The mind of man is an amazing, fascinating, yet perplexing thing. Why is it so far above the capabilities of other earthly creatures?

We marvel at human accomplishment beyond anything animals could conceive of. More than 50 years ago, human beings walked on the moon. Even in ancient times, man studied the movements of the heavenly bodies to calculate their positions in advance. Tall buildings of city skylines around the world, engineering marvels, are now taken for granted. Man has developed computer technology to aid in this, but great building has been going on since early in civilization.

The ancient Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 was a project of wrong motivation that God put a stop to lest technological development proceed too rapidly. He stated, “This they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (verse 6, King James Version).

Now, thousands of years later, we live in a world of automobiles, airplanes, electricity, television, space travel, the Internet, all types of social media allowing instant global communication, medical advancements, and on it goes—again taken for granted in much of the world as part of people’s everyday lives.

We are at the cusp now of leaps in artificial intelligence—with developers trying to create genuine minds in machines. Others would have our brains implanted with links to the Internet world, attempting to advance humanity into cybernetic beings on the way to eventually leaving biology behind to live in electronic immortality.

It won’t happen. For science is missing something fundamental to the human mind, which science can’t replicate. It’s the very thing that makes science possible.

In this issue of Beyond Today, we present what the Bible explains about the “spirit” in man, which is given by the Creator God. In 1 Corinthians 2:11 the apostle Paul writes, “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? . . .” This spiritual component is what gives people human understanding. On the physical level, man has the same kind of existence as animals. It’s the human spirit that makes the difference.

What is the nature of this spirit? In search of immortal life, cultures have devised all sorts of ideas and beliefs, but are they really of God? In this issue, we’ll shed light on one such common and popular belief that simply isn’t in the Bible.

Beyond the human spirit, Scripture also tells us that we need something more. I’ve left the verse above from Paul unfinished, just as a man with a spirit to understand the universe and make moral decisions is unfinished. To become the complete man, God must supply something else, which human beings must properly choose to receive.

While man has made great advancements, enabled through the abilities God has granted, man has also made many poor choices regarding good and evil—turning aside from God and His right ways.

People have wreaked horrible suffering and misery on each other. The first family on earth was the first family to understand the pain of murder when Cain killed his brother Abel. And the torment continues. Wars rage, violence is rampant, people take from others, and hate and lying are everywhere. And even in times of relative peace, many are gripped by negative, destructive thinking.

Many today waste their mental energies on endless scrolling through social media or bingeing entertainment and do not allow their minds to think, create, devise and understand. A lack of purpose and satisfaction in life drives some into hopelessness and despair, sometimes leading to catastrophic results. The problem is growing among teens, highlighted in one of this issue’s articles, which also points to constructive help, especially from God.

The spirit of the human mind is a wonderful thing. It gives us understanding, purpose and a way to connect with God. Thank God for that gift. And we further thank God for this season of the Passover, when our Savior Jesus Christ was sacrificed so that our sins and the sins of all humankind throughout history could be forgiven when we truly repent.

All glory and all thanks go to God and Jesus Christ, our Savior!

At Beyond Today, it’s our hope that the articles you read here will enrich you and lead you to a deeper understanding and commitment to draw closer to God and, with His help, become like Him.