Reading and Video: Self-Awareness

What is my Mind?

One of the mystifying things about humanity is the capacity of our mind to be self-aware. The mind is where I rationally attempt to figure out the answers to life’s questions. Yet in the Scriptures, we often hear of the heart as the source of the motives and aspirations of our lives. In Proverbs chapter 4 it says,

20My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their^b flesh.
23Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26Ponder^c the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
27Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. How is our heart different from our mind? How is our soul related to our mind? How do we make sense of the way our minds seem to be separate, yet intimately connected with our physical brain?  These are issues that have challenged philosophers for many generations. They have become more so in recent decades as we have been able to peek into the functioning of the brain with electronic brain scanning tools. What does this all have to say to us who are Christians? What about when we die? What happens to our mind then? That is our topic for this week.

Here is an introduction in a video with Alvin Plantinga