Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Evidence of Eternity in Our Hearts?
Institute for Creation Research ^ | 2-12-14 | Brian Thomas

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 Bible’s message.

Most studies investigating this question ask adult participants about the afterlife, but this new research asked children about prelife—not-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 religion—it’s 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 one’s 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 don’t 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 Solomon’s 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, it’s 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 Children’s Prelife Reasoning: Evidence From Two Cultures. Child Development. Published online before print January 16, 2014.

Moran, B. Boston University Study Examines the Development of Children’s 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.


TOPICS: Religion & Culture; Religion & Science
KEYWORDS: eternity; evidence; hearts

ICR article image.

1 posted on 02/12/2014 8:24:49 AM PST by fishtank
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: fishtank
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 religion—it’s just a part of us.

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,

2 posted on 02/12/2014 8:50:38 AM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: alexander_busek

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?


3 posted on 02/12/2014 9:03:22 AM PST by Right Brother
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: fishtank

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.


4 posted on 02/12/2014 9:33:03 AM PST by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Foundahardheadedwoman

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.


5 posted on 02/12/2014 10:26:15 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: fishtank

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.


6 posted on 02/12/2014 11:48:23 AM PST by Organic Panic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: fishtank

inadvertently confirming the Bible’s message.

“Inadvertently” LOL! Good one!


7 posted on 02/12/2014 12:13:54 PM PST by TalBlack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TalBlack

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.


8 posted on 02/12/2014 6:33:24 PM PST by lostinthesixties
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Right Brother
Love, laughter, music, all of our emotions and intellect, did not ‘evolve’ out of environmental necessity, so how do you explain it?

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,

9 posted on 02/12/2014 9:26:43 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson