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.