How Does a Human Being Learn?
True education must be based on the truth God has revealed in His word. Yet how many university administrators, professors or students know the true purpose and meaning of life? Most accept the evolutionary concept that man is only an animal.
But is that true? Or is there something that differentiates animal brain from human mind? Scientists know that the human brain delivers far more “performance” for its weight than any other species’ brain. A few scientists have concluded that this capacity can only be explained by the presence of a spiritual component. This scientific conclusion, though not commonly accepted, agrees with revealed Scripture. The Apostle Paul wrote: “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11).
This spirit Paul describes is not the Holy Spirit, nor is it an “immortal soul.” It is a spirit essence combined with the physical brain, which empowers human beings far beyond animals (Job 32:8). This understanding harmonizes science and Scripture, and explains an aspect of the human mind that remains a mystery to most educators and “experts.” Sir John Maddox, editor emeritus of Nature, wrote in a classic Time magazine essay, “How the brain manages to think is a conundrum with a millennial time scale. All animals have brains so as to be able to move about. Signals from the senses—eyes, ears, nostrils or skin, as the case may be—send messages to the spinal cord, which moves the limbs appropriately. But thinking involves the consideration of alternative responses, many of which have not been experienced but have been merely imagined. The faculty of being conscious of what is going on in the head is an extra puzzle. A century from now, electronics shops (or web sites) will be advertising all kinds of gadgets that simulate some of the workings of the human brain, but neuroscientists will still be struggling to understand the thinking machine in all our heads” (“Thinking,” TIME, March 29, 1999, p. 206).
Maddox, a world-renowned physicist, predicted that even a century from now the puzzle of human thinking will not be solved. With an understanding of Scripture, we can see that education based solely on material and physical knowledge is woefully limited. When an educational system rejects the existence of God and of spirit, it rejects ultimate reality and ultimate truth!