Body and Soul

Intelligent Design, The Series

The Master Designer
God and DNA
The Brain
Imagination and Kingdom Truths
Body and Soul

The evidence for Intelligent Design is all around us. From the smallest of organic life forms on earth to the largest of heavenly bodies in orbit, the heavens proclaim the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). Yet we know so little about the glory of God. In fact, no one can adequately define the glory of God. We may think of God's glory in terms of His creative power and splendor, but what is the glory of God? Who is this all-powerful, glorious being with authority to create "spirit beings" after His own likeness? In this last of this 5-part series, the focus is still on Intelligent Design but now with a shift in emphasis from the wonders of physical design to the grandeur of spiritual design.

Someone once said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but rather spiritual beings having a human experience." Although the quote is an interesting flip on an old perspective, it does, or at least should, realign our thinking about the matter of the soul. While the human experience is for a season, the soul experience is for eternity. The very thought of endlessness should establish the soul and its relationship to God as the central quest of everyone's life. Whereas the human soul is invisible, its influence on people is real, persuasive and lasting. The soul of a living person has impact for good and for evil. The soul can be like a soft breeze caressing the prairie grass or like a torrent wind destroying all standing in its path. The human soul is truly an incredible study that will challenge everyone who ponders its invisible transcendence fashioned in the image of God.

Unlike organic life, soul life exists on a level far exceeding the capability of man to place it under a microscope. We cannot analyze the soul's DNA because it is spirit. The soul is invisible and yet real, an attribute of God no less. The soul is the essence of each person, an elusive component of life possessing an internal consciousness capable of exercising freewill. While antagonists of Intelligent Design argue that the conscious soul is nothing more than a phenomenon resulting from brain function, they are left to explain reports from more than twelve million people having reported full consciousness during their out-of-body experience. "While many in the scientific community disregard Near Death Experiences (NDEs) as hallucinatory phenomenon, paranormal specialists and some mainstream scientists and philosophers regard NDE experiences to be real and evidence for the afterlife. [1]" The Apostle Paul had such an experience and said so in 2 Corinthians 12. What we need to remember about those who reject the notion of God and the eternal soul is that no amount of truth will remove the darkness they so fully embrace (Romans 1:22).

Since the soul is further proof of Intelligent Design and mentioned repeatedly in the Bible, how is it even possible for anyone to dismiss God's creation of the human soul? In Psalm 139:14, God says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. For someone to discount God and the invisibleness of the soul is laughable. Such disregard for God and His creation would be analogous to telling Bill Gates of Microsoft that his company's software solutions came about from mysterious and undirected computer code working in a number of unregulated systems. Can you imagine the hilarity of his laughter at such narrow thought? If you can, then imagine God's laughter at incredulous souls who reject Him and His wondrous creation. Psalm 59:8 says of these skeptic souls, "But thou, O LORD, shall laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision."

My closing point on Intelligent Design is paraphrased from Clarke (a Bible commentator) who wrote, "The overall quality, appealing design, and functional attributes of the human body are the most complicated ever conceived. The body is wonderfully made and intricately woven together with the soul to form the essence of person. The soul and body are withal so exquisitely precise and delicate that the slightest misfortune may impair or destroy in a moment that which is necessary to the continuance of life; therefore, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. What is more, God did this to show you and me our frailty, that we should walk through the valley of the shadow of death by keeping life in view with an ongoing trust in the all-wise and continual overseeing care and providence of God. [2]"

1. Paraphrased from Wikipedia, Near-Death Experience.
2. Paraphrased from Clarke's Commentary on the Bible, Psalm 134, Biblos.com

Image Credit: Beo Beyond; "Glow in the dark"; Creative Commons

comments powered by Disqus

Published 8-29-12