It's All in Your Brain

It has become commonplace in the scientific world to think of our minds only as a function of our brains. What this means is that there is nothing non-physical about our mental processes. The reason that many scientists are motivated to think of our minds in this way is that they are materialists who believe that the only things that exist are physical. This also allows them to reject the concept of a soul or spirit.

There is an interesting way of arguing against that idea that I picked of from Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason (see ministry links). Most everyone will agree that if two things are actually the same thing they will be exactly alike. That sentence may not be entirely clear. What it means is that if "Joshua Duncan" and "the writer of this article" (two things) are the same person (one thing) they will have all of their properties in common (being 5'9", having blue eyes, etc.). So, if the mind and the brain (along with its processes) are the same thing, they should have all of their properties in common.

Now, think of an image of your mother (this illustration was also suggested by Greg Koukl). What is she doing? What color is her hair? Her clothing? If we split your head open and looked at your brain or hooked you up to a machine watch the processes would we see that image of your mother? Obviously not. But the image exists nonetheless. So we see that the mind and the brain do not share everything in common. Therefore, the mind and the brain cannot be the same thing. This leaves the door wide open for the existence of the mind and the soul.