Most of us seem to agree there could be no free will if our decisions were
simply the result of electrical - biochemical processes in the brain. As C. S.
Lewis argued in his book `Miracles' there also could be no true reasoning or
knowledge. (Never mind free will or morality).
At the risk of oversimplifying his argument of two chapters I think the gist of
his point is this:
If my 'thinking' processes are the result of the movements of atoms in my brain
- movements interlocked with the laws of physics governing the universe - then
my thought processes must be controlled by the laws of physics and cannot be
free. How then can I do any real reasoning which of course depends on freedom
of thought? If reasoning is not possible then there can be no real knowledge.
This leads to the absurdity that if materialism is true it cannot be known to be
true!
(On similar grounds much of `Post-Modernism' also collapses.)
Reflections on nature must be an activity independent of nature itself. (Even as
long ago as the 1940s CSL was aware of the relevence of quantum theory for this
discussion - he believed it demonstrated the openness of nature.)
Bertrand Russell (a well known British atheist materialist philosopher) said
that he had spent his whole life wondering whether it is possible to know
anything. Stephen Hawking makes a similar point in the early pages of 'A Brief
History of Time'. He tries to get round the problem by saying that evolution
could have produced real knowledge. However, I believe materialist evolution
cannot get round a problem that comes from materialism itself..
C. S. Lewis argued that the human person is open to something beyond himself. He
didn't like to call it supernatural - for that, for him, meant God. He called it
cautiously something that is `more than natural'.
Some have believed that this `soul' is a separate spiritual substance that
composes the real `me' and needs a body in which to dwell. The problem with this
is that it is not at all clear that merely saying something is made out of a non
natural substance solves the problem of self-awareness. Nor does it seem quite
Biblical to imagine millions of disemboded souls looking around for a new body
to inhabit.
So others have rejected this dualism between soul substance and body substance
and argued that self - awareness is something that emerges from the wonders of
the human body. Just as chemistry comes from physics but cannot be fully defined
by physics, and biology comes from chemistry but cannot be fully defined by
chemistry so soul comes forth from living humanity and then takes on a life of
its own.
This - I believe - is only satisfactory if there is something (Someone) calling
forth the higher from the lower. In other words it is in personal relationships
that our personhoods are called forth and defined. That is only meaning full if
there is a `Personalising Person' - to use T. F. Torrance's phrase - upon whom
all human personhood is dependent. His call to us comes in the form of His Logos
who is the source of all creation and who for our sakes became flesh so that we
know as we are known.
Howard Taylor,
60 Southbrae Drive, Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland, G13 1QD, U.K.
Tel/Fax: int + 44 (0)141 959 2904.
E.Mail: 101351.1074@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Howard_Taylor/