Suppose a friend gave you a picture puzzle. One of those 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles in a plain box. No picture on the cover to show what the puzzle would look like when assembled. Would you accept the task of putting the pieces together? How would you go about assembling it?
You would know, or at least believe, that the box contained all the pieces necessary for complete assembly, and none that were not necessary. So you would likely spread the pieces onto a large table and start gathering pieces with similar colors into groups. A logical and rational approach. Then try to assemble each group, and later assemble the groups to produce the completed picture.
The realities of life are not like putting a picture puzzle together. We don’t know how many pieces there are, neither do we know what pieces belong, and what pieces don’t belong when we attempt to answer the great questions of life. Where did the Universe come from, and ultimately, where did life come from? Do we have a creator, or was it all an accident of nature? What is nature? Does our lives have any purpose or meaning?
We use theories to help us understand the answers to the great questions of life. Theories are possibilities, part fact, and part opinion. Here is one of many definitions of theories from a dictionary.
A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena.
Sounds good on the surface, but how well substantiated can the beginning of life be, or the beginning of the Universe? There were no observers present, nor any way to research the beginnings. It is true to say theories may contain certain facts, but theories are not facts, they are possibilities. We dig up primate fossils, that is a fact. But there is no complete chain of primate fossils verifying the decent of man. That is theory. So theories are really some fact, and a lot of opinion, or imagination about what those facts mean, and how they fit into the puzzle of life.
Concerning the picture puzzle mentioned earlier, would a theory have helped assemble this puzzle? If the facts (pieces) were mostly blue in color, a theory (possibility) might be the picture is water, or sky, or has a blue background. Now would a theory help solve this picture puzzle? No. Theories do not help in solving the problems of life. They only deceive us into thinking we have a solution, which is false. In order to form a theory, we must use our imagination to fill in the spaces not in evidence from the facts. It is at this point that theories become a liability, a stumbling block to finding future facts.
Consider the theory of materialism, which states that all things in the world can be explained by natural occurrences. When applied to consciousness we have “Mental processes are physical processes in the brain.” If mental processes are physical processes then why do we call them mental processes? Are they not mental? We talk about mental health, and mental illnesses, as well as we talk about physical health, and physical illnesses. If the brain is physical exactly what is mental?
We have a real mystery of life here. The theory is that the brain creates consciousness, our consciousness, so it follows logically that the brain creates you and I. That would make us less than the brain, otherwise the brain would be capable of creating something greater than itself. If we are less than the brain how can we ever know how it functions, how can the lesser master the greater, all research will fail.
The theory of materialism does not adequately explain consciousness, it is rather a huge stumbling block in the research of consciousness which is now showing that consciousness is not a product of the brain. Near death experience research is showing that consciousness is separate from the brain and continues to live after the brain and body dies. But this materialism theory, held by mainstream science, is blocking the acceptance of these newly observed, and researched facts disputing the materialism theory.
The material facts are an active brain produces electrical activity. This activity can be measured by different machines in different parts of the brain. That’s it for the facts. The rest is theory. There is no evidence the electrical activity of the brain is consciousness. In light of the new research this activity is only the footprint of consciousness, the result of consciousness, and not consciousness in and of itself. The results of brain mapping, vary from individual to individual. Even the brain implants use only the electrical activity of the brain, not specific thoughts. There has never been any physical evidence of thoughts, memory, emotions, or consciousness found in the human brain.
Research on near death experiences are now being done in more than a dozen universities here and abroad. Most of the research has been published in accredited journals of science. The research is showing consciousness is separate from the brain, and continues to live after the brain and body are clinically dead. When applying these new facts it becomes obvious why we talk about mental and physical activities as separate entities. It is because they are separate entities.
There is more to life than materialism and research has shown solid evidence of it. Many people call it the spiritual dimension. The one thing I hope you remember from this writing is to put theories in their proper place as possibilities and not look upon them as facts. I will add links to a couple of videos to show more of the research in a visual format.
This is the video of the Pam Reynolds surgery. This video is researcher Dr. Bruce Greyson speaking at the UN.
© 2009, Lekatt. All rights reserved.
