Scientists who mainly go by observation of similarities in the physical forms of living beings equate life with living forms and conclude that man is the final product of evolution by descent. In their view, mind and consciousness are purely the incidental fall-outs of the activities of the brain and have no independent existence of their own. Life is a form of energy that activates the body of inert matter and if life is the same as life form, this will lead to the inevitable conclusion that the form of energy that activates the millions of forms of flora and fauna are all different from each other. The force that activates the fertilised egg to initiate morphogenesis or the construction of life form immediately after conception cannot be different in different living organisms. Life force should be the very same in all life forms and it cannot be different in different organic beings.
Scientists are, therefore, wrong in equating life force with the physical form of living organisms.
Psychologists and some philosophers, who rely on their intellectual inference using logic and reason, consider man as a dual being with physical body and conscious mind. While neuroscientists equate mind with brain, metaphysical philosophers consider the mind or soul to be different from the body. However, some feel that the conscious mind with its moods alternating between elation and depression cannot be equated with immutable soul. They consider soul to be steady and changeless and equate the immutable soul with consciousness. In fact, Dr. William James goes to the extent of saying that if scientists are able to unravel the mystery of consciousness, this major breakthrough will pale into insignificance all the scientific achievements of the past.