NOT THE FORCE
“We believe in one God…existing in three persons…”
Francis Schaeffer said everything originated either from nothing, from matter, or from a person with a mind.
No one (that I know of) seriously proposes that everything came from absolutely nothing. Even Stephen Hawking, who proposed that the universe popped into existence out of ‘nothing’, assumed that subatomic particles were inexplicably ‘there’ from the start. Nature had something to work with.
If everything began with matter, everything is just a form of matter (or energy). The rich reddish-orange sunset is only waves of light transmitted through your eye and converted to an electrical charge that stimulates a particular portion of your brain which then triggers the release of hormones that “feel” good.
Is that all that the experience of a beautiful sunset is? Is that all that “red” is? Is that all that a sense of “beauty” is? Electrical charges and chemicals?
Something is missing in this view. Observing the movement of the electrical charges across the nerves or the release of the hormones is not the same as experiencing a sunset!
So what is that experience – and what, or perhaps better – who – is having it?
Mind is something beyond matter. The mind is more than a brain. Mind and matter interact but seem to be different kinds of things. Mind is invisible to us and we still don’t know quite how the mind works.
We use the word ‘spirit’ to speak of the invisibility of the mind that perceives, thinks, deliberates, reasons, plans, feels, wills, and chooses. And it is that invisible immaterial spirit (or mind) that is central to our being a person rather than a mere ‘thing’. And the person experiences the sunset.
Jesus revealed that “God is spirit” (John 4.24), i.e. God is not matter. God has no physical brain, and I think it is better to say, not that God has a mind, but that He is a mind, a spirit – a person. He is not impersonal energy. He is not ‘the Force’ of Star Wars. He is, like us, a person with preferences -- likes and dislikes, loves and hates, things that make Him laugh and things that make Him weep and even things that disgust Him.
We believe this magnificent Person existed eternally before matter. Matter was His idea! He created it and molded it into what we call ‘the universe’. That creation is worthy of wonder, but its Creator, the magnificent Person behind it, is worthy of worship.
Francis Schaeffer said everything originated either from nothing, from matter, or from a person with a mind.
No one (that I know of) seriously proposes that everything came from absolutely nothing. Even Stephen Hawking, who proposed that the universe popped into existence out of ‘nothing’, assumed that subatomic particles were inexplicably ‘there’ from the start. Nature had something to work with.
If everything began with matter, everything is just a form of matter (or energy). The rich reddish-orange sunset is only waves of light transmitted through your eye and converted to an electrical charge that stimulates a particular portion of your brain which then triggers the release of hormones that “feel” good.
Is that all that the experience of a beautiful sunset is? Is that all that “red” is? Is that all that a sense of “beauty” is? Electrical charges and chemicals?
Something is missing in this view. Observing the movement of the electrical charges across the nerves or the release of the hormones is not the same as experiencing a sunset!
So what is that experience – and what, or perhaps better – who – is having it?
Mind is something beyond matter. The mind is more than a brain. Mind and matter interact but seem to be different kinds of things. Mind is invisible to us and we still don’t know quite how the mind works.
We use the word ‘spirit’ to speak of the invisibility of the mind that perceives, thinks, deliberates, reasons, plans, feels, wills, and chooses. And it is that invisible immaterial spirit (or mind) that is central to our being a person rather than a mere ‘thing’. And the person experiences the sunset.
Jesus revealed that “God is spirit” (John 4.24), i.e. God is not matter. God has no physical brain, and I think it is better to say, not that God has a mind, but that He is a mind, a spirit – a person. He is not impersonal energy. He is not ‘the Force’ of Star Wars. He is, like us, a person with preferences -- likes and dislikes, loves and hates, things that make Him laugh and things that make Him weep and even things that disgust Him.
We believe this magnificent Person existed eternally before matter. Matter was His idea! He created it and molded it into what we call ‘the universe’. That creation is worthy of wonder, but its Creator, the magnificent Person behind it, is worthy of worship.