What Is the Mind?

Before the foundation of the world, God chose a people to redeem for Himself. Before we get to today's episode, we want to invite you to join Ligonier Ministries for our twenty twenty six London Conference in September. Together we'll discover how the doctrine of election reveals the riches of God's mercy, the certainty of His purposes, and our ultimate hope of eternal fellowship with Him. Go to Legoneer dot org slash London to register and learn more. As Christians, we have to understand that the bottom line that the scriptures have the strong assumption that inherent in our humanity.

is the ability to think. These days, it seems we are inundated by tools designed to help us not to think. Programs and systems that can help write our emails for us, plan out our schedules, even summarize classic literature for us. But are we meant to give up that much of our minds? And can we properly understand Scripture without thinking?

Hi. I'm Dave Terrio and welcome to another week of Renewing Your Mind. I'm glad you joined us. Today, we join Dr. R.

C. Sproll in an exploration of his series, Think Like a Christian. where Dr. Sproll will explain some of the philosophical history of thought, as well as its importance to us in our Christian walk. But before we dive in, make sure to stick around until the end of the episode to find out how you can receive a special edition Renewing Your Mind notebook.

as well as a digital download of this entire series. Until then. Here's Dr. Sproll. Today, on Renewing Your Mind, we're going to begin a new short series.

that's directly related to the title of this program, Renewing Your Mind. We're going to be looking at what it means to have. A Christian Mind. and exploring ways in which the mind is intimately involved in the Christian life.

Now, to start, I would just like to relate an experience I had just the other day as I was eating a meal. and I had some watermelon on my plate. And I was thinking. deeply. About the significance of this watermelon, because I happen to be on this new zone diet program that seeks to balance proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the biochemical structure of eating habits and so on.

And So I was thinking about this piece of watermelon, and I was thinking, now this is a carbohydrate. I used to just think of it as a fruit, but now I understand it's a carbohydrate, and I had to determine whether it was a favorable carbohydrate or an unfavorable carbohydrate. Discovered it was a favorable carbohydrate whose substance would be converted. Into fructose in the bloodstream, and so on. And as I was doing all of this analysis of the value of watermelon.

I asked myself this question. I said, Here I am, Thinking About This piece of watermelon. And I wonder what The piece of watermelon. is thinking. As it is about to be devoured.

And of course, we laugh at that because we make the initial assumption. that watermelons Can't. Think. They're not animals, they're plants. And there are few, if any, people who would imagine in their wildest dreams that this piece of watermelon.

could contemplate It's Eater. as I was about to become.

Now, of course. In the history of philosophy, not everyone has agreed with the assumption that watermelons can't Think.

Well I think, for example, of the rationalist philosopher Leibniz, Who, in his intricate system of what was called monadology, believed that all forms of matter had some capacity for what we call Thank you. even if this thinking would be reduced to what he called Petite. Perceptions.

Now For the most part, his theory of petite perceptions did not make that much of an impact. On the intellectual world. And as I said, few, if any, people since have. considered the possibility of plants thinking. except those who tend their gardens and have house plants that don't prosper and flourish and they take their plants and talk to them and sing to them or put them in the closet and scold them and say, If you don't behave, I'm going to leave you in this closet.

and not feed you and not water you.

So you hear a lot about people who are interacting with plants as if they could think.

Well, how do we really know? Whether plants can think. How do we know? If animals can think. I look at my dog at home, and I will say something to him, and his Customary response when I address him is to cock his head to one side and look at me with what I can only describe as a puzzled look on his face, as if he were in deep.

Cogitation as he's considering whether he wants to respond positively or negatively to whatever I say. I mean, there are times when it seems that our pets and other animals that we encounter have some kind of ability. To sink.

However It's normally the assessment of the scientific world that these animals don't actually think. They simply respond to external stimuli. by a force that is somewhat loosely called Instinct.

Well, have you ever wondered what is the difference between instinct And Thought.

Now that question. The difference between instinct and thought has been probed by significant researchers. And people have come to various conclusions about it that are significant for us. On the one hand, There are those who say that when we say that what animals do Is mere instinct and not thought, that reflects a certain arrogance of the human species in assuming that they are the only creature. That has this ability or capacity for discursive.

Thank you. And there are those who argue that animals do have the ability to think. Though perhaps at not the same advanced level that human beings have.

Now, on the other side of the coin, There are those who say that what we call thinking as human beings Is nothing more Then instinct. That it is nothing more than a biochemical reaction to either internal or external stimuli.

Now, again, that raises one of the oldest philosophical questions. that thinkers have considered. And that is the simple question. What? Is The mind.

What is the mind? I remember one theologian who played a little word game in seeking to understand that question. He said, What? Is the mind And He said No matter. And then when somebody said, well, what is matter?

He said Never mind.

So in that little game he was playing, what he was trying to communicate is that what we call the mind Though we recognize it is inseparably related to something material and physical, such as the brain, Nevertheless, what he was saying in his little game was that The mind cannot be. absolutely equated with the brain. The brain may be the seat of the mind. It may be the organ that the body uses to think. But there is a difference between the physical organ that does the thinking.

And the thinking. itself. And so again, We ask the question. What is thought? Is thought Merely a biochemical electrical impulse of some sort.

that can be measured in pure physical categories Or is there something Soulish. or spiritual or non-physical About this thing that is so basic to our existence as human beings. One thing we're aware of. And that is that we are people. Who Think.

And we have ideas. concepts In what we call our mind, and sometimes we say, I have an idea in my head. that we don't sense that we're thinking with our fingers. Or with our toes, but we have a tendency to locate the source of that thinking. in our heads.

And we also know that physical injuries to the brain can alter patterns of thought. And chemical imbalances can also alter patterns of thought. We make distinctions with respect to what is called mental illness. where people lose the capacity to think. in a rational manner.

And yet, people who are deemed to be perfectly healthy mentally. also at times think in an irrational manner. And so we often wonder where that line is between mental illness and mental soundness, between sanity and insanity. It's often been said that there's a thin line Between genius And insanity. Between those who think at extraordinary depths and those who somehow cross the border into madness.

We've seen an unusually high rate of insanity among some of the most celebrated thinkers. Of world history. And so that thin line that some say demarks the difference between genius and insanity is one that we. See people presumably skating. back and forth over in return frequently.

But it's no simple question to answer. What is the mind. What is thought? And we think, for example, of being awake during the day. And is there ever a time that we're awake when we're not thinking.

We may not be thinking in some Deep. logical order. or analysis of something? We may be what some people call wool gathering or daydreaming, but even while we're daydreaming, we're having thoughts, we're having ideas. that we're aware of.

We're in a state of consciousness. But then we also have this weird phenomenon of thinking When we're asleep. Where sometimes the train of thought or the stream of consciousness takes them wild and bizarre. Turns. We're all aware of that phenomenon when we are awakened in the middle of the night by what we call A nightmare.

Where the thinking in the midst of our sleep Frightened us or alarmed us to some degree. Just the other day, I said to my wife. I said, honey. Did you tell me That you wanted me to buy such and such a thing for you. And she looked at me in total surprise and she said, No, I never asked you to buy anything like that.

I said, are you sure? And she said, yes. I said, well. Just the other day I had this distinct memory that you had asked me To buy this certain thing. And the other person was sitting there said, You must have been dreaming.

And then it hit me. I said, yes, that's exactly what happened. I had had this vivid dream. Where in the dream my wife asked me to purchase this thing, and a couple of days later, I couldn't remember. whether I had dreamed it.

Or if I had actually experienced it from her lips. These are only questions that further Multiply the difficulty of sorting out exactly what it means. to have a mind. and to think. Yeah.

For our consideration as Christians, we have to understand that the bottom line that the scriptures have the strong assumption. that inherent in our humanity. Is the ability to think? And the universal assumption of sacred scripture, and it's not simply an assumption because it is actually. claimed throughout scripture is that we are moral Beings.

Now, in order to be A moral being. One has to have the ability or the capacity to behave in such a way that is, in correspondence to or opposition to some moral standard. And the standard, of course, in the Scripture is the law of God. And the God of the Bible is a God who holds us accountable for our obedience or disobedience to His law.

So that's clear that to be a creature who is responsible for their behavior morally. is to be a moral being.

Now what else is required to be a moral being?

Well, we've thought that through in the history of the church again and again, and we say, well, one of the most important things, absolutely essential, a necessary condition for being a moral being. is to have a will. That is moral creatures. Must be volitional creatures. That is, they must have the power, the ability, or the capacity.

to make choices. to make decisions. And so we are deemed to be creatures who possess a will. Then we get to the next level and we have to ask the even perhaps more problematic question. What is the will?

Well, Jonathan Edwards, who I believe wrote the most important. book dealing with this question of the nature. and function of the human will. Once defined the will In these simple terms, he said, the will Is the mind Choosing. The will is the mind.

Choosing. What he was getting at was this. that for a person to exercise their will for a person to make a choice. that is of a moral kind. That person has to be in some state of awareness.

What you do when you're unconscious. Is not something that we normally consider to be of a moral nature. Or we distinguish in our bodily functions between those which are voluntary and those which are involuntary. We don't choose every second. to have our hearts beat, and push blood throughout the circulatory system.

the heart beats as an involuntary organ. We don't make a conscious decision. to make it do what it does. It just goes on like the pink rabbit, you know, until it stops.

Now To make a moral decision requires some kind Of consciousness, some kind of understanding. of the moral issues or options involved.

So that the mind Is intimately engaged in the choices of what. We do.

So as Christians or as human beings, we can't assume That our ethical decisions, our moral responses, are mindless acts. But rather, our actions are resulted from the choices that we make. Which choices R. informed by our thinking. and formed by our mind.

That's why it is that Scripture exhorts us to have the renewing of the mind.

so that we will begin to think. in categories that God is pleased with.

so that our thinking will then have an influence on our choices And that our choices will be in conformity to the law of God rather than in disobedience to them.

So do you see in simple terms how vital the mind is? to the Christian life.

Now, as I said, over against this biblical view. is the idea that is becoming more and more popular Okay. And that is this view of physical determinism. We think of the works of B. F.

Skinner earlier in this century, who in the realm of psychology came to the conclusion that all of our responses are determined basically not only by our environment, but by our Physical makeup. In the nineteenth century, Ludwig Feuerbach was famous for saying you are What you eat. noting that what people ingested for food had a profound impact on their biochemistry, and their biochemistry tended to determine their behavior. I once met a man who was enormously obese and He said to me, he said, I can tell you how it is that I became so fat. And I said, how was that?

He said, I read Feuerbach. And Feuerbach said, you are what you eat. And I wanted to be rich.

So I gorged myself on rich foods. Instead of getting rich, I got fat. Of course, that's a jocular application of Feuerbach's principle. But we have this idea not only at the philosophical or psychological level among scholars that examine ways in which our physical makeup. Determines our behavior.

But we're living in an age where, in our culture, We have a man like Menninger writing a book called Whatever Happened to Sin. And in our law courts. We wonder whether anybody can be held accountable. for their behavior. which of course they couldn't if Every decision was determined by their environment or by their biochemical makeup.

We've looked briefly today at this puzzling question of the nature of the mind. And at the end of our discussion, we saw that there are those who argue, as B. F. Skinner has, that. all that we think is controlled and determined by physical causes.

And of course the great critique of Skinner is. The critique. But why should I Give any? credence to his argument. Since his argument falls by its own weight.

That I'd have to say that anything that B. F. Skinner says about the nature. of the mind and the nature of volition. would itself be conditioned by B F Skinners.

biochemical composition and his background. And so his ideas have no more credence than anybody else's ideas. I might as well listen to the responses And the instincts of a gorilla or a hippopotamus has to pay any attention to his thinking. because he's eliminated cogency. From the very act of thinking by his theory.

And that's what I mean by saying his theory collapses by its own weight.

Well, we'll explore more of these questions in the days to come. That's certainly a lot for us to chew on. Few subjects have so captivated philosophers as that of the human mind. What is consciousness? Where does our ability to think come from?

As Christians, we know that God is the source of the mind. Which means that learning to think rightly is ultimately a way we're called to glorify Him. But as you can tell, there is a lot more to be discussed here, more of which we'll get to in the coming days. But if you want to dig even deeper, you can receive lifetime digital access to Doctor Sproll's entire 12-part series. plus a Renewing Your Mind notebook to keep track of all your notes.

Just give us a call with a donation at 800-435-4343. or give a gift online at Renewing Your Mind. org. Join us to morrow as we venture further into the realm of the mind. doctor Sproll will explore not just the mind, but the connection of our minds to our bodies made in the image of God.

Here's a preview. What an enormous resource God has given His creatures with the brain As it relates to to thinking. And I'll be talking more about the discipline of thinking.

Now we've so far just looked at the physical relationships because we're not just empty minds. We don't live merely as thinkers, but we do play football, we play the piano, we play golf, we walk across the street, we ride bicycles. We are engaged in physical activity all the time because not only do we have a mind, but we also have a body.

Now somebody asked me earlier Can a feeling Create a thought. Or does the thought Create. The feeling. And my basic answer to that question is. Yes.

It can go both ways, and we don't have to be neurological researchers to understand that. We experience that all the time. Think about it. You have a physical. sensation in your stomach that you call a hunger pain.

And as a result of that feeling, what happens? What thought goes through your mind? Hmm. I'd like to have some lunch now, so that now you're thinking. has been a response to your physical feeling.

On the other hand, if you're sitting there thinking about what you have to do tomorrow, and you think about all the things that can go wrong. Before you know it, As you're thinking of these things, you start feeling butterflies in your stomach or a pain in your head as your body is responding physically. to your thinking. This is what we call psychosomatic interaction. Where there is an interaction between the mind and the body.

That's Tuesday here on Renewing Your Mind.