Posted on 02/12/2014 8:24:49 AM PST by fishtank
Evidence of Eternity in Our Hearts? by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
We tend to think that some core in each person will somehow, somewhere live forever. Sociologists have been attempting to track down the source of this belief but so far have not been able to separate it from exposure to religious teaching. Now, a new research tactic reveals that belief in an eternal life apart from our bodies is hardwired into each of us, inadvertently confirming the Bibles message.
Most studies investigating this question ask adult participants about the afterlife, but this new research asked children about prelifenot-yet-born souls.
Natalie Emmons and Deborah Kelemen of Boston University conducted two studies on 283 children from Ecuador.1 They reasoned that survey participants from the jungle lived closer to life and death events and would have biologically based ideas about pre-conception existence, while the Catholic student participants from the city had more exposure to religious teaching that life begins at conception and therefore would reject the idea of life before birth.2 Surprisingly, both groups of students maintained that a core aspect in each person lives even without the body.
Children from different backgrounds believe that everyone has prelife emotion and desires. Essentially, then, our tendency to believe in an immortal soul does not explicitly arise from religionits just a part of us. But what does religion mean to researchers who would themselves likely ascribe to a form of religious secularism?
Buddhism and Hinduism do not teach that a person exists after death, but instead hold that ones soul loses personal identity when it eventually merges with the universal all, which some call god. Though secularism is a popular religion among scientists, it is materialistic so its adherents believe that when the material body ceases, so do all of its immaterial aspects like volition, intellect, emotions, and desires.
Lead author Natalie Emmons said in a Boston University news release, I study these things for a living but even find myself defaulting to them. I know that my mind is a product of my brain but I still like to think of myself as something independent of my body.2 She clearly feels this conflict: Her secular doctrines affirm that her immaterial aspects are merely a product of brain chemistry and thus would not survive after bodily death, but it seems her innate awareness of her own everlasting soul keeps manifesting itself.
Since Hindus, Buddhists, and secularists dont teach this, what major religions are left that hold to a belief in an everlasting soul or spirit? Clearly, the theistic options remain, including Christianity. And according to Solomons ancient book Ecclesiastes, when God made humans, He [had] put eternity in their hearts.3 The Complete Jewish Bible translation renders that passage, Also, he has given human beings an awareness of eternity.4
If God clearly says He put eternity in our hearts, its no wonder that sociologists find it there.
Near that same passage, Solomon asked, Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?, indicating that, unlike animals, our human souls last after bodily breakdown and rise to meet our Maker.5 It appears that scientists are just now confirming what Scripture has said all along about our knowledge of eternity.
References
Emmons, N. A. and D. Kelemen. The Development of Childrens Prelife Reasoning: Evidence From Two Cultures. Child Development. Published online before print January 16, 2014.
Moran, B. Boston University Study Examines the Development of Childrens Prelife Reasoning. Boston University news release. Posted on bu.edu January 27, 2014, accessed January 28, 2014. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Stern, D. H., trans. 1998. Ecclesiastes 3:11. In The Complete Jewish Bible. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1077. Ecclesiastes 3:21
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on February 12, 2014.
ICR article image.
The tendency of humans to fall prey to any of a number of optical illusions, the normalcy bias, or any of a variety of logical fallacies is likewise hardwired in our brains.
That doesn't mean that such defects in perception or in thinking should be taken to support Scripture.
Regards,
Sentient beings are not necessary in a God-less universe. Love, laughter, music, all of our emotions and intellect, did not ‘evolve’ out of environmental necessity, so how do you explain it?
I was in a coma for a week and almost died. I felt my soul detaching from my body and when I came out of the coma I felt it slowly return. You are welcome to believe what you want but in my case, I KNOW.
Agreed. I know heaven is real because I experienced it as a child when,according to my doctor, my brain function ceased for a short time.
I was aware of dying and travelling through a vertigo to a place of light where I met a throng of loving people. I had not yet experienced the death of any relative so none of these personages were known to me.
They enveloped me in love, like family. However, they insisted I leave and return to life. They told me,”Now is not your time. But do not forget us.” I was 10 and have never forgotten.
Don’t know what this means but... When I was a kid we went on vacation in Monterey California. I told my dad I recognized the place and knew exactly, turn by turn, how to get where we were going. We had never been to Monterey before.
inadvertently confirming the Bibles message.
“Inadvertently” LOL! Good one!
I guess when we are created in the image of God it shouldn’t surprise us to realize that we are born remembering there is a God and that it is His will that we yearn to be in His presence forever.
Collecting baseball cards, wearing powdered wigs, tap-dancing, becoming a pom-pom girl, smoking cigarettes, wearing one's pants so low that one's butt crack is visible... I guess that those things likewise didn't "evolve" out of environmental necessity, right? And that the only conceivable explanation is... Theism?
I find your lack of imagination... disturbing.
Regards,
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