His Body

The past few days I heard some recurring phrases of a similar nature that caused my mind to stir. I heard the phrase “my arm.” I heard the phrase “his body.” I also heard “my brain.” On the surface these statements seem ordinary and mundane but when we look deeper there’s a lot of interest.

Spirit or Consciousness

“Never tell a child ‘you have a soul.’ Teach him, ‘you are a soul; you have a body.’” –George MacDonald

This statement is the heart of the point I’d like to make. The statements referring to ‘my arm’ or ‘my leg’ or especially ‘my body’ imply a possession of these physical tools by something innately separate. For the Christian this is an easy position. As evidenced by the statement above, the Christian believes that at creation and at the end of the day ‘we’ are souls. Souls that have control over these physical bodies while here on earth.

The matter of Christian theology for the concepts of soul, spirit, and body are somewhat complex and delving deeply into them would take us off topic. Suffice it to say that George MacDonald accurately represents true Christian theology in his statement. When a Christian refers to ‘his arm’ he is doing so accurately – the arm is his possession; it is not him. He is a soul.

The atheist can somewhat confidently refer to ‘his arm’ and simply say it belongs to his consciousness – himself. That is fair. Doing otherwise would lead to a lot more trouble linguistically. However, I find it very interesting that atheist’s persist to use the phrase ‘his body’ after said body has deceased.

When a man is living anybody refers to him as ‘he.’ Once he has passed if we are referring to his physical remains it is much more common to refer to ‘his body.’ The atheist is simply wasting breath by doing this for he can make no distinction. Nothing has left the body, in the atheist’s eyes, to result in this shift – except the breath of life. His consciousness has ended and exists no more but his consciousness was never more than the functions of his brain – there was no soul or spirit at the root of it. Such reverence is not given to the kidney if it stops working or other body parts. As an atheist there is no logical reason to give it when the body shuts down.

This leads to a larger question. Are we mere brainwaves and responses? What am I? Am I a mass of cells that are strung together, responding to various situations so as to maximize pleasure and reduce pain? Or am I more than that? The atheist believes the former yet it is not always evident in his word or actions particularly in linguistics referring to the human body and consciousness.