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phenomenon of man. Manis able to
comprehend the complex interrela–
tionships of space, time, mass and
energy.
But of all the earth's conscious
crcatures that breathe, man is truly
unique. He is
self-aware, se/f-con–
scious- able to bring his mind to
bear on the transcendent questions
of life, death and his own ultimate
fate. An extremely wise man once
wrote: "The living
know
that they
will die, but the dead know noth–
ing" (Ecclesiastes 9:5) . The infe–
rior animal world has no inkling of
approaching death. This knowledge
is uniquely man's.
A Vast Di fference
Therc is a vast difference between
human self-awareness or conscious–
ness and animal consciousness.
lt
has been said many times befare in
the pages of this magazine that
comparative brain size simply does
not account for the great gap in
mental powers. The physical
human brain is only sl ight ly superi–
or to the brain of a dolphin or a
chimpanzee.
Recal l that we quoted the words
of Sir John Eccles earl ier in this
article. He also stated: "Chimpan–
zces succeed , of course, quite well,
at the lower levels of language
cxpression. They can ask for things
and get them ... but they don't
d escri be.... They don 't ar–
guc.... They havc no value sys–
tem. They don't make moral deci–
sions.... They don't worry about
tomorrow. T hey don't know they're
going to die.
" The human," Si r J ohn argues,
"is dis tinct from animals in posses–
sion of that elusive clement of self–
awa reness ... "
(Jnt ernationa/
Herald Tribune) .
What then accou nt s for the
existence of man's much greater
mental powers ? Again biblical
revclation gives us a s imple
answer. The you ng man, Elihu,
made this observation in the book
of Job:
"But it is the spirit in a man,
the breath of the Almighty,
that
makes him unders land"
(Job
32:8). Physical human brain alone
simply does not explain mankind's
enormous powers of intellect.
12
The spirit in man, which enters a
human being with its first breath,
imparts human mind power to the
physical brain.
lt
is that spirit that
gives man the capacity to under–
s tand. The spirit in man, however,
is
not
the commonly believed " im–
mortal sou l."
The spirit in man has no con–
sciousness apart from the human
brain. The spirit in man cannot per–
form any mental functions such as
thinking or reasoning or knowing,
apart from the human brain.
The Spirit in Man Vital !
Human self-awareness is only pos–
sible through this nonphysical com–
ponent the Bible calls "the spirit in
man ." l t is as Sir J ohn Eccles has
written:
" lf
my uniqueness of self
is tied to the genetic uniqueness
th a t built my brain , the odds
agains t myself existing are 1
O
to
the 10-thousandth against." 1n
other wor.ds the presence of organic
brain tissue alone simply cannot
and does not account for the exis–
tence of human consciousness.
Consider the multiple gifts asso–
ciated with human consciousness.
Laughter , for instance, is uniquely
human. There is no real counter–
part in the animal kingdom. Only
man is able to appreciate the unex–
pected or incongruous circum–
stances that bring about laughter.
Man is also able to admire beau–
ty or to scorn the lack of it. To
appreciate beauty requires medita–
tion and contemplation- qualities
not normally ascribed to animals.
Take family life. Animals simply
do not marry. They raise their off–
spring according to preset patterns.
But human beings rear their chil–
dre n according to certai n standards
of behavior that are capable of
being deviated from. The marriage
ccremony and the state of marriage
bclong exclusively to the human
family . Our free booklet
Why Mar–
riage!-Soon Obsole1e?
explains
the institution of human marriage
in great detail.
Now we come down to the most
vital attributes of human conscious–
ness. Man has moral sense; man
can perceive good and evil; man is
the only creature on earth truly
capable of free will. He can make a
decision for good or ill. He has the
capacity to build character-or to
destroy it! These unique attributes
bring us closer to the real reasons
for human existence.
Meaning to T his Llfe?
Si r John Eccles' observations
about human consciousness auto–
matically led him
(o
ponder the
most basic and important of all
questions. " What does this life
mean? We find ourselves here in
this wonderfully rich a nd vivid
conscious experience and it goes
on through life; but is that the
end? .. . "
And Sir John later added: "This
whole cosmos is not just running on
and running down for no meaning."
All of his life this eminent scientis t
has st ruggled to understand the
mystery and meaning of life and
labels his quest for understanding
as "essentially religious. "
And indeed it is! Human con–
sciousness is not the product of a
lucky accident. l t is fraught with a
great purpose and enormous mean–
ing. And unders tand this- man's
mind is a great paradox. With all of
its innate complexity and intricacy,
it has not solved its own problems
here on earth. lf the human mind
took man to the moon, it a lso
created the means for his total
destruction.
You see, man 's mind was madc
incomplete. The human spirit lacks
an essent ial ingredient.
1t
was made
to be joined to another spirit–
God's Spirit!
H ow the human being can
receive the S pi rit of God is
revealed only in the Bible. No other
source devised by man's thinking,
reasoning or speculat ion can answer
this greatest of all human needs–
to be in contact with the eterna!
Life-giving Spirit of God.
lsn't it time you asked yourself
why evi l exists? Why is God con–
cerned about human beings? Why
were you born?
We publish a n att r actively
printed booklet titled
Why Were
You Born?
answering just these
questions. Why not write for it ?
1t
will open your mind to an under–
s tanding you never had befare. The
booklet is gratis!
o
The PLAIN TRUTH