Wednesday, July 31, 2019
The Meaning of Human Life: Atheism and Human Knowledge Part I
There is no denying that pre-human animals posses a degree of psychism and they are able to make situational judgments . Animals have social life , they build nests , shelters etc, they hunt in groups, they defend their young and also use stones or sticks as tools of reaching the food. That is why we said they are capable of situational judgments. Of course animals can be trained and have been trained by humans for their human needs and entertainment (circus). All this makes many zoologists and biologists to believe that there is no any deeper difference between man and other forms of life. In their view humans are only a link on the ladder of evolution and it is doubtful whether what we are today is the last and the best form of homo sapiens. Perhaps future humans will be far higher in their development not only on the biological level but also the psychic endowments and their knowledge will be incomparably higher than at our stage of life. Nevertheless it is obvious that non human animals do not make any tools of their own , do not show any progress in their essential instinctual behavior or any new inventiveness . Briefly they do not grow mentally.
On the other hand human beings and only human beings live with awareness of death that is the knowledge that they certainly must die. Only human beings use their knowledge and become physicians, scientists, philosophers and so on. Only human beings distinguish between mentally healthy persons and those who suffer mental disabilities of some sort. Only within the horizon of human existence we find churches, temples , libraries, hospitals, museums, cemeteries and so on. The human drive to know extends towards the Absolute that is God.
Most importantly humans only developed conceptual knowledge and use propositional language, therefore they are capable of rational discourse. Humans developed technology , politics , history and other forms of discovering reality.
Only humans developed ritualistic practices and religious forms of worship. Humans have moral conscience: a sense of right and wrong and of ethical values. Only humans experience the ecstasy of beauty. Aesthetic values are important in human life. Only within the sphere of human life there is sharp awareness of difference between criminals and saints , cowards and heroes , selfish monsters and loving selfless individuals. Only humans are ready very often to freely give their physical life for their beliefs especially their religious belief, however not only religious in nature. Only humans are obstinate truth seekers and ready also for the greatest sacrifices to discover the truth and later on to defend it. Only humans are seekers for the meaning of existence itself: Why do I exist? Why should I go on living? What is the end or purpose of my life and what should I do with it? Only humans feel responsible for what they do with their lives and experience remorse of conscience for failure to live up to the moral ideals.
The above characteristics of man are given to observation and they do not leave any room for doubt. Therefore it seems clear that human beings although they are one link on the ladder of evolution nevertheless they are unique in their nature and different in kind not only degree from the other forms of pre-human higher animals. This by which man differs is obviously the inner dynamism of his drive to know. Therefore at this point we must analyze the question what is knowledge and especially what is human knowledge.
There is and there always was a number of different answers to the above question what is knowledge. Depending on how the question is answered the whole vision of reality changes radically for example if we follow the criticism of David Hume and later Immanuel Kant, and the German idealists we can easily get lost in our quest and fall into skepticism which in turn leads to resignation from the effort of searching for truth.
The crucial problem lies in the question how much can the human mind comprehend and what is the meaning of the word to know. The dynamism of the human mind towards knowing itself is not questioned. What is at stake is the range of intelligibility of reality available to the human mind. What kind of knowing leads to truth and what kind of truth is open to human inquiry. Can the dynamism of knowing transcend the senses alone. Methodical realism stands on the ground that there is a universal intelligibility of all reality conceived under the concept of being as such. Whatever can be defined as "It is" is comprehensible in some way to the human mind. and here we see the divergence of the question of knowledge. The scientific method which produced so many marvelous results is by many understood as the only way to know. The criterion of truth is experiment and repeatability . The scientist discovers some regularity of material agents and creates a hypothesis then he/she shares his/her discovery with scientists within the same branch of inquiry . If his/her finding is confirmed by the experimentation of his/her colleagues then the hypothesis becomes a theory. No scientific theory however is absolute or final it can be modified or even replaced by another theory when new and unknown facts are discovered. Most scientists believe that science as such is only interested in facts: questions of meaning or values is not in the province of science. Therefore it is obvious that science as such is absolutely neutral to the most fundamental questions of human beings. For example: does God exist or not?, why is there universe at all? what is the meaning of my existence here and now?. Such questions cannot be definitely answered by any scientific theory. Because this theory which is accepted may simply be discarded with the progress of scientific discoveries.
Aristotle already said, many centuries ago..." all men by nature desire to know." The drive to know is therefore not limited only to what senses alone give the knower . The most universal concept is the concept of being and it in some way covers all reality whatsoever. The human mind is an active power in man, that means that it operates in very strict ways governed by fundamental principles of logic and experience. Man not only knows but he/she knows that he knows that means the act of knowing is transcendent by it's very nature. This fact cannot be denied and if it is denied then the act of knowledge is arbitrarily truncated. This fact is extremely important for any reflecting human being. It envelops man within the narrow confines of sense experimentation. For many this means the attitude of radical doubt relative to the ultimate questions leading to skepticism , scientism and finally narrow materialism.
As pointed out the very act of knowledge is transcendent in itself. Sense data are of course necessary but there are no pure sense data . When for example I see a tree in the garden I can go closer touch it , push it or manipulate it in other ways, I do not only have appearances of pure senses, I am in a presence of being in some form , therefore I can analyze it according to the basic principles of the mind and sound logic. Some of those principles are obvious because they are fundamental for the activity of the mind: For example the principle of non contradiction, the principle of sufficient reason. the principle of causality, the principle of contingency, to name a few only. Without transcending and metaphysical reflection there simply is no valid and solid truth available to humans.
Some scientists seem to disregard the fundamental ways the human mind operates. One can hear such statements by well known physicists like for example:"...the universe came into existence out of nothing". and such statement somehow is repeated by others ! Nothingness is absolute absence of any shadow of being even and it is absolutely certain that nothingness cannot in any rational way be understood as productive of being.
As pointed out the very act of knowledge is transcendent in itself. Sense data are of course necessary but there are no pure sense data . When for example I see a tree in the garden I can go closer touch it , push it or manipulate it in other ways, I do not only have appearances of pure senses, I am in a presence of being in some form , therefore I can analyze it according to the basic principles of the mind and sound logic. Some of those principles are obvious because they are fundamental for the activity of the mind: For example the principle of non contradiction, the principle of sufficient reason. the principle of causality, the principle of contingency, to name a few only. Without transcending and metaphysical reflection there simply is no valid and solid truth available to humans.
Some scientists seem to disregard the fundamental ways the human mind operates. One can hear such statements by well known physicists like for example:"...the universe came into existence out of nothing". and such statement somehow is repeated by others ! Nothingness is absolute absence of any shadow of being even and it is absolutely certain that nothingness cannot in any rational way be understood as productive of being.
The question of the existence of some transcendent reality can be answered within the context of philosophy of being and the use of the concepts of analogy of being. Any search for the ultimate source of all finite existence begins with observation of the finitude and the limitations of beings within our experience here and now. The obvious fact of change against stability the fact of becoming needs intelligible explanation. Some things do not exist, then exist for a while, and then don't exist again. It is easily observable fact. Where are all the people who lived on this globe several hundred of years ago?.
The fact of change on the level of existence we call the contingency of finite beings. All finite beings are contingent that is, they do not have the sufficient reason for their existence in themselves. Therefore they must receive existence from some other being since nothingness does not produce any reality whatsoever. Because finite beings have no sufficient reason for their existence in themselves, but still they exist, there necessarily must be at least one being which has existence by itself: the being as Thomas Aquinas would say " by itself," this is the pointer towards the existence of Transcendent Reality. Here we touch the Platonic concept of God as Highest Idea of Good as well as the Aristotelian concept of the "prime mover " and also the Deistic God of the XVIII century philosophers.
This line of thinking creates the philosophical underpinning of the religious concept of the monotheistic religions. It is clear that a God who is interested only in his own thought (Aristotle) or who is only the first cause of all existence is not satisfying the human search for ultimate meaning of existence. Only if revelation of God to humans ever happened then such God would represent the fulfillment of the human search for meaning . Revelation therefore is a necessary requirement for a truly religious concept of God. Among the living monotheistic religions, Christianity is par excellence a revealed, active union between God and men: God in search for man, and men's responding to God's initiative of offered to him salvation and eternal blissful existence if man freely answers to God's initiative in the person of God-Man in the life actions , death resurrection and the promises of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Man is not just mind and reason , he is of flesh and blood instinctual potent passions and he also is free to search for truth or simply neglect the ultimate question of human existence .
There are all kinds of atheists. Some of them are convinced atheists and aggressively attacking any sort of religion as source of evil , superstition and inimical to reason and truth. There are atheists who are essentially skeptics . Their basic attitude is that it is impossible to answer the ultimate questions. There are also those who simply never think about God, religion or any such realities. They are busy with their everyday concerns and never really feel a serious need to reflect on the ultimate issues. There are also those who believed in childhood or their early young years but then for some or other reason get alienated from religion or believing in God. Their idea of God is usually erroneous and loaded with negative emotional feelings to whatever is related to religion.
In many cases the source of the atheistic attitude is the result of ignorance of the idea of God and also desire for complete fulfillment here on earth. People like this are not interested in what God wants and in His will but what they want. They manipulate God with their so called prayers. If they receive what they desire well and good, but when things get complicated and when suffering, disease and tragedy strike , they accuse God of cruelty and evil commandments. True religion like for example Christianity imposes very real and difficult demands on the believer. It calls for complete and absolute subjection to the providence of the Creator and Redeemer no matter what happens in this life here and now and how difficult it becomes to be faithful to what their religion requires. It is important to remember that man is in his very nature self-centered and the egoism and rejection of true dependence on God's will is always open possibility for humans.
Atheism seems to lift the burden of moral effort and self control and also unwavering faithfulness. Faith always was, and always will be impossible without God's assistance. That is why atheism seems to be a liberating experience giving independence and freedom to follow one's own desires no matter how immoral they may feel. Manmade morality without the foundation in God's will is necessarily subject to error, deviation and darkness.
The fact of change on the level of existence we call the contingency of finite beings. All finite beings are contingent that is, they do not have the sufficient reason for their existence in themselves. Therefore they must receive existence from some other being since nothingness does not produce any reality whatsoever. Because finite beings have no sufficient reason for their existence in themselves, but still they exist, there necessarily must be at least one being which has existence by itself: the being as Thomas Aquinas would say " by itself," this is the pointer towards the existence of Transcendent Reality. Here we touch the Platonic concept of God as Highest Idea of Good as well as the Aristotelian concept of the "prime mover " and also the Deistic God of the XVIII century philosophers.
This line of thinking creates the philosophical underpinning of the religious concept of the monotheistic religions. It is clear that a God who is interested only in his own thought (Aristotle) or who is only the first cause of all existence is not satisfying the human search for ultimate meaning of existence. Only if revelation of God to humans ever happened then such God would represent the fulfillment of the human search for meaning . Revelation therefore is a necessary requirement for a truly religious concept of God. Among the living monotheistic religions, Christianity is par excellence a revealed, active union between God and men: God in search for man, and men's responding to God's initiative of offered to him salvation and eternal blissful existence if man freely answers to God's initiative in the person of God-Man in the life actions , death resurrection and the promises of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Man is not just mind and reason , he is of flesh and blood instinctual potent passions and he also is free to search for truth or simply neglect the ultimate question of human existence .
There are all kinds of atheists. Some of them are convinced atheists and aggressively attacking any sort of religion as source of evil , superstition and inimical to reason and truth. There are atheists who are essentially skeptics . Their basic attitude is that it is impossible to answer the ultimate questions. There are also those who simply never think about God, religion or any such realities. They are busy with their everyday concerns and never really feel a serious need to reflect on the ultimate issues. There are also those who believed in childhood or their early young years but then for some or other reason get alienated from religion or believing in God. Their idea of God is usually erroneous and loaded with negative emotional feelings to whatever is related to religion.
In many cases the source of the atheistic attitude is the result of ignorance of the idea of God and also desire for complete fulfillment here on earth. People like this are not interested in what God wants and in His will but what they want. They manipulate God with their so called prayers. If they receive what they desire well and good, but when things get complicated and when suffering, disease and tragedy strike , they accuse God of cruelty and evil commandments. True religion like for example Christianity imposes very real and difficult demands on the believer. It calls for complete and absolute subjection to the providence of the Creator and Redeemer no matter what happens in this life here and now and how difficult it becomes to be faithful to what their religion requires. It is important to remember that man is in his very nature self-centered and the egoism and rejection of true dependence on God's will is always open possibility for humans.
Atheism seems to lift the burden of moral effort and self control and also unwavering faithfulness. Faith always was, and always will be impossible without God's assistance. That is why atheism seems to be a liberating experience giving independence and freedom to follow one's own desires no matter how immoral they may feel. Manmade morality without the foundation in God's will is necessarily subject to error, deviation and darkness.
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