Now because your earthsuit acts so alive and cognizant, it’s hard to keep a grip on the fact that it’s just a machine with no eternal future. Most Christians do not realize that their earthsuits and their souls are two entirely separate things, and this leads to all sorts of discernment problems. We need to learn to think more like a pilot in a plane who knows the difference between flying the plane himself and turning on the autopilot program. When the autopilot program is on, the pilot can take his hands off of the controls. The controls will still move, but the pilot won’t be the one moving them. In the same way, your earthsuit is constantly doing things which your soul has no control over. Your earthsuit has a long list of autopilot programs which it is constantly running. It has one for breathing, one for digesting, one for circulation, one for your immune system–the list goes on and on. Suppose your earthsuit is sitting in a chair. Your soul is like the pilot inside the suit. Your soul decides it wants your earthsuit to get up and walk across the room. There is no panel of controls inside your suit that your soul can grab on to. The most your soul can do is send a command to your brain. Your brain runs your suit. Your soul tells your brain “Get up and walk across the room.” Your brain then sets a whole series of complex programs into motion. You see, walking is a very complex activity for an earthsuit. Taking a single step requires the precise coordination of many muscles and ligaments. The nerves on the soles of your feet report information to your brain which it uses to keep your body balanced in an upright position. Your eyes, ears, and nose keep on the lookout for obstacles in your path. Your soul doesn’t have the first clue about how your earthsuit actually functions—all of that wisdom is stored away in that miraculous supercomputer which we call your brain.

Most of what your earthsuit does in life, it does on its own without any input from your soul. When you sleep, your brain is running all kinds of maintenance programs which your soul has no say in. As far as your brain is concerned, your soul is pretty useless when it comes to managing your earthsuit. Your soul makes some really stupid choices, like steering your suit too close to a heat source or making unreasonable demands on the system. Your brain’s top priority is protecting and pleasing your earthsuit. It doesn’t care about what’s good for your soul and it doesn’t care about God. Your brain and your soul get in frequent conflicts with each other because they are working on conflicting agendas.