The Soul - God's mark upon us

THE SOUL – GOD’S MARK UPON US

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            We human beings can pride ourselves about the fact that we are the crown or the cream of God’s creation for unlike other living creatures that exist, God shares a unique relationship with each of us. As the title of this article goes, the soul is indeed God’s mark upon us for as in the book of Genesis, it is written, “God has created each of us in His likeness.” Hence, this is to say that we belong to God.

            How different we are from other living beings? In many aspects, we share the same biological aspects of other living beings like eating, reproduction and so on. The thing that differentiates us from other living beings is our rationality. It is because of our rationality that we are all self – conscious beings. Consequently, it is also because of this unique faculty that we are able to will and to choose, thereby, making our lives for the better or for the worse depending on the choices that we make.

            Today, many atheists would want to think that we are no different from a computer or an intelligent robot. This, in other words, implies that we are just pieces of flesh moving around with nothing inside. We came from nowhere at our birth and we are going nowhere after death. It is interesting to think how life would be if ever we had to think of ourselves this way. All in all, living this way would make us no different from a ‘Ghost in the machine.’

            However, thankfully, such is not the case. We are all free beings, as mentioned earlier and thus, we are able to choose. In fact our lives are governed by the choices we make. Even if we do not choose, we have to make a choice in order to not choose. Hence, this brings us to a question, if we are said to be no different from computers or intelligent robots, then why is it that we are able to go against the decisions we make? This is something that has been brought up by Richard Dawkins, who himself is a firm atheist. How are we different from computers who cannot rebel against their programming or cheetahs who unquestioningly obey the mandate to hunt and survive, or meteors, which travel in placid obedience to the laws of force and gravity? There is no doubt that we use our brains to perceive and reason, just as we use our hands and feet to play tennis. But it is just crazy to say that my hands and feet are playing tennis as it is to say my racket is playing tennis. By the same token, it is wrong to portray the brain as perceiving, feeling, thinking or even being aware of anything.

           

            The materialistic understanding of human experience therefore seems inadequate because we experience our lives as a unity, that is to say, we can have a multitude of different feelings, thoughts and experiences but we can experience them all within a single unified field. This is what Kant calls, “Transcendental unity of apperception.” This is possible because, as Kant would put it, we are all moral beings and we are free to choose between right and wrong. No other argument suffices than this against the assertion that the human person is nothing but an intelligent robot.

            I would like to conclude this short article with a reflection made by Rev. Randy Alcorn, founder of the Eternal Perspective Ministries in Oregon. Rev. Alcorn sometimes presents his people with two creation stories and asks them whether it matters which one is the true, namely, the secular account or the Christian account. In the secular account, the creation story goes thus, “You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time. You are a mere grab – bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substances. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You are a purely biological entity, different only in degree but not in kind from a microbe, virus or amoeba. You have no essence beyond your body and at death you will cease to exist entirely. In short, you came from nowhere and you are going nowhere.”

            The Christian account, on the other hand, is as follows, “You are the special creation of a good and all powerful God. You are created in His image, with capacities to think, feel and worship that set you above all other life forms. You differ from the animals not simply in degree but in kind. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He has a perfect plan for your life. In addition, God gave the life of His only Son that you might spend eternity with Him. If you are willing to accept the gift of salvation, you can become a child of God.”

            We are all here for a reason and God Almighty has a purpose for you and me and this is it that makes it so obvious that we are all embodied beings.