Christianity brings a wide scope of code to follow by. However, one of the important questions (which rather gets over looked) is the philosophy aspect. There is really no clear cut distinction on how Christians are supposed to believe regarding the mind philosophy of their religion. Is the mind physical or is it something not physical and just relates to our physical body?
Dualism is the belief that the mind and the body are two completely different things.
Physicialism is the belief that everything is physical, everything can be explained due to the physical .
While many Christians would jump out and say Dualism is correct there are problems that arise with this position.
1. If Jesus was a human being, he had to have the mind of God entailed into the body. But if the mind of God is present, how could he be a true physical human being?
2. Another viewpoint would say "jesus was an exception" he was dualist in the standpoint that he did have two entities. He had the gift of being God and also being human.
Christian physicalism is usually meant to be a doctrine about human persons--that we humans are the sum total of our physical body and nothing more. God created us, we are limited, but can reach him if we accept him after death.
Further, traditional dualism suffers from the problem of redundancy... that one's personality is accounted for both in terms of neurological structures and by virtue of possessing a soul... one of the two seems extraneous. Notice that this is also problematic for Dualist interpretations of the Incarnation. If Jesus' 'soul' was immaterial, what work was his brain doing?
Just wanted to shed some light on this topic, feel free to give your input.
Dualism is the belief that the mind and the body are two completely different things.
Physicialism is the belief that everything is physical, everything can be explained due to the physical .
While many Christians would jump out and say Dualism is correct there are problems that arise with this position.
1. If Jesus was a human being, he had to have the mind of God entailed into the body. But if the mind of God is present, how could he be a true physical human being?
2. Another viewpoint would say "jesus was an exception" he was dualist in the standpoint that he did have two entities. He had the gift of being God and also being human.
Christian physicalism is usually meant to be a doctrine about human persons--that we humans are the sum total of our physical body and nothing more. God created us, we are limited, but can reach him if we accept him after death.
Further, traditional dualism suffers from the problem of redundancy... that one's personality is accounted for both in terms of neurological structures and by virtue of possessing a soul... one of the two seems extraneous. Notice that this is also problematic for Dualist interpretations of the Incarnation. If Jesus' 'soul' was immaterial, what work was his brain doing?
Just wanted to shed some light on this topic, feel free to give your input.
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