Mind and body- Dualism, a Christian view.

by robbieanandgmailcom (student)

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

Mind- Body Debate:

I believe in Dualism. The persona of an individual is made up of body, mind and soul. The body is the basic part of the persona on which is structured the mind and the soul.

In the creation narrative from the bible (Genesis 1: 26-30 NIV) “God said, Let us make mankind in our image.” Then he blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” Because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, they earned the wrath of God and his curse “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:19 NIV. From this we learn that the human body eventually has to disintegrate to the elements of the earth.

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The mind is the faculty which God endowed to humans that enables him or her to conduct in consonance with God’s blessings, refer to above. It is only when a person applies his mind/thinks,that he or she goes about his or her daily mundane activities, starting from the morning, till the night when one go to bed. It is the mind that controls the physical movements of the body. As a person grows, from infancy, it is the mind that absorbs the day to day experiences encountered. Further, the brain processes these experiences into positive and negative inputs and stores them in its memory. It is this aspect that helps the person to do things according to his needs within a given setting. To put it in today’s electronic context, it is the brain of a human that has given rise to the computer- both aspects of random access and retrievable stored files.

From the above it will be clear that the human body is a biological entity with its own involuntary functions, like breathing, respiration, circulatory system and digestive system. On the other hand the mind belongs to a higher level, the metaphysical state. It controls all the involuntary function of the body and all our actions to make a reasonable living. The highest level is the soul (spirit) that is bestowed upon a believer by his/her lord/maker. It is the function of the soul to connect with God.

When a human dies it is the spirit of the person that returns to God. To illustrate this, if we draw our minds to the scene of the Mount of Transfiguration, the three closest disciples of Jesus (Peter, James and John) found Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. Elijah and Moses were deceased centauries before the incarnation of Jesus and where abiding in the rest of God. Therefore, this proves the soul lives on even when the body perishes.

From my response to the first question it will be apparent that while the body returns to the earth, the spirit (soul) returns to God and enters Heavenly rest. This is what Christians profess in the Apostle’s as well as the Nicene Creeds, when they say, “We believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” Let us return to the creation narrative, found in Genesis 2:7, it says “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” It is clear that the spirit (soul) of a person goes back to God the creator and rests in peace there at their death. As per our belief, those who have not worshiped Satan or his image, or applied the mark of the devil on their foreheads or their hands, will brought to life and they will ruled as kings with Jesus for a thousand years. The rest of the dead will not come to life until the thousand years were over. (Rev 20:1-6) During this period of a thousand years Satan will be bound and cast into Hell. (Rev 20: 2-3) After this period, as Christians, we know that the Lord Jesus will come to judge and this is the second coming and this time those who were living together with those who were dead, will be brought to life, and judged. Those who were found guilty will be subjected to a second death while the ones blessed by the Lord will enjoy eternal life.