[See here for introductory comments to this general thread.]
I
can't resist running with the noodles and thorns analogy just a bit
further. After all, this is my blog, so
I can do what I want.
The
basic premise of "noodles for reins" is described in the previous
blog [here]. Briefly, the analogy I am
using to describe the soul-body interaction is to imagine a jockey on a horse,
where the horse represents our physical body (especially the brain) and the
jockey represents our soul (especially the will and the "efferent
pathway" connecting the soul to the brain). Further, I said that the jockey has soft
spaghetti noodles for reins and the reins have handles covered in razor sharp
thorns. Yes, it is a strange picture. If that analogy didn't resonate with you,
then you might want to skip this entry and go to a more concrete personal
example [here].
What
I want to do now is extend this to a broader view in which I use this analogy
to compare the "commonly-accepted academic view" of the body-soul condition
vs. what I consider the common Christian view of the body-soul condition. Granted, there is a lot of variability with
respect to either one of those views, so please treat my use of those labels
loosely!
First,
I'm going to start with the Christian view, then present the Common Academic
view. This analogy has helped me to
visualize the stark differences in these two ways of thinking, so I'm hoping it
helps you as well. Also, I will just
note that I think the typical view of the "average non-academic, non-Christian"
falls somewhere in the middle of the two views I will be presenting. For example, I think most people believe that
each person has a soul of some sort even if they do not ascribe to any
particular religious view. In that
sense, I think the "average person" would be surprised at how completely
and overwhelmingly the academic world has jettisoned any concept of a human
soul. It's pretty clear that
neuroscientists do not write song lyrics!
The Christian view of the human condition
has to be split into two separate conditions.
This is because Christians hold to the concept of "salvation",
or, as Jesus said, "you must be born again." Thus, there are humans who are in the
condition of having been born once, and there are humans who are in the
condition of having been born twice.
First, let's consider the "born once" case. Here is a summary of the features of that
condition (again, this is just an analogy):
•
Christian view of the Born-once
Human Condition
•
Like a jockey guiding a
horse in a race
•
Horse is our physical body
•
Jockey is our
will/mind/heart…or soul
•
Jockey has spaghetti noodles
for reins
•
The reins have thorns on
their handles
•
The horse and jockey are
riding in darkness
•
The jockey is embarrassed
about the state of his reins
•
Side note: the Biblical “self” is both horse and
jockey together
In contrast, for the Christian, to be
"born again" means that God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, in
some manner "indwells them." [Rom 8:9] Jesus
even refers to being born again as being "born of the spirit." [John
3:5-8] It is clearly a transformation
that occurs in the soul because we
know that the physical body of
Christians is no different after being "born again." So...what are the key features of the analogy
for this born-twice condition?
•
Christian view of the
Born-twice Human Condition
•
Like a jockey guiding a
horse in a race:
•
Holy Spirit now also riding
on the horse
•
Holy Spirit has steel reins
•
The Holy Spirit can see clearly
the path ahead
•
Jockey can still try to use
the noodle reins
•
Holy Spirit only uses his
steel reins when the jockey lets go of the noodle reins and puts his hands on
the Holy Spirit’s “hands”
Now
I want to talk about these two conditions and draw out some thoughts.
First, the Born-once condition. The jockey tries hard to control the horse, but
with noodles for reins, it is a hopeless task.
With effort, sometimes the jockey can control the horse, but it is clear
that, at any point, the horse could overpower the jockey.
The
horse is really a horse in this analogy.
It is living. It "makes
decisions" so to speak, but it does not have free will. It responds.
It seeks what is good for itself.
It is selfish. It seeks comfort
and pleasure. It avoids pain. It is a living, breathing animal.
The
jockey is the locus of free will. I
acknowledge that, with respect to this part of the analogy, all I'm doing to
represent a human being with free will is just substitute a specific human (a
jockey) with free will. It's not much of
an analogy, but that's because there is nothing else in the entire universe
that is analogous to a human soul other than another human soul (in my
opinion).
Here's
where self-help comes in. By hard work,
it is possible for the jockey to learn to control the horse somewhat. The jockey can train the horse to respond in
a more or less repeatable way to the weak tug of the noodle reins. Thus, building positive habits is useful in
changing our actions. With repeated
effort we can break bad habits. This is why there is a whole world of
self-help books and ideas, and they really do work to improve our behavior. But every attempt at improving human behavior
will fail in a major way: the reins are still noodles. So, despite all the repeated effort by the
jockey to train the horse and keep it under control, the horse can, at any
time, overpower the jockey and suddenly go back into bad habits. I believe this analogy describes our
collective human experience. With effort
we can be better, but it is always so
tenuous and we always end up doing things we regret. Our human efforts can make things better, but
those efforts do not transform the fundamental situation and the fundamental
problem that we have as human beings.
The
jockey has to go where the horse goes.
Thus the jockey is strongly affected by the decisions made by the horse. The jockey is embarrassed by his inability to
control the horse, and so he often tries to act as if he really is in control
with his noodle reins. He tries to
justify, in his own mind (and to whoever will listen), that wherever the horse
goes is "where I wanted to go in the first place." This is why we have such a strong tendency to
justify the actions of our natural bodies.
This is a downhill spiral. Things
that bothered us initially - our reactions to events, words we speak, thoughts we
think - eventually start not to bother us.
And then eventually we give in and rationalize why those actions are
"ok" and then "good".
In that way the horse influences the jockey and changes the jockey. This is
what happens to us. The more we keep
"doing the things we don't want to do", the more we get worn down and
then we give up and we give in. And then
we are embarrassed by giving in and we try hard to figure out how to say "it
is good" or "I meant to do that".
As
Jesus describes, the horse and jockey are also riding in darkness. Thus, even in those rare cases when the
jockey has the right desires, and has trained the horse to respond properly, the
jockey still has no hope of staying on course because he can't see the
course. The horse and jockey end up
hopelessly lost and, worse yet, don't even know they are lost.
Second, in the Born-twice condition, the
fundamental transformation that occurs is that the Holy Spirit comes and sits behind
the jockey. The Holy Spirit has reins of
steel and certainly is capable of fully controlling the horse. But the horse is still the jockey's
horse. The Holy Spirit waits for the
jockey to drop their noodle reins and hold onto His hands as He drives and
directs the horse.
The
problem in this condition is that the jockey can still pick up the noodle reins
and go back to old, failing habits. The
steel reins of the Holy Spirit are still there, but are limp as the Holy Spirit
waits for permission from the jockey.
The practice of "living by the spirit" [Romans 6-8] is
learning to drop our noodle reins and hold on to the Spirit's powerful
hands.
The
jockey may feel like he is guiding the horse via the Holy Spirit's steel
reins. When the jockey is in sync with
the Spirit, it is hard to sense who guides who.
This describes the struggle Christians have in trying to describe
whether the Christian life is lived by faith or by effort - a struggle that is
described beautifully by Paul in the last half of I Cor 15:10 "...I worked harder than all of them--
yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."
Why
doesn't the Holy Spirit just take control?
Well, if the Holy Spirit just displaced the jockey, then the horse and
jockey would no longer be a "self".
All you would have is the Holy Spirit controlling a horse that is temporal
and destined for death anyway, and so what would be the point? The idea of a continuing self would be lost
in that scenario.
At
some point, we physically die. This represents
the loss of the horse with all its ingrained habits and problems. The jockey survives and is united with a new
horse [I Cor 15:35-55]. With the new
horse comes real reins. And the new
horse does not have the old habits. But,
at this point we have stretched the analogy well beyond its usefulness, so I
must stop.
This
analogy has holes in it, of course, and, for example, it doesn't address the
manner in which the Holy Spirit transforms the soul [e.g. Rom 12:1-2]. But I have found this analogy helpful as I
think about my own behavior and as I think about how my spiritual and physical
self works together. I have found it helpful in visualizing how to
"live by the Spirit."
Therefore I wanted to put it out there for consideration, in case the
concept is helpful to others.
Now
let's turn to what I called the "Common Academic View." Here's how I would summarize that condition:
•
“Common Academic” view of the human condition:
•
Humans are just the horse –
no soul/will/mind beyond the material brain
•
Horses are just grazing – no
ultimate purpose, no race, no goal
•
The Horse believes it is “in
the light”
In
this view, the horse is just wandering in the meadow, distracting itself with
amusement until it dies. Granted, there
are some awesome, powerful, and fast stallions in the meadow. The meadow has some beautiful flowers in it.
But
the end is the same. Death[1].
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