The Reality of Consciousness

You hold a baseball in your hand. You see and feel the baseball in your hand. You are quite certain that the ball is real, and yet, you cannot be absolutely certain because the ball might be an hallucination. If so, then the ball cannot be real. Yet, whether the ball should be real or an illusion, you can be certain that you possess the sensations of seeing and feeling the ball. Physical objects can be real or illusory, but in either case, one's sensations of those objects must be real.

You have an operation on your brain. The doctors rig a mirror so that you can stay awake and observe the operation. You observe your own brain, but it is just a physical object like a baseball which may be real or an illusion. Yet, whether it is real or an illusion, you can be certain that you are having the sensations of observing your brain, real or illusory. 

Something must be producing these sensations. The only possible answer is that your consciousness must be producing these sensations. Furthermore, this consciousness must be outside of your brain because the sensations of your mind has to be real even though your brain may be an illusion. Thus, an argument can be made that the only existence of which one can be absolutely certain that it is real is a consciousness separate from the brain. 

If your brain were an illusion, it certainly could not be producing the sensations of it that you see. In other words, should your vision of your brain during your operation be an hallucination, you cannot be certain that your real physical brain is producing the hallucination since it also may be nothing but an illusion. The point is that it is always the physical that can be an illusion; never the subjective because something produces the undeniable sensations whether they are illusory or real, and that something has to be subjective.

One may object that their physical brain produces their sensations, but one can never be certain that one's physical brain is real because it, like any other physical object, could be an illusion. But one conclusion has to be absolutely certain, and that is that while an illusion itself will be unreal, the undeniable sensations of it must register on something because the sensations themselves can only be unavoidable, actual experiences. This something which registers undeniable sensations can only be a consciousness separate from brain activity.

A Comparison of Adam and Jesus

In Luke 3:38, the Bible clearly states that Adam "was the son of God." In Mark 14:61-62 and in John 10:36, Jesus openly declared Himself to be the "Son of God." What were the similarities and differences between these two men as being the sons of God? Both men came into the world being absolutely pure and innocent. Adam had a compassionate and self-sacrificial love for his wife Eve. Jesus had a compassionate and self-sacrificial love for all of mankind whom He came to save from their sins. John 3:16. God took a rib from Adam's side to create his wife. Genesis 2:21-22. A Roman soldier pierced Jesus' side with a spear as He hung on the cross from which blood and water flowed to purchase His Bride, the Church. I John 5:5-6; Acts 20:28.

Despite these similarities, striking differences also exist between these two men. Adam was created by God, and whatever God creates has to be less than God because it must exist outside of God as does the angels who are also called the sons of God. Job 38:7. However, Jesus has always existed as God. John 1:1, 14. Also, Jesus was born of a seed of God miraculously implanted into the womb of a virgin which made Him free from original sin. Luke 1:33-34; Matthew 1:20-23. This means Jesus directly inherited the Being of God Himself, and since God is Infinite, then Jesus had to be both God and man at the same time. Philippians 2:5-8. We finite Christians cannot understand this doctrine, but we accept it by faith. Adam, being less than God, was subject to falling into sin just as Lucifer did although he also was a son of God. Ezekiel 28:15. But Jesus could not sin because God cannot be tempted with evil. James 1:13. God is Holy, and so sin can have no effect on Him whatsoever. Although Luke 4:2 states that Jesus was "tempted of the devil," this simply means that the devil sought to destroy the Holiness of God by destroying Jesus the man. The devil knew that if he could ruin Jesus by causing Him to sin, then the devil could also destroy God's Holiness since the manhood of Jesus and the Being of His Father were wholly one. John 10:30.

The greatest and most awesome miracle that resulted from the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is that we believers can also be sons of God as equally accepted by the Father as He accepts His own Son. John 17:20-26; Galatians 4:4-7; I John 3:1-2.

Granny's Place poetry in prose

Granny wiggled a little as she settled her hefty body into her over padded easy chair. Granny enjoyed her comfort and rest as she read her hand-worn Bible, and her paperback romance novels stacked in jumbled piles around her chair. At times, she delighted in brief visits from her rowdy grandchildren, playing and throwing toys, running through the cluttered house, generally making a nuisance of themselves, and finally getting on Granny's nerves. When Granny had had enough, she called their parents and told them to come and take her grandchildren home. Yet, while they were there, she managed to find some time to gather each one to her ample lap, lay their pretty heads against her faded granny gown, fold her fleshy arms around their tender bodies with a gentle hug, whisper sweet love notes to their tiny ears, and allow love to bloom in that plush easy chair like the red roses in Granny's front yard.

The Boy Fisherman

 The small boy swung his line and hook, and dropped it into the placid pond, spreading tiny ripples over its velvet surface. His gaunt face looked up from under his torn straw hat at the wide water before him crowded all around with a thick growth of verdant trees and underbrush. Dragonflies flitted over the green water and only the soft croaking of unseen frogs broke the silence. The solitude of this peaceful scene made the boy feel as if he had entered a piece of paradise, that nothing could ever go wrong in the world again.

The ragged boy pulled the end of his line up just enough to make the line taut. He used no cork on his line. He caught fish by feeling with his skinny fingers. He could detect the slightest jerk on his line, and when he did; he snapped the end of his cane pole up just enough to set the hook in the fishes' mouth. Then, he just pulled the flopping fish out of the water and swung it to his thin hands. He collected his fish by transferring them to another line in the water tied to a wooden stake he had pushed into the moist, black earth.

Toward noon, the smiling boy pulled his long, shiny string of fish from the water, threw them over his bony shoulder, and ambled along a narrow trail toward home. He had caught mostly half pound sun perch and an occasional catfish.

The dark trail followed the curve of the pond for a stretch, and as the boy trod along; he happened to pass a splendid fisherman equipped with an expensive rod and reel and a fancy, red tackle box. The boy could not help but notice that this opulent fisherman had caught no fish.

"That's quite a string of fish you got there boy," exclaimed the well-dressed, portly fisherman. He grinned but the boy could see the envy in his eyes.

"You just have to know where to fish and what bait to use," the boy retorted.

A flash of anger crossed the fancy fisherman's face, but he did not respond. He simply turned his empty gaze back toward his line in the water.

With his back a little straighter and his head held a little higher, the boy quickened his step along the leaf-strewn path as it turned from the plentiful pond toward his cozy home. Only he and his Godly mother were left of their family in their small house by a winding country road. Some nights, he and his weary, but prayerful, mother had gone to bed without supper; but tonight, this scruffy boy would provide a lavish feast of fried fish, and Ma would also cook some French fries and hush puppies.