Posted by
Jason Cunningham on Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:34:47 AM
Hebrews 11 talks about believing in what we can't see. Some people believe only in what they can see -- or touch, or smell, or sense in some other material way. But they are mistaken, far too narrow in their view of things. And the proof, the clues, the evidence -- whatever you want to call it -- is all around us: within us, even.
The first thing to consider is the fact that all the things that set us apart from everything else in the natural world -- emotions; the power of reasoned, logical thought; highly developed consciousness and sense of self-awareness -- are all nonmaterial things. Atheists and some scientists say that all these things really do have physical (material) causes -- chemical reactions in the brain, for example -- but this cannot be.
It's well-known, among both scientists and nonscientists, that "like begets like": oak trees produce acorns that produce more oak trees, humans produce more humans, and so on. It's quite simple. And in the material universe, you only have material things. Physical organisms may change over time (evolution), but however they might change, they are always physical organisms -- because material things can produce only other material things.
Yet we find that humans have several highly developed internal sensibilities that are decidedly nonmaterial. When I say "internal," I don't mean that you can cut open a person's body and see them or touch them; what I mean is that they are inside a person's psyche -- more to the point, they are part of the person himself, who he is and what he's like. For that's what a "person" really is -- not the bundle of nerves, bones and flesh that comprise his physical body, but the nonmaterial entity occupying his physical body. Again, some suggest chemical reactions or other physiological causes for the existence of things like thoughts and emotions, but we have to remember that "like produces like," so no matter how many changes might occur in an organism over time, or how drastic those changes might be, they are all changes of a particular kind: from one physical (material) thing into another physical (material) thing; nothing nonphysical or nonmaterial is involved (strictly speaking). For the physical knows nothing of the nonphysical, and thus cannot even allude to it. Therefore, no physical process could give rise to something nonphysical (like a thought), nor could it even give rise to something that simply appeared to be nonphysical.
At this point someone might bring up hallucinations, but this is nonapplicable on two counts. First, when people hallucinate, they think (because of some physiological ailment in the brain or body) that they're seeing something that in reality isn't there -- but these things that they think they're seeing are hallucinations of physical things (people, places, etc.). Sure, people experience emotions while they're hallucinating, but people who are not hallucinating also experience emotions. So unless you're going to say that all "supposedly nonmaterial" things (like thoughts and feelings) are hallucinations, then you can't equate thoughts and feelings with authentic hallucinations.
Which leads to the second reason: If you do happen to believe that all "supposedly nonmaterial" things are illusions (hallucinations), then you've painted yourself into a philosophical corner. Because if the whole of human thought, feeling and experience is merely one giant hallucination, then every part of it is equally valid, or equally invalid; you can't throw away one part of it (belief in the nonmaterial) and keep only the parts you like without discrediting yourself. So either all of life is one massive illusion -- in which case there can be no true "right" or "wrong," and I can't be held accountable for what I might do to you -- or else the nonmaterial is as real as the material, in which case God must be given full and earnest consideration.