What saved me from moral and emotional paralysis in this pseudo-philosophy was, I think, a deep-seated interest in humanity. I could not reason myself into believing that men are only machines; I could not smother in logic the sense of mystery that broods upon the world, not find any place in the network of blind chance and fate for the human will. What is the nature of this thing we call life, this irrational power which by its own initiative expands into endless activities, and finally creates for itself a conscious soul of suffering and joy?- Paul Elmer More (1864-1937), Pages from an Oxford Diary. (Hat tip to Imaginative Conservative.)
Welcome! Formerly known as Libertas et Memoria, this is my blog on law, politics, faith, culture and the joys of the Inland Northwest.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
"I could not reason myself into believing that men are only machines"
Labels:
atheism,
human life,
ideas
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What is the nature of this thing we call life, this irrational power which by its own initiative expands into endless activities, and finally creates for itself a conscious soul of suffering and joy?
But it does not. It cannot. His despair is the despair of the materialist. He confuses mechanism with result.
"Consciousness" is above matter--ot is "supernatural". Man has a soul.
Consciousness is not some epiphenomena of the physical world. It s the other way around.
God created the world.
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