Alvin Plantinga was cited in my book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, stating that classical science does not claim that the universe is causally closed. His statement is entirely consistent with special divine action in the world. Just as God, who is immaterial and Spirit, can act in the physical universe, so too can the immaterial minds of human beings. There is no objection to special divine action or for human free action, dualistically conceived.

Mind-brain interaction occurs and is dualistic. Interaction involves a nonmaterial mind with the capacity to cause a probabilistic, directed transmission of action potentials through coherent synaptic networks of the physical brain (see “Waves in Our Brains, Part Two”). It occurs by quantum tunneling which induces conformational changes in the protein scaffolds, vesicles, vesicular pores and ionic channels of synapses. By this process neural transmitters are released from vesicular pores into synaptic clefts. The transmitters stimulate encoded spike trains of action potentials conducted through a network of postsynaptic downstream neurons. Synaptic transmission of specified information occurs by this process and is interpreted by a mind. When the intention, attention or will of one’s cognitive mind generates encoded neural impulses the mind interprets the codes as “percepts” in real time so that one knows what one is thinking and intending. The linguistic code generated is likely by an immaterial energy of the mind.

In John 1:1-3 it reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”

William Dembski has stated that Information is required for the start of any controlled process. Information itself is preceded by the prime source of all information, a mind. By the Word the Apostle John was referring to the person who is the Prime Cause, the Mind of God who is the Sender of information actualized in all creations by the Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mental events cause neural events, and the mind is differentiated from the material components of the brain. Eccles and his associates postulated that by quantum tunneling molecular conformations of synaptic proteins in ion channels and neural synaptic vesicles and pores are probabilistically altered by a nonmaterial energy as a wave function of the mind’s mental cognitive events. As a result nerve impulses as action potentials are generated and transmitted coherently across series of synaptic clefts in neural networks (see “Waves in Our Brains, Part Two”). The impulses transmitted consist of neural codes within the spike trains of action potentials, giving specification to the information transmitted.

I now include a quotation by Kallistos Ware, who discussed the heart of our Christian life, the Trinity, in the book, Reclaiming the Great Tradition:

For traditional Christians the doctrine of the Trinity is not just a possible way of thinking about God. It is the only way. The one God of the Christian church cannot be conceived except as Trinity. Apart from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God cannot be known in the truth and reality of his being. The doctrine of the Trinity is not an embarrassing complication, a piece of technical theologizing of no importance for our daily existence. It stands at the very heart of our Christian life.

Jesus gave assurance that death does not end human existence or personal identity, the “I” or the Self. Human beings have a divine destiny by God’s plan, a royal dignity that overtakes their finite status during their lifetime on Earth. Humans are offered a share in God’s immortality, a gift by God’s grace through the living Jesus Christ. [Ronald Nash, “After Death I.D. - Will I Still Be Me?” Facts for Faith, Quarter 4 (2001) 36-42]

In his book, Intellect: Mind Over Matter, Mortimer Adler emphasized four points. First, intellectual powers and operations of the human mind are immaterial, and the intellect functions with an entirely independent reality. Second, human beings can think about what is totally unperceived by the senses. Third, mind and matter, mental and physical, constitute two distinct realms, the one irreducible to the other. Fourth, an intellectual, rational mind is associated with having a soul that can be immortal, capable of existing apart from the perishable body.

When God created Adam He breathed “the breath of life” into him. (Genesis 2:7) It is this life from God that is identified with the eternal human spirit. It is the soul of Man that is the vehicle through which the mind’s will operates. If a repentant person’s soul wills to obey God, it will allow the human spirit to direct the mind and will of Man as counseled by the indwelling Holy Spirit. As the spirit acts upon the soul of Man, the soul in turn expresses itself through the human brain and body.

One may ask about the inclusion of scientific content in my books and blogs, “So what?” How will a description of the neurophysiological processes of synaptic transmission contribute to understanding the justification and sanctification of repentant individuals by the power of the Holy Spirit? In answer, dualist interactive mechanisms were created by God, and their understanding promises to give clarity to God’s love and grace offered for our redemption at the great cost of his Son, Jesus Christ. It can lead one to accept the reality that the Holy Spirit communicates in our time through the human spirit with the mind and soul of Man through the brain’s synaptic networks.

Paul says, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (Romans 8:9-11)