Had a very interesting chat about consciousness with some friends the other day. It has got me thinking harder than I have in a long time. It is good to have the brain re-stimulated after having felt like it had been oozing out my ears since I took a break from full time study. Consciousness and its possible immaterial existence helps answer a whole lot of questions that I had never known were worrying me. Questions about how prayer works, questions about the real existence of the supernatural, and many others questions waiting to be uncovered. However I had to caution myself before i got too excited. I remembered having read so many theologians in 'church history' lectures who you could see so were obviously letting their philosophy inform there reading of the bible rather than the other way around. Not wanting to lose any of the thirst for learning (not something that comes naturally to me) I have decided that before I begin I must firmly ground myself in solid exegesis of the word of God. I have decided to try and discover the bibles understanding of consciousness.
Here are my initial thoughts after a bus trip home, drawing only on my existing knowledge of the bible:
-I am promised a new body, does this necessitate something that 'I' am that is not fully contained in my body?
- God is a person who, until being 'becoming flesh' in Jesus, held some existence separate to creation.
That will do for now gotta catch a bus
