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You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom resume their weekly in-depth study of the Doctrine of Salvation, please stay tuned.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom address questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call , here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and TA, Will you please answer the following questions: Is it scientifically true that our minds are composed of two parts, the conscious and the subconscious mind? Is it true that the subconscious mind is the one that regulates most of our actions? Is it true the subconscious mind is also in charge of our learned behavior?
Tom:
Well, first of all, the mind, which is, what do we say Dave? The realm of our thoughts is a non physical, the non physical part of the human makeup. So it’s not to be confused with the brain, we’ve talked about that before, which is a physical organ within the body. And since the mind has no physical properties, it’s beyond the scrutiny of science, right?
Dave:
Yeah, but I don’t know that that was the exact question.
Tom:
Well, Dave, is it scientifically true that our minds are composed of two parts that was the first part.
Dave:
Well, this was an idea that Jung got from demons, actually, from his spirit guide, and he extended it to the universal unconscious, and that we are all part of, and we can tap into this to get wisdom beyond our ability. But the idea of the unconscious, you see, then I have an excuse. This was a Freudian idea also, it’s not my fault what I am doing, it’s because my parents they did this to me, and they did that to me, and now that’s just become part of my unconscious.
Tom:
And it determines how I am going to act, and as you said, it isn’t all the responsibility on my part, it’s been determined that this is the way I am going to act and behave.
Dave:
Right, Tom, as you said, talking about the mind, two parts to the mind? I don’t know how you could come up with that idea. You might say—we won’t get back into this, Tom, but that’s left brain, right brain, broccoli brain, you remember? That was the big thing for Christians, they jumped on this band wagon of left and right brain, about the time that the scientific world was abandoning it, and there are still a number of Christian books that were written about that.
Tom:
Sure, but there is no scientific basis for it, that the hemispheres of the brain, both hemispheres work in coordination with one another.
Dave:
So this is actually a seduction from Satan, the idea of it.
Tom:
All right, Dave, I think these guys are pushing it a bit, let’s be reasonable. As we said, as I said earlier, there’s no scientific basis for an unconscious or subconscious, all right. Even if there were such an area, there’s no way anybody could prove it. So, Dave, although Freud, he’s a medical doctor, Jung, a psychiatrist, a medical doctor, he would say: Well, these guys are scientists, you know, they’ve got medical degrees. But all of this stuff is just out of their speculation. You know I’ve heard some even more than suggest Freud got these ideas-- He was a user of cocaine for depression and really recommended that drug to his colleagues for their patients. So they came up with these ideas, these speculations based on their own perversions, based on their own situations in their own lives.
Dave:
And Tom, as you say, who could prove it? You can’t even get to the unconscious, the subconscious. This is not a scientific theory, and not only can’t you prove it, you can’t prove that it’s not true. This is one of the reasons why they say, belief in God, and you can’t call that a scientific theory, it’s not falsifiable, oh okay. So, the atheists admit, well we can’t prove God exists but you guys can’t prove He doesn’t exist. So now we’ve got something that’s not scientifically subject to examination, therefore it cannot be a scientific theory, but that doesn’t bother us. Belief in God…it’s not a scientific theory for us, we have many proofs for the existence of God, from the Word of God and in many other ways.
Tom:
Dave, I want to give a quote here. This is from a book called, Therapy’s Delusions: the Myth of the Unconscious and the Exploitation of Today’s Walking Worried . And the authors write: “While it is clear that we all engage in out of awareness mental processes, (you know, we’re driving along and we didn’t even—things pass by and we’re not thinking about them and so on.) But anyway, “The idea of the dynamic unconscious proposes a powerful shadow mind that unknown to its host willfully influences the most minor thought of behavior. There is no scientific evidence of this sort of purposeful unconscious, nor is there evidence that psychotherapists have special methods for laying bare our out of awareness mental processes. Nevertheless, the therapists claim to be able to expose and reshape the unconscious mind continues to be the seductive promise of many talk therapies.” Now Dave, what about Christianity, persons who have been drawn into this, whether it be through the influence of psychological counseling in the church among Christian psychologists or the inner healers, and so on, but this has no biblical basis.
Dave:
Absolutely not! In fact, Tom, it’s the opposite, it trashes the Bible. Jesus said, if you continue in my Word ( this is obedience) you will know the truth, the truth will set you free. And as I often give my own paraphrase: The psychologist, the psychiatrist paraphrase of that is, if you continue in my word you will know part of the truth, and you will be made partially free. Well, I can’t set you totally free because there is something coming along, some new prophets of truth for you, and so forth, and they will finally give us that which has been missing from the Bible all this time. So, it really trashes the Bible. The Bible promises, He’s given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We don’t need some help from Freud or Jung whose lives were basket cases.
Tom:
Right, and Dave, indeed there are areas, the heart, the mind, the will, and the emotions that we don’t know and we can’t understand, but it says that’s the realm that God knows. I’ll give you a couple of verses, this is Jeremiah:17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? and 10: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? The therapist can’t, but the Scripture say, I the Lord search the heart. And then in 2 Chronicles it says, Only God knows the heart.
