questions I need help answering

The Web is a medium of communication. Rather than holding back from writing down the questions/concerns about Christianity that I personally struggle with, I have decided to create this blog entry to invite illuminating comments, not only for my benefit, but for blog readers. I plan to keep this entry updated.

1. What is the precise relationship between the body, mind, and soul? What is the dividing line? Related questions, which the answer should also satisfy:

• When does a soul begin existence? How?
• What is the soul doing in cases of mental impairment, or merely when someone is asleep?
• When souls become disembodied, are the "personalities" of the souls the same, despite now being apart from the limitations and regulation of the endocrine and nervous systems of the body?
• In the case of children, especially the very young who don't yet speak, is the soul fully developed? Are they suspect to judgment? If not, then at what point in life?

2. Heaven has been described as a return to an Eden-like existence, or as an eternity of worship. Related questions:

• People like to work, meet challenges, and compete with each other. Does heaven meet such desires?
• People like to learn, study, and discover. In a heaven inhabited by an omniscient being, will there be opportunity for those pursuits?
• People like to create and tweak technology. In a paradise, where would this impulse be directed?

3. If salvation is through Christianity, do the damned include everyone who hasn't been presented with the decision, as well as everyone who was presented with a "faulty" version, and even everyone who simply weren't privileged to hear the message in a form persuasive to them?


4. How does one disentangle/distinguish the effects of the Spirit from effects of emotional/mental/psychological phenomena? For instance, people who expect to feel God are more likely to report feeling Him (see table-turning). People who continually reinforce a belief are doing something like autosuggestion or self-hypnosis. What's involved in authenticating a divine vision, such that it can't be reduced to externally-caused (chemical) hallucinations or unorganized neuronal firings? If someone experiences an unexpected idea, is it surely from supernatural origins or could it be from the subconscious or nonverbal brain parts, as in a bicameral mind? When a flock (i.e. congregation) of people perceive a present proximity of God's presence, especially after an extended period of carefully-engineered worship activities, how much of the effect comes from empathy and/or peer pressure ("I see the way others are reacting, I should be feeling and acting the same")?

the bias that proves God exists

Many of people's experiences, particularly of the overwhelming forces of creation, cause them to feel humility. This is good. Many of people's experiences cause them to appreciate beauty. This is good, too. Many of people's experiences cause them to desire a dramatic, deeper meaning to life, a larger narrative than they can create. Good.

However, they shouldn't make a mental leap from these sentiments to the proposition "a god must exist". When they do, they end up looking like fools. The implication is simply not there, or if it is, it is more like a tiny, circumstantial clue than a definite argument.

To someone who is predisposed to believe in a god, "mountains are big" seems to indicate "god's vastness". To someone not so predisposed, "mountains are big" seems to indicate "cumulative geological effects occur on a large scale". Bias plays such a pivotal role in obtaining the right "conclusion" from the "evidence".