:03 that we've actually talked about in the past, 00:05 but now we're gonna look at his lasting legacy 00:08 and why a lot of people are finally starting to realize 00:11 just how wrong this guy was 00:14 and how right the Bible is, by comparison. 00:17 [upbeat music] 00:26 [upbeat music] 00:38 I know that to ordinary, everyday people like me, 00:41 this idea that some philosophers actually agonize 00:45 over the possibility they don't exist 00:48 seems kind of foolish because, well, 00:50 to most of us, existence seems kind of obvious. 00:54 I mean, if there was any question at all, 00:57 it would've been resolved 00:58 the day I placed my stepladder on an icy sidewalk 01:01 like an idiot and climbed up to the roof. 01:04 The moment I reached the top rung, 01:06 I suddenly felt the bottom of the ladder 01:08 start to slip out from under me. 01:10 And I knew full well that in a matter of seconds, 01:13 I'd be experiencing a rather significant amount of pain. 01:16 You know, that brief moment where you realize 01:19 you're about to get hurt and you've got no choice 01:21 but to ride out the experience? 01:23 Let me say, the moment I hit the sidewalk 01:26 and I hit it so hard, I bent the ladder, 01:29 let me tell you, I had no question 01:31 that my physical existence is very real. 01:35 And it occurs to me 01:36 that when you come across these religious cults 01:38 who insist that the physical world is just an illusion 01:42 and that things like illness don't actually exist, 01:46 what in the world goes through those people's minds 01:48 when they fall off the roof? 01:49 Ooh, this isn't real. 01:50 It's just in my head. 01:51 The pain's not real. 01:52 My broken jaw isn't real. 01:55 Just how long can somebody sustain 01:57 that thought when they've got to go to the emergency room 02:00 to have a medical professional set their broken arm? 02:04 Just a few years ago, 02:06 I had to endure a rather uncomfortable surgical procedure 02:08 that involved feeding guide wires 02:10 through my back, into one of my internal organs. 02:13 And as usual, they had some trouble anesthetizing me. 02:16 I guess I'm just one of those lucky people 02:18 with red roots in his beard who doesn't really respond 02:22 to anesthetic, and at least I don't really twilight. 02:25 And so I was awake for the whole procedure, 02:27 and I've got to tell you, again, 02:29 that disabused me of any notion 02:31 that the inquisition is over. 02:34 So here's the question. 02:36 Was all that awful discomfort just an illusion, 02:39 or does my body actually exist? 02:42 It seems like a simple question 02:44 until you consider the fact that the sensation 02:46 of pain actually happens here upstairs in your brain. 02:50 I mean, it seems like your knee hurts 02:52 or your elbow, but in reality, 02:55 that's your brain telling you something is wrong 02:57 with your knee or your elbow. 02:59 Ask a paraplegic if his knee hurts, 03:01 and he's probably gonna tell you no 03:04 because the signal no longer makes its way to his brain. 03:09 This is also the reason we actually know 03:11 the answer to the question. 03:12 If a tree falls over in the forest 03:14 and nobody's around to hear it, 03:16 does it still make a noise? 03:18 And the answer's no, 03:20 because sounds are just your brain's interpretation 03:23 of disturbances in the air. 03:25 If there are no eardrums present at the moment 03:27 the tree hits the ground, there are no sound waves, 03:31 so there is no sound. 03:34 That's why truly deaf people hear absolutely nothing. 03:37 The link from their eardrum 03:39 to their brain has been compromised. 03:42 The same thing happens when you get older. 03:44 Look, the world around you isn't getting fuzzier as you age. 03:49 It's just that the capacity of your eyes 03:50 to perceive it has diminished 03:53 and the signal to your brain has been compromised. 03:57 This is one of the reasons 03:58 that a lot of philosophers have struggled 04:00 with the nature of reality. 04:02 They realize that there's something of a disconnect 04:04 between our minds and the physical world. 04:07 The people who write those strange movies like "The Matrix" 04:11 aren't just coming up with a brand new plot 04:13 that nobody's ever thought of before. 04:15 They're tapping into the angst of a long line 04:18 of deep thinkers who have wondered 04:20 if the world around us is actually real, 04:22 if we can actually trust the evidence of our senses. 04:27 And of course, the number one name that most people 04:30 think of when it comes to that question is Rene Descartes, 04:34 who gave us the phrase, "I think, therefore I am," 04:37 or if you wanna sound sophisticated, 04:39 you can say it in poorly pronounced Latin like me, 04:42 [speaking foreign language]. 04:44 Now, I know that I've talked about Descartes 04:47 on another program two or three years ago, 04:49 but I was thinking about him again just the other day, 04:52 and sometimes that's how I decide 04:54 what we're gonna talk about on the show. 04:56 And the work in question today 04:58 is Descartes' qua Dei or "Meditations," 05:02 which was the first full-fledged philosophical work 05:04 I ever read when I was a kid. 05:07 I mean, if you don't count the popular works 05:09 like "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" 05:11 or "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." 05:15 I think I was 17 when I first read Descartes. 05:18 And back in those days, 05:19 I certainly was not a practicing Christian. 05:22 I mean, I had a Christian background, 05:24 but I wasn't living it. 05:26 And you know, 05:27 I went and tried to find my beat-up old copy 05:29 of Descartes in my library for today 05:31 so I could pull it out and show it to you, 05:33 but I think it's in my storage locker somewhere. 05:36 So I've got an iPad. 05:38 And as weird as this sounds, 05:40 Descartes actually played a pretty significant role 05:43 in my spiritual development 05:44 because at the tender age of 17, 05:47 as I was reading him, I found myself getting excited 05:50 by the fact that he was making a reasonable argument 05:53 for the existence of God in kind of a roundabout way. 05:58 Now, today, I recognize 05:59 that Descartes' thinking has some rather large gaps. 06:03 There are intellectual problems, but at 17, 06:06 he blew me away. 06:08 I found myself thinking that God might actually be real. 06:12 And while my teenage self didn't really get around 06:14 to adopting Christianity at that time, 06:17 there is no question that Descartes actually helped me 06:20 take my first steps down that road. 06:22 And so his work, well, it holds a place 06:25 of honor in my library. 06:27 It's one of those 20 or so books that most people have 06:31 that proved to be game changers in your life. 06:34 So getting back to the subject at hand, 06:36 our ability to know that our existence is real, 06:40 well, Descartes is pretty famous 06:41 for moving the needle on that one. 06:43 And again, we're walking into an esoteric realm, 06:46 a place where philosophers usually hang out 06:49 by themselves while the rest of us 06:50 are relatively happy living here in the real world. 06:54 But still, it's important that we recognize 06:57 what the eggheads in the ivory towers are thinking about 07:00 because their ideas really do have a way 07:02 of eventually trickling down to the minds 07:04 of everyday people, whether it's through college classes 07:07 or even through popular TV shows. 07:11 I mean, here we are, living in a world that continues 07:14 to struggle with ideas that we all used to take for granted. 07:17 For example, once upon a time, 07:19 we all understood the concept of truth. 07:22 We had an objective view of the world, 07:24 and we understood that two contradictory things 07:27 cannot possibly be true at the very same time. 07:30 To put it the way Aristotle did, 07:32 A cannot equal non A. 07:35 But today, we don't speak like that anymore. 07:37 We don't speak about the truth. 07:40 Instead, people talk about my truth and your truth, 07:43 and we've even coined a new word to describe 07:45 what we think might be true, 07:48 but we're scared to say it's true, 07:49 so we use the word truthiness. 07:52 It's a way of saying it's true 07:53 without being too definitive about it. 07:56 So yeah, some of the bad ideas 07:58 that come from those ivory towers, 08:00 ideas that were mostly harmless when they first popped up 08:03 in a classroom, they can have a profound impact 08:07 on the way that all of us think and behave over time. 08:09 And I honestly believe that we're currently witnessing 08:12 some of the negative impact of choosing to believe 08:14 that nothing is actually objectively true. 08:19 So here's what we're gonna do today. 08:21 I've got to take a break in a moment, 08:22 but let me set the table for our study with something 08:25 that happened back in 1619, 08:27 one year before the Pilgrims landed Plymouth Rock. 08:31 On the night of November 10th, 08:32 Descartes had a series of three different dreams 08:36 and they were game changers for him. 08:38 He'd been wrestling with the idea of truth 08:40 and how you and I could know if something is actually true. 08:43 And when he went to bed that night, 08:46 his subconscious started to answer those questions. 08:50 And I'll be right back after this 08:52 to tell you what he learned. 08:54 [upbeat chiming] 08:56 [upbeat music] 08:58 - [Narrator] Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 08:59 we're committed to creating top-quality programming 09:01 for the whole family, 09:02 like our audio adventure series Discovery Mountain. 09:06 Discovery Mountain is a bible-based program for kids 09:08 of all ages and backgrounds. 09:10 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 09:13 from this small mountain summer camp, pent down, 09:16 with 24 seasonal episodes every year 09:19 and fresh content every week. 09:21 There's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 09:27 - On November 10th, 1619, Rene Descartes 09:30 had what you might call a hat trick of dreams, 09:33 three disturbing nightmares in a row. 09:36 In the first dream, he found himself crippled 09:38 and struggling to walk, and the wind was blowing him around 09:41 as he tried to get about. 09:43 He noticed that the other people around him 09:45 didn't have the same problem. 09:47 They could walk just fine, 09:48 and he tried to make his way inside a chapel 09:51 to pray in this dream, but he couldn't get there. 09:54 I mean, you've had dreams like that too. 09:56 You can't walk. 09:58 So Descartes became afraid 10:00 that a malicious demon was leading him astray. 10:03 That was the first dream. 10:05 In the second dream, he hears a loud noise 10:07 and becomes enveloped in this shower of sparks. 10:10 When he wakes up, he sees his fireplace 10:12 and he figures that the crackling 10:14 of the wood caused the dream. 10:16 Then he had a third dream 10:18 where he sees a book sitting on the table. 10:21 Here's the way he described it. 10:23 "After a short time," he wrote, 10:25 I go back to sleep once more 10:26 and find myself in a third dream. 10:29 In front of me, on a table, is a book. 10:31 Having opened it, I see that it is a dictionary. 10:34 Then I notice a second book, this one, a poetry anthology. 10:38 I flick through it and immediately 10:40 come upon the Latin verse: 'Quad vitae sectabor iter,' 10:44 Which path in life will I choose?" 10:48 The two books, he figured, were symbols 10:50 for different things. 10:51 The dictionary, of course, was a collection of facts, 10:55 and that, he reckoned, was the nature of this world, 10:58 of living here. 11:00 Throughout our lives, 11:01 you and I gather all kinds of data through our five senses. 11:03 We collect facts we believe to be true. 11:07 But over time, those same facts 11:08 kind of devolve into a massive pile 11:10 of disconnected thoughts. 11:12 And what most people want is to find a unifying principle 11:16 that ties all that information together 11:19 so that the world begins to make sense. 11:22 But the book of poetry, in Descartes' opinion, 11:25 that was the music, the beauty of the created universe, 11:29 and it represented the unity 11:30 that holds this physical world together. 11:34 Incidentally, the Greeks would've 11:36 called that unifying principle the Logos. 11:39 It's where we get the word logic. 11:41 And you'll notice that when the disciple John begins 11:43 his gospel, he identifies Jesus as the Logos. 11:48 Now, we think that's because some of the early Christians 11:51 were starting to dabble in Hellenistic thinking 11:54 and adopting some really bad Greek ideas. 11:57 Those people would've said that the creator 11:59 and the redeemer were two different beings. 12:02 They were borrowing that from pagan philosophy. 12:04 So John sets the record straight in his gospel 12:08 by telling us that Jesus is the Logos. 12:11 He's both the Redeemer and the Creator, 12:14 and he's the principle 12:15 that holds the whole universe together. 12:17 It's an idea that Paul backs up 12:19 in his Letter to the Colossians, 12:22 but let's get back to Descartes and his dreams. 12:25 When he woke up from that third nightmare, 12:27 it really shook him. 12:29 The dictionary was cold, hard science, 12:32 and the poetry was wisdom and philosophy 12:34 or what he might have called revelation and enthusiasm. 12:39 It's tempting to summarize them as facts and feelings, 12:43 but that would be oversimplifying 12:44 what was going on upstairs in Descartes' noodle. 12:47 Now, normally, most of us don't put a lot of stock in dreams 12:51 unless you're Nebuchadnezzar getting a message from God. 12:54 But for Descartes, these nocturnal images 12:56 kept bothering him. 12:57 They were like your tongue 12:59 returning to a broken tooth at the back of your mouth 13:01 over and over and over, 13:03 and it was that that produced Descartes' most famous work, 13:07 his "Meditations on Philosophy." 13:11 Now, I'm not gonna bore you with all the details, 13:13 but maybe let me try to summarize his key argument. 13:16 Here's the way he begins, 13:17 and I'm guessing this is gonna resonate 13:19 with quite a few of you. 13:21 Here's what he says. 13:22 "Some years ago, I noticed how many false things 13:25 I had accepted as true in my childhood, 13:27 and how doubtful were the things 13:29 that I subsequently built on them, 13:31 and therefore that, once in a lifetime, 13:34 everything should be completely overturned 13:36 and I should begin again from the most basic foundations 13:39 if I ever wish to establish anything firm 13:42 and durable in the sciences." 13:45 Of course, that's really pretty good advice. 13:47 There does come a time in everybody's life 13:50 when you're gonna want to assess 13:51 what you've always been told 13:54 and ask yourself if it's all true. 13:56 I actually went through that process 13:57 when I was in my early 20s, 13:59 and it ended with me believing 14:01 that the Bible really is inspired by God. 14:04 Now, sometimes when I was a little kid, 14:06 I used to wonder, how do I really know 14:09 that I'm not just a brain on a table in a science class, 14:12 out on an alien planet somewhere, 14:14 and that my day-to-day experience isn't just the product 14:17 of some alien kid poking my brain with an electrode? 14:21 Descartes essentially asked the same question, 14:23 but in his version, he used a malicious demon. 14:27 How could he know for sure 14:28 that his sensory experience wasn't being caused 14:31 by an evil demon who was trying to deceive him? 14:34 So here's what he did. 14:36 In order to figure out what's real, 14:38 he set about doubting everything. 14:41 That's what he meant when he said he was going back 14:43 to basic foundations. 14:44 He needed to put everything to the test. 14:47 So to illustrate, let's take something 14:49 that most of us believe is true, 14:50 the fact that we have two arms, most of us do. 14:55 When I look down at my body, there they are, 14:57 and when I look in the mirror, there they are again. 15:00 But how do I actually know that? 15:03 Is a mirror really solid evidence? 15:07 How do you know it's not just an elaborate illusion? 15:10 Well, if you have any doubts, Descartes said, 15:13 "That belief, if you doubt it, it's got to go." 15:16 What he really wanted was to find something 15:18 that was so unquestionable, 15:19 so certain that it left no room for doubt. 15:23 And as you might guess, at the end of the day, 15:25 he wasn't left with much 15:26 because you can doubt just about anything. 15:29 So he ended up rejecting all the evidence of his senses, 15:32 which left him with nothing but his thoughts. 15:35 And that's when he wondered, 15:37 "How do I even know that doubt is real? 15:39 What if my doubts are also being planted 15:41 in my head by that demon?" 15:42 And that's when the lights went on. 15:45 If he was doubting his doubts, well, 15:48 he was still doubting. 15:50 So it seemed like the ability to question stuff in his mind, 15:54 well, that was certain. 15:55 So then he went a little bit further 15:57 and asked, "How do I know that I'm thinking? 15:59 What if that's an illusion?" 16:01 But again, it occurred to him 16:02 that if he was thinking about thinking, 16:03 well, then he's thinking. 16:05 And so that also seemed undoubtable. 16:08 Here's what he actually wrote in his "Discourse on Method," 16:11 and this is the thing that made Descartes famous. 16:14 He said, "I resolved to pretend that all the things 16:17 that had ever entered my mind were no more true 16:20 than the illusions of my dreams. 16:22 But immediately afterward, 16:24 I noticed that while I wanted thus to think that everything 16:26 was false, it necessarily had to be the case 16:29 that I, who was thinking this, was something, 16:32 and noticing that this truth, 16:34 I think, therefore I am, 16:37 was so firm and so assured 16:39 that all of the most extravagant suppositions 16:42 of the skeptics were incapable of shaking it. 16:45 I judged that I could accept it without scruple 16:47 as the first principle of the philosophy I was seeking." 16:51 Now, I know that some of you are wondering 16:54 what in the world that has to do with you 16:56 because you haven't wasted much time wondering if you exist. 17:00 But there's an unexpected consequence 17:02 to this philosophy that has affected most of us, 17:05 and it boils down to his systematic separation 17:08 of the mind and the body. 17:10 What Descartes was left with 17:12 was a kind of dualism where the physical world 17:14 and the world of the mind became two different things. 17:18 We can probably thank another philosopher, 17:20 Gottfried Leibniz, for that because he said 17:23 that if two things are gonna be identical, 17:25 they have to be identical in every single detail. 17:29 That idea was already being circulated 17:31 when Descartes started to philosophize, 17:33 and obviously, from his perspective, 17:35 mind and body were now two different things. 17:38 He could count on the existence of his mind, 17:40 but he couldn't count on the existence 17:43 of the physical world. 17:45 It wasn't a new idea 17:46 because the pagans had been teaching that for thousands 17:49 of years and the Greeks became famous for promoting it. 17:53 But as we'll see when we come back 17:54 from a really quick break, 17:56 there's a serious problem buried in there. 17:59 I'll be right back after this. 18:01 [upbeat chiming] 18:04 [melancholic music] 18:05 - [Narrator] Life can throw a lot at us. 18:07 Sometimes we don't have all the answers, 18:10 but that's where the Bible comes in. 18:12 [upbeat music] 18:13 It's our guide to a more fulfilling life. 18:16 Here at the Voice of Prophecy, 18:17 we've created the Discover Bible Guides 18:19 to be your guide to the Bible. 18:21 They're designed to be simple, easy to use, 18:23 and provide answers to many of life's toughest questions, 18:26 and they're absolutely free, 18:28 so jump online now or give us a call 18:31 and start your journey of discovery. 18:34 - The ideas that Rene Descartes became famous for 18:36 are sometimes called substance dualism 18:39 or Cartesian dualism in honor of his last name. 18:44 It's the idea that your mind can exist without your body, 18:47 that it's a separate entity all by itself. 18:50 in this way of thinking, 18:51 the body is just a meat locker for your ghost. 18:54 It can't think or exist just by itself. 18:57 Now, this way of thinking leads to something 18:59 that philosophers call the mind-body problem, 19:03 which questions how the mind 19:04 and body actually relate to each other. 19:07 And again, I know, 19:08 it sounds like a lot of academic gobbledygook, 19:11 but hear me out, because according to Descartes, 19:14 one of our most prominent Western philosophers, 19:17 the mind and body are two separate things. 19:20 But then our day-to-day experience tells us, 19:22 every day, that's not really true. 19:25 Really bad news, for example, 19:27 is comprehended upstairs in your mind, 19:29 but the tears that come to your eyes, 19:31 that's a physical response. 19:33 So there really is a connection between your mind 19:35 and your body, and there's no way 19:38 they're completely separate. 19:40 Likewise, I can stand at a door 19:42 and imagine that it's opening all day long, 19:45 but it's not going to happen. 19:46 It's not gonna open 19:48 unless you know, doing magic tricks like Uri Geller. 19:51 You can picture it, you can visualize it. 19:54 But to make the door open, 19:56 my brain is gonna have to tell my hand 19:58 to reach out and grab the doorknob. 20:00 The mind has to rely on the body to get things done. 20:04 And I know, a lot of us were raised on the idea 20:07 that the mind is actually independent of the body 20:09 and that we can float off after we die 20:12 and live some kind of disembodied experience. 20:14 That's really the essence of dualism. 20:18 But let's think about that for a moment. 20:21 If that's really true, if you can completely separate mind 20:25 and body, then how do you explain what happens to people 20:29 who take psychoactive drugs like alcohol or LSD? 20:34 Those drugs operate on physical principles. 20:37 They change your brain chemistry 20:39 and they alter how you perceive the world. 20:42 These substances dampen the reliability of your senses, 20:46 but that's not the only thing that happens. 20:48 They actually change the way you think. 20:51 I mean, just visit a courtroom sometime 20:53 and listen to the number of people who try 20:55 to excuse their awful behavior by blaming alcohol. 21:01 I wasn't thinking straight, your honor. 21:03 Well, why not? 21:04 Why weren't you thinking straight? 21:06 If the mind is completely separated from the body, 21:08 then how did molecules of alcohol change the way you think? 21:15 We all know that drunk human beings will do things 21:16 they would never consider doing when they're sober. 21:20 Alcohol lowers your inhibitions. 21:22 And the crime stats prove it. 21:24 According to one study I was reading 21:26 just a little while ago, 21:27 53% of the murders committed in the United States 21:30 were fueled by liquor. 21:32 57% of the rapes, 47% of the robberies 21:36 and 60% of physical assaults. 21:40 They were motivated or at least emboldened 21:43 by liquor consumption. 21:44 And tragically, something like 80% 21:47 of suicides involve alcohol. 21:50 So clearly, alcohol dramatically changes the way you think. 21:56 So now let's ask ourselves. 21:58 How could it be that the mind and body 22:00 are two separate things? 22:02 The reasonable answer is they're not. 22:06 And wouldn't you know it? 22:08 That's the description of human nature 22:10 you actually find in the Bible. 22:12 Contrary to popular thinking, 22:14 the Bible does not separate the mind and body. 22:17 And I know, for a lot of us, that's a big pill to swallow, 22:20 but hear me out. 22:22 I'm reminded of something Jesus said. 22:24 He was talking to the Pharisees who were really upset 22:28 because he was healing somebody, 22:30 and unbelievably, they started telling people 22:32 that Jesus was healing people through the power of a demon. 22:36 So now listen to how Jesus responded. 22:39 He said, "You brood of vipers!" 22:41 I like some of Jesus' responses. 22:44 "You brood of vipers! 22:46 How can you speak good when you are evil? 22:49 For out of the abundance of the heart," 22:51 he's talking about the mind now, 22:53 "the mouth speaks. 22:55 The good person, out of his good treasure, 22:58 brings forth good, and the evil person, 23:00 out of his evil treasure, brings forth evil." 23:03 Okay, it's not really rocket science 23:06 to discover that your thoughts affect your behavior, 23:09 but let's consider this from the perspective 23:11 of substance dualism. 23:13 The Bible presents your mind as a fundamental part 23:16 of your body, not something that exists entirely on its own. 23:22 What happens when somebody develops 23:23 one of those horrible degenerative diseases 23:25 like Alzheimer's or dementia? 23:28 At the root, it's a physical problem. 23:31 It's the breakdown of the brain, 23:33 and there's no question 23:35 that the physical breakdown is changing the person. 23:38 Their personality changes, 23:40 their ability to comprehend and analyze 23:42 the world begins to dissolve. 23:45 What's going on? 23:46 A distinctly physical problem 23:49 is altering the mind. 23:51 This is precisely why so many modern philosophers 23:54 are now rejecting Descartes' dualism. 23:57 It doesn't make sense. 23:58 It doesn't match reality, 24:01 and it doesn't match what the Bible teaches either. 24:03 According to this book, 24:05 that all important connection 24:06 between your mind and your body 24:07 ends up being exactly who you are. 24:11 Your thoughts change your behavior 24:13 and your behavior changes your thoughts. 24:16 I'll be right back after this. 24:18 [upbeat chiming] 24:21 [beasts roaring] 24:22 - [Narrator] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues, 24:26 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 24:31 If you've ever read Daniel and Revelation 24:33 and come away scratching your head, you are not alone. 24:36 Our free, Focus on Prophecy guides are designed 24:39 to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 24:41 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 24:44 for you and our world. 24:45 Study online or request them by mail 24:48 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 24:51 - There's a really interesting passage 24:53 in the Book of Proverbs. 24:55 It kind of underlines what I was talking about 24:57 with mind-altering chemicals. 24:59 Just listen to what this says, 25:00 and you can find this in Proverbs 31. 25:03 It says, "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, 25:06 it is not for kings to drink wine, 25:08 or for rulers to take strong drink, 25:10 lest they drink and forget what has been decreed 25:13 and pervert the rights of all the afflicted." 25:16 So again, let's think about this. 25:19 How in the world can we believe 25:21 that the mind is somehow independent of the physical body 25:23 when we know that the mind can be dramatically altered 25:26 through physical means? 25:28 The wise man tells the king that rulers cannot afford 25:30 to consume alcohol because it will make them 25:33 forget God's moral precepts, 25:34 and they will quote, "Pervert the rights of the afflicted." 25:38 Their ability to think has been compromised 25:41 by a physical reality. 25:43 So do I think Descartes was right? 25:46 Well, yes and no. 25:47 I believe he was right when he observed two things. 25:50 First, your senses can deceive you. 25:53 Secondly, we do know that we actually exist. 25:57 More than that, 25:58 we can know that our existence is meaningful. 26:01 Of course, I've gotta give credit where credit is due. 26:03 Descartes was one of the first people to help me realize 26:06 that the Christian faith is perfectly reasonable. 26:10 But dualism? 26:12 A split between the mind and the body? 26:15 No, as a student of the Bible, 26:18 that's something I just can't accept. 26:20 The scriptures give us no reason to believe 26:22 that the mind is something other than your brain. 26:25 That's why brain injuries can change your personality 26:28 and physical diseases can compromise 26:30 your cognitive capacity. 26:33 Your ability to think clearly declines 26:35 as your physical body goes. 26:38 You know, when Moses died, the Bible says 26:40 that "his eye was undimmed and his vigor unabated." 26:44 And of course, the reason it points that out 26:46 is because that was highly unusual. 26:48 It's considered somewhat miraculous. 26:51 The rest of us, 26:52 we lose a lot as we get older. 26:54 My stamina isn't what it was when I was 18, 26:57 and my eyesight isn't the same either. 26:59 And as much as I hate to admit it, 27:01 my mental recall isn't as sharp as it used to be. 27:05 I mean, I can't even begin to count the number 27:07 of times I walk through the house to go get something, 27:09 but before I get there, I forgot what I was looking for. 27:13 And if time should last, 27:14 I know full well that my mental acuity 27:17 is going to fall apart. 27:18 Why? 27:20 Because my thoughts take place in my biological hardware, 27:23 and as my body wears down, so does my cognitive ability. 27:27 In the beginning, the Bible teaches, 27:29 God created us with a decidedly physical existence. 27:32 Go back and read it. 27:33 Then when Christ came to live among us, 27:35 he actually retained his human physical existence 27:37 for all time. 27:39 You find that in the encounter with Thomas 27:41 at the end of Luke. 27:42 Jesus rose with a physical body. 27:45 And when God restores us, 27:46 he brings us back to what we had in the beginning. 27:48 And Earth made new a place that was physical 27:52 and God said "was very good." 27:55 Maybe it's time to pick up this old book 27:57 and see just how much it agrees 27:59 with everything we're learning about this world we live in. 28:02 Thanks for joining me. 28:03 I'm Shawn Boonstra, and this has been "Authentic." 28:07 [upbeat music] 28:16 [upbeat music] |
Revised 2024-09-25