Over the course of the last few articles, we have sustained the argument that the human brain and the human mind are not the same thing by presenting evidence from neuroscience that supports this conclusion. Those in the field of human neurology have traditionally considered that everything that makes us human is composed of material stuff made exclusively of atoms and molecules. Further, it is generally believed that the things of the mind, such as the capacity to reason, to exercise free will, and to reflect upon abstract concepts, are not something separate from the brain but simply what the brain does. However, a significant number of neuroscientists hold the Christian view that the physical brain, composed of atoms and molecules, is wholly different from the immaterial mind. The mind, Christians in fact claim, is nothing less than the immortal human soul. Understandably, this conclusion naturally threatens the materialist platform. To be sure, the stakes could not be higher because the independent existence of the mind (soul) implies a divine Soul Giver.
Nevertheless, that is precisely the conclusion that can be drawn from the clinical evidence of neuroscience. In recent years, the research, diagnosis, and treatment of epilepsy has supplied a tremendous amount of clinical data pointing to the existence of the mind as separate from the brain. This mindbrain separation is most clearly observed in patients who have undergone a surgical procedure known as a corpus callosotomy, which splits the brain into two separate hemispheres.
In his book, The Immortal Mind, neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor describes the purpose and process of “splitting the brain” in epileptic patients. Epileptic seizures begin with the uncontrolled electrical discharge in just a few neurons in the central portion of the brain, which quickly spreads to both hemispheres of the brain, causing grand mal seizures where the patient loses consciousness, falls to the ground, and convulses with muscle spasms. While a great number of epileptic patients are successfully treated with medication, some severe cases prove to be drug-resistant. Oftentimes, relief can only be achieved by cutting through that common central portion of the brain, splitting the two hemispheres.
What is the cost? Is the splitbrain patient now two different people? Has their personality changed? After all, if the brain and the mind are the same thing, and the brain has been completely split in two from front to back, then the patient’s personality must be split as well. Even so, split-brain patients experience no such change. Speaking of one of his patients, Dr. Egnor said, “he told me repeatedly that his inner experiences were just the same as they were before surgery. He experienced life as one person with a clear, single train of thought.” Egnor goes on to say that his many patients denied any sense of “split consciousness” or that they felt like two different people. In none of his cases was there any indication that their minds were split, even though their brains were. But it is not just epileptics who have undergone brain surgery; patients who, for one reason or another, are missing significant portions of their brains still have perfectly functioning minds.
Over and over again, neurologists and neurosurgeons encounter cases that would be inexplicable if the brain and the mind (soul) are the same thing. In fact, it is not unusual for patients to be missing as much as half their brain and yet function at the highest of levels, not only in life skills, but also in fields such as music, education, and acting. What is so interesting in so many of these cases is that what is missing is not what makes the person (those things of the mind) but portions of the brain composed of atoms and molecules.
And yes, I have belabored this mind-brain duality over the last few articles, and this is the reason why: If human beings truly possess a physical brain and an immaterial mind (soul), then from whence do they come? The brain is easily enough explained—it only reproduces like kinds. That is, our parents with brains physically reproduced us with brains through the joining of atoms and molecules. The immaterial mind, or what Christians identify as the soul of man, follows the same law in that the Spirit begets spirit. And that is exactly what not only the Bible affirms (cf. Ecl 12:7), but also what cutting-edge neuroscience points to as well. No doubt the mind is something that the brain isn’t, and what the mind is is no less than “the soul of man that never dies.”
Join us again next time as we look to what mathematics has to say about the existence of God. Until then, if every one of us does have a soul, then how can some ask, “Is God dead?” Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.