A Soul Rediscovered

In this season of Thanksgiving, I have something to be grateful for.

The resurrection of my Soul.

It died, you see, sometime in 1966, the year I lost my faith in God.

How it happened isn’t important. It wasn’t dramatic or interesting, except insofar as it devastated me spiritually.

For the last 40 years, I have searched for that lost and ever elusive faith.

And this week, I found it.

Or, to be more precise, I discovered that faith is reasonable; that it is rational; and as a result, that it is now possible!

Here’s how it all happened.

It turns out that 1966 was the year “Materialism” reared it head on a cover of Time Magazine with the headline: “IS GOD DEAD?”

I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the beginning of a decades long campaign by Science to convince us that our minds and souls were just illusions created by our brains.

Unfortunately, this widespread public campaign of what is called Materialism happened to coincide with my personal loss of faith, so that all the weight and authority of Science seemed to confirm my worst fear: Nothing exists beyond our physical bodies, which generate the illusion of mind via electrical impulses produced by the brain. That we have no soul; there is no meaning; no free-will; no plan; no point. And when the brain dies, all consciousness dies. Annihilation. Forever and ever, amen. That we are nothing more than accidental, mindless meat machines existing in a moment of meaningless time, and then...no more.

Now, this is a terrible and hopeless thing to believe. It is even a terrible, hopeless thing to believe likely or probable. It shadows every aspect of life with uncertainty, even meaninglessness. It is a dreadful state, which can only be endured, escaped, or ignored. And that’s just what I did: escape and ignore.

For years.

Eventually, I realized I had to face the problem, and sought information that would banish this nagging existential angst.

I read books and books on faith, God, spirituality, even science. But all, in the final analysis, required faith to rise above the doubt; the one thing I didn’t have. All I had was Reason, and none seemed to have a rational argument stronger than the materialists, whose scientific discoveries and evidence seemed irrefutable.

But then, I found THE SPIRITUAL BRAIN, by Mario Beauregard, a neuroscientist who makes the case for “non-materialism”. But for the first time, the argument is not based on faith, but empirical evidence, reason, and logic.

He doesn’t try to prove that God exists. But he does demonstrate to a near certainty that the mind exists independent of the brain.

And, as Linus (of Peanuts) says: “The theological implications are staggering!”

The author has investigated various phenomena such as Near Death Experiences, Religious/Spiritual/Mystical Experiences, the placebo and nacebo effects, with interesting and telling results.

He has engaged and defeated the arguments of the Materialists with logic, reason, evidence, facts, and common sense.

But most important to me, he has exposed the “scientists”, through their own words, arguments and assumptions as Advocates, Proponents and Desperate Defenders of their pet, but unsupported, theory: Atheistic Materialism.

They were not, and are not as they profess, seekers of Truth. They are the Left in lab coats.

These “scientists” have been presenting the public, though popular science journalism, what they claimed were “evidence”, “facts” and “discoveries” that “prove” their Atheistic Materialist theories. But a fair and unbiased examination of them shows they are nothing of the kind. They are unfounded speculations spun from untested assumptions!

I was astounded, dumbfounded, furious! And then, liberated!

And the black, suffocating shadow that has darkened my quest for Spirit, was blasted away by the sunlight of honest, open-minded inquiry.

I understand how to deal with the political Left. I understand their reasoning, their inability to separate fact from their Utopian fantasies. I am impervious to their nonsense. But they duped me with Science. I lived for years in existential crisis because I trusted Science, without realizing that within it, there are the same sort of fantasists that exist in politics.

Now that I have learned that Atheist Materialist "scientists" are no less Agenda-Driven than the Political Left, I am armed to withstand their nonsense as well.

And for this, I am truly thankful.

The Gunslinger

UPDATE/ADDENDUM: I never thought to compare the Materialist "scientists" to all the "scientists" who insist that Global Warming is the worst crisis facing mankind. I never put it together until now. And here I think I'm so smart!