Why Materialism Cannot Be True.

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Why Materialism Cannot Be True. Howard Taylor.
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Physical Science examines physical things. It
cannot tell you that non-physical reality does
not exist. Can it tell you that all physical
effects have physical causes? Only if it reaches
the TOE (Theory of Everything.) However as
science and knowledge advance mystery increases
rather than decreasing. Godels Theorem, TFT,
Peter Hodgson (and now Hawking?) say that a
result of Godel is to show that a TOE will always
be out of reach.
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• Bertrand Russell(in his History of Western
  Philosophy. P. 13)
• All definite knowledge belongs to science
• 1. Self-refuting? This statement above cannot
  itself be verified by science. So if it is true,
  it is not true!
• 2. Friendship - leads, surely, to a definite
  knowledge of other persons - a genuine knowledge
  of realities. Such knowledge could not be
  obtained by science.
• all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge
  belongs to theology. But between theology and
  science there is a No Man's Land, .. this No
  Man's Land is philosophy. Almost all the
  questions of most interest to speculative minds
  are such as science cannot answer, and the
  confident answers of theologians no longer seem
  convincing. (The questions are Next slide).
  To such questions no answer can be found in the
  laboratory. . The studying of these questions,
  if not the answering of them, is the business of
  philosophy.

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Is the world divided into mind and matter, and,
if so what is mind and what is matter? Is mind
subject to matter, or is it possessed of
independent powers? Has the universe any unity
or purpose? Is it evolving towards some goal?
Are there really laws of nature, or do we
believe in them only because of our innate love
of order? Is man what he seems to the
astronomer, a tiny lump of impure carbon and
water impotently crawling on a small unimportant
planet? Or is he what he appears to Hamlet? Is he
perhaps both at once? Is there a way of living
that is noble and another that is base, or are
all ways of living merely futile? If there is a
way of living that is noble. In what does it
consist, and how shall we achieve it? Must the
good be eternal in order to deserve to be valued,
or is it worth seeking even if the universe is
inexorably moving towards death?
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• We consider just three mysteries that he
  identifies
• What is matter?
• What is mind?
• Does the noble life exist does goodness exist
  or is everything futile?

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What is the source of matters rational
structure? Einstein The Only thing
incomprehensible about the universe is that it is
comprehensible. Hume. He held that we cannot be
certain (from nature) that it is governed by
laws. However without that certainty science
would be impossible.
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Wherever we look in nature we cannot find the
origin of natures creation or its rational
structure. Job 28. 12 But where shall wisdom be
found? And where is the place of
understanding? 13 Man does not know its
worth, and it is not found in the land of the
living. 14 The deep says, It is not in me, and
the sea says, It is not with me. 28 And he
said to man, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that
is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is
understanding.
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• A Mystery What is matter?
• Or What is everything made of?
• If matter is made of particles
• What are the particles made of?
• Leibniz
• Matter is made of souls.
• The ghostly world of the atom.
• EPR, Uncertainty.
• Karl Popper Materialism transcends itself.
• Is matter frozen energy/wave/force? But
• Energy is matter in motion! or
• Energy is a force within matter.
• Energy or wave or force in what medium?
• So saying matter comes from energy does not solve
  the mystery.

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• What is mind?
• Something that is conscious and also free to have
  purposes and also free to think and reason.
• Or, alternatively, are my thoughts merely
  controlled by the previous distribution of
  particles/forces in the universe?

• If science could, one day, fully examine my
  brain, would the scientist know what I am
  thinking?
• Not the results of my thinking in the neurons
  but my actual thoughts.
• If not, my mind must be more than the matter of
  my brain.
• My mind (i.e. my thoughts and ideas) affects my
  body's behaviour - therefore it is real.
• So we have something that it real but is not
  subject to scientific investigation.
• Godel That the mind is purely material is the
  great prejudice of our time.
• Mind over matter and matter over mind.
• Mind acts on matter. Matter acts on mind.

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A hierarchy of mysteries The nature of

• Conscious life (human) that can
• reason (think abstractly and universally),
• ponder its own life, death, and possible life
  after death.
• be aware of good and evil,
• know that it is responsible (partly) for its own
  behaviour.

• Conscious life - such as the higher animals have.
• Life - anything that is alive - such as plants.
  (We refer to this again soon.)
• Matter - material or physical existence.

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What is the primary substance matter or
mind? When we consider matter/energy as a wave or
field we find that it is a wave understandable by
Mathematics. Galileo Mathematics is the
language with which God wrote the universe.
Consider a message in a letter or a formulae in
a mathematical treatise. Is the message/formulae
explained by the chemistry of the matter (the ink
and paper with which it is written), or the mind
who wrote the letter/treatise? In one of his
non-religious books on Quantum theory, John
Polkinghorne says it is intelligibility from
which all physical existence emerges. So
information, (in the form of mathematics?) lies
in and behind all physical reality.
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Information and Word?

• Recently the theoretical physicist Paul Davies
  wrote
• "Normally we think of the world as composed of
  simple, clod-like, material particles, and
  information as a derived phenomenon attached to
  special, organised states of matter.
• But maybe it is the other way around perhaps the
  Universe is really information (a frolic of
  primal information), and material objects a
  complex secondary manifestation. (New Scientist,
  Jan 30, 1999),
• (Not information from mindless matter arranged in
  a particular order, but matter coming from
  information (coming from mind?).
• If Paul Davies is right then it resonates with
  the Bibles teaching that Word is the
  foundation of all things.
• Peter Bussey While Geneticists are looking for
  material explanations (of biological phenomena)
  physicists are seeing that matter itself comes
  from mind.

13
Bertrand Russell (atheist/agnostic) believed the
most powerful argument for Gods existence comes
from the nature of Mathematics. Pythagoras
Numbers 1. have properties 2. dont exist in
our space-time. Penrose Numbers exist in a
transcendent world. Human consciousness accesses
this transcendent world and can therefore make
discoveries about numbers. But Is Mathematics
discovery or is it merely invention? Russell and
The Principles of Mathematics.
Godel. (Electrons etc are not picturable as
things in space-time. Some say it is
consciousness that gives them the property of
particles in space-time.)
14
Consider this from Bertrand Russells Study of
Mathematics Mathematics, rightly viewed,
possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a
beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture,
without appeal to any part of our weaker nature,
without the gorgeous trappings of painting or
music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern
perfection such as only the greatest art can
show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation,
the sense of being more than Man, is to be
found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.
15
And consider this from Paul Dirac (Nobel Prize
Quantum Theory) .. fundamental physical laws are
described in terms of a mathematical theory of
great beauty and power One could perhaps
describe the situation by saying that God is a
mathematician of a very high order and He used
very advanced mathematics in constructing the
universe. Eugene Wigner, (Diracs brother-in-law
- who received the equivalent of a Nobel Prize
for Maths), wrote of the unreasonable
effectiveness of Mathematics in understanding
nature. He said It is a wonderful gift which
we neither understand nor deserve.
16
I am reminded of what guided Einstein who
said "We are in the position, of a little child
entering a huge library, whose walls are covered
to the ceiling with books in many different
languages. The child knows that someone must have
written those books. It does not know who or how.
It does not understand the languages in which
they are written. The child notes a definite plan
in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious
order, which it does not comprehend but only
dimly suspects." (Emphasis added). (Quoted by
David Bodanis in his book EMC2)
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Beyond mere matter what is life? The Atheist
Richard Dawkins writes What lies at the heart
of every living thing is not a fire, warm breath,
nor a 'spark of life'. It is information,
words, instructions . . . Think of a billion
discrete digital characters . . . If you want
to understand life, think about information
technology.
18

To return to BRs questions Is there such a
thing as a noble life? If so how shall we attain
it? In other words Does real goodness exist
independently of our own opinions individual or
collective? If goodness does exist how to we
partake in it?

• Subjectivist Ethics.
• There is no goodness independent of our physical
  bodies and environment.
• Our idea of goodness comes from
• Our biology.
• The results of evolution.
• Our physical environment. (The atheist assumes
  there is nothing non-physical)
• Each individual person OR each individual society
  decides the difference between good and evil.

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.

• A major problem for Subjectivist Ethics
• How do you settle disputes about what is good?
• There is nothing to appeal to.
• In 1960, Bertrand Russell wrote
• 'I cannot see how to refute arguments for the
  subjectivity of moral values, but I find myself
  incapable of believing that all that is wrong
  with wanton cruelty is that I don't like it.'
• (Notes on Philosophy, January 1960, Philosophy,
  35, 146-147.)

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Am I saying that Gods Word is the foundation of
nature so that God is part of nature? No! We have
to distinguish between Creating Word and Created
Information.
21
So how is mind known? I can only know your mind
by hearing you speak or communicate in words.
Words express minds. By examining your brain I
could never discover your thoughts - your mind. I
need to hear your word. However if I have a
personal relationship with you, listening to what
you say, I can learn something of your mind.
22
Surely that which lies behind the existence of
all things cannot be less that us. We are
personal beings who (however imperfectly) know
something of the meaning of love. He (we dare no
longer say it) must be at least personal and
very great love. Love is self-giving even to
the undeserving.
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So how do we find the Mind of God and how is it
expressed? John 1-3,14 In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without
him was not any thing made that was made. And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we
have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son
from the Father, full of grace and truth.
24
Mind - Consciousness - Soul 1 Corinthians
211-16 11 For who among men knows the thoughts
of a man except the man's spirit within him? In
the same way no-one knows the thoughts of God
except the Spirit of God. 14 The man without the
Spirit does not accept the things that come from
the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him, and he cannot understand them, because they
are spiritually discerned. 16 "For who has known
the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"
But we have the mind of Christ.
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Not only is the existence of God necessary to
make sense of the grandeur and beauty of reality
but so also is the Cross of Christ in whom He
makes Himself known in the midst of the
suffering, ugliness and evil of the world. I am
reminded of these words from 1 Corinthians
1 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the
scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world
through its wisdom did not know him, God was
pleased through the foolishness of what was
preached to save those who believe. 18 For the
message of the cross is foolishness to those who
are perishing, but to us who are being saved it
is the power of God. 19 For it is written "I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise the
intelligence of the intelligent I will
frustrate. (NIV)
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What is the source of life? Psalm 369 For with
you is the fountain of life in your light do we
see light. John 14 In him was life, and the
life was the light of men. 1John 11That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked
upon and have touched with our hands, concerning
the word of life. Do we have a non-material
soul? If so does it need a body? 1 Kings
1721-23 Then he stretched himself upon the child
three times and cried to the Lord, O Lord my
God, let this child's life come into him again.
22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah.
And the life of the child came into him again,
and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and
brought him down from the upper chamber into the
house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah
said, See, your son lives.
27

• 2 Cor 122-4 I know a man in Christ who
  fourteen years ago was caught up to the third
  heavenwhether in the body or out of the body I
  do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this
  man was caught up into paradisewhether in the
  body or out of the body I do not know, God knows
  4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which
  man may not utter.
• 2 Cor 46-7 10-11, 14, 16,18
• For God, who said, Let light shine out of
  darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the
  light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
  face of Jesus  But we have this treasure in jars
  of clay, to show that the surpassing power
  belongs to God and not to us.10. always carrying
  in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life
  of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
  11 For we who live are always being given over to
  death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus
  also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
  14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will
  raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you
  into his presence. 16 So we do not lose heart.
  Though our outer nature is wasting away, our
  inner nature is being renewed day by day. 18 as
  we look not to the things that are seen but to
  the things that are unseen. For the things that
  are seen are transient, but the things that are
  unseen are eternal.

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• Matt 1028 Do not fear those who kill the body
  but cannot kill the soul. Fear him who can
  destroy both soul and body in hell. 
• James 226 For as the body apart from the spirit
  is dead
• James 45 He yearns jealously over the spirit
  that He has made to dwell in us.
• 2 Cor 51-4, 8. 51 For we know that if the tent,
  which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have
  a building from God, a house not made with hands,
  eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we
  groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
  3 if indeed by putting it on 1 we may not be
  found naked. 4 For while we are still in this
  tent, we groan, being burdenednot that we would
  be unclothed, but that we would be further
  clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed
  up by life.  Yes, we are of good courage, and we
  would rather be away from the body and at home
  with the Lord.