Is Matter the only Reality or does the Spiritual and Mental exist too?
This is the fundamental and crucial distinction deciding between any belief in God and the atheistic attitude. The importance of this question cannot be overemphasized because it underlines all materialistic, agnostic, and skeptical attitudes possible within the context of the problem of the existence of God.
The basic arguments for the existence of God are already discussed in earlier chapters. They are philosophical in nature ( the argument from the First Cause , the contingency of all finite entities , the purposiveness and rationality inherent in the universe, and also the moral argument and the nature of man).
Atheism develops not only on the philosophical level. There are many sources
of atheism on the personal level. depending on the experiences of the
individuals. Many people have false
concept of the nature of God, His
purposes for humans. Personal tragedies and disappointments in their
lives destroy in them their belief and
general religious outlook. The most common reason that people lose their
original faith in God comes from
the oldest objection against religion that is the existence of suffering, the apparently chaotic way
suffering is distributed in life,
the necessity of aging and dying. Not the least reason for losing one’s
faith is simply ignorance, passivity, shallowness of one’s life and following
the attractions of pleasure material possessions, popularity power over the others, which are all
man-created idols . About those we shall not talk here. They we will be considered later on.
After
David Hume and Immanuel Kant many
philosophers and scientists insist, that the only true knowledge comes from
scientific methods in which experiment, sense data and
repetition of experiments
verified by some human senses
or instruments used as prolongation of human senses are
decisive. Whether one talks about data
reached by telescopes or microscopes, it all
must according to atheists, be reducible to sense perceptions of some
kind and expressible in a mathematical
formula. This attitude is accepted as
beyond any doubt . Talk about spirit, consciousness, mind, and the human
self as spiritual center of a human
being is immediately excluded and so is also God, because God is also understood by believers
as immaterial , infinite, Omnipotent
Spirit. An atheist must and
always will attempt to reduce all spiritual phenomena to some form of matter in process.
What is man in this context?
For
the atheist man is simply one of the
many appearances of matter in movement. The atheist would say that man is
electrons , plus amino acids , plus time , plus evolution and plus chance. The commitment of atheism to naturalism and materialism is
wide-spread in contemporary thought and therefore many scientists believe that anything
considered to be immaterial or
supernatural is incompatible with the
main tenets of contemporary science. The
God affirmed to exist in traditional Judaism and also Christianity is both
spiritual being and also a supernatural
being and his existence transcends the
whole natural order . Again if nothing exists or can exist which is metaphysical or somehow not subject to natural laws , then , the supernatural does not exist. Only the
acceptance of the immaterial and supernatural as existing makes intelligible and credible a divine personal, spiritual, and transcendent, supernatural being. At the same
time if accepted it also says
something analogically divine and
transcendent about man who by virtue of
an immaterial element in his/her
nature is also an natural person, that
is the image of God , who is a super
natural Person.
Experience shows the following about man:
(1)
Only human beings use
their minds to become scientists,
historians, philosophers, lawyers or
inventors.
(2)
Only human beings
distinguish different kinds of ethical behavior. Some people are called
criminals , villains, and some
philanthropists and saintly.
(3)
Only among humans exists
the distinction between those who are mentally healthy and those who suffer mental disease and mental disabilities of some kind.
(4)
Only within the context
of human life there exist libraries,
hospitals, churches and temples, theaters and museums and so on.
Observation
shows the following activities of
man revealing the immaterial nature of the human spirit or
soul:
(a)
Abstract thinking.
(b)
Symbolic language.
(c)
Universal concepts in thinking and
(d) capability of giving willingly
and freely his/her own life for his/her
belief and convictions especially for a religious ones.
(e) Awareness of eternity and possibility of existence after death.
(f) Awareness of his/her
knowledge of existence. Actions for purposes and goals and search for the
ultimate purpose of life.
Human
drive to know extends towards the Absolute , that is towards God.
All this shows the immateriality of the human subject and also the possibility of an immaterial personal Creator God. Atheism however denies both facts . For a materialist here is nothing immaterial in human nature and everything that humans are is simply a prolongation of physical nature and all human aspirations and actions must be explained by the size and complexity of the human’s brain . Personal immortality becomes impossible and God’s intervention of that nature becomes absurd. De facto however human intelligence is the ground for free action, moral responsibility , human rights, and person-hood.
From the fact that man very often deliberates what should be done it is clear that man’s action transcend the inborn instinctual drives. Above all man is a perpetual searcher for meaning of his/her existence . Without some form or kind of meaning no human being can really live because there would be no ground of distinction between different values or there would be no values at all . In that case however life becomes impossible. It is important also to notice that the conviction that contemporary science is incompatible with belief in God is not obvious. Contemporary science with the theories of the big bang, the expending universe, and the anthropic principle is reconcilable with the belief in God.
All this shows the immateriality of the human subject and also the possibility of an immaterial personal Creator God. Atheism however denies both facts . For a materialist here is nothing immaterial in human nature and everything that humans are is simply a prolongation of physical nature and all human aspirations and actions must be explained by the size and complexity of the human’s brain . Personal immortality becomes impossible and God’s intervention of that nature becomes absurd. De facto however human intelligence is the ground for free action, moral responsibility , human rights, and person-hood.
From the fact that man very often deliberates what should be done it is clear that man’s action transcend the inborn instinctual drives. Above all man is a perpetual searcher for meaning of his/her existence . Without some form or kind of meaning no human being can really live because there would be no ground of distinction between different values or there would be no values at all . In that case however life becomes impossible. It is important also to notice that the conviction that contemporary science is incompatible with belief in God is not obvious. Contemporary science with the theories of the big bang, the expending universe, and the anthropic principle is reconcilable with the belief in God.
To
the question whether science makes God obsolete , the answer is: definitely
not.
Some
basic findings of contemporary science
are not only compatible, with belief in God but become pointers towards
the transcendent cause of all finite reality. One must consider not only some isolated arguments, but see
the totality of the whole picture of modern science, and philosophical implications of it , plus
the philosophical arguments already discussed in this part. If one would superficially only
take the dogmatic statement of
atheism then one would miss the vision of the whole. From all modern
sciences there is some evidence pointing to the transcendent first cause:
(1)
In cosmology the
argument begins with the obvious statement that whatever begins to exists as it
cause . If one follows this reasoning one arrives at the existence of the first cause.
(2)
The universe had a
beginning (the big bang theory) points
to the necessity of some creative source of reality.
(3)
The evidence from
physics and the anthropic principle point to the fine tuning of the Cosmos and
it’s energies as if planned for the production of life and
human beings.
(4)
The evidence from
biochemistry points to the intrinsic
purposive orientation of all
entities and especially the living beings .
(5)
The evidence from
biological information , the DNA inside everyone’s body consists of trillions of cells each
containing in four-letter code all information necessary for the structure of the body.
(6)
The evidence of human
consciousness , awareness of self , sensation, thoughts , emotions, desires,
beliefs and free choices make
humans self-conscious animated subjects
.
The appearance of the universe, the development of
life and the miracle of human consciousness all are stages in the designed
development of the known universe. If
this is so, then there must exists a timeless,
personal immaterial being with freedom
of will and enormous power. Such being in religious language is called God,
although our knowledge of this being is
analogical and in some respect transcends the
ability of the human mind to understand.
If one rejects the above one must accept some
contradictory and illogical consequences :
(1)
nothing produces
everything.
(2)
Chaos produces
information,
(3)
Unconsciousness
produces consciousness and
(4)
Non-reason produces
reason.
Those reflections can be perhaps
illustrated by a little story about a mouse and the grandfather clock.
Once upon a time there
was a very wise mouse.
She had lot of respect
from other mice because
they
considered her very educated and
very professional mouse. She delivered
lectures in many institution of the mousy-world-of-learning.
One day she wondered into the apartment of some people
and was terribly scared when
she heard very heavy steps
approaching . In panic. looking for escape, she hid herself
in the frame of the grandfather’s clock . She looked at the various
wheels and chains inside and realized that each wheel moved
another
wheel and this one still another and so on. The whole
thing was booming producing even music and regularly
ticking and ticking away. “Oh” said the mouse to herself,
“I can see now how this whole machinery works here , it is
really very
simple , I will have to deliver a lecture about it to the others.”
It never occurred to the mouse to ask
the question : Why is there such a thing like a grandfather’s clock and what is the purpose of the whole structure.
Her little mind was too small to ask
such extravagant and metaphysical
questions.
Recommended readings:
The Courage to Think for Yourself. The Search for Truth and the Meaning of Human Life.
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Finality and Intelligence. Is The Universe Designed?
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Odwaga Krytycznego myślenia. W Poszukiwaniu sensu życia . ( In Polish Language)
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