Quote by: Professor Haldane  If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true . . . hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.
If I am to hold the view that my thoughts are only atoms and chemicals, then I am an offspring of Nature. If that is true then I should be more like Nature. But the moments I say I am faced with a problem. First, let's say that there are no humans on Earth. There we will find that all biomes are, by our standards, as they should be. There is no pollution, food is abundant, all creatures remain in their habitats, and things die without resistence. If there is a change to the enviroment it is as a result of natural events: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, asteroids, flooding, etc. [NOTE: There are a lot of problems with this hypothetical. WHY is food in abundance? WHY are changes only the cause of natural disasters? What about a forest that disapears due to a new species of insect that eats all the trees like the Emerald Ash Bore(sp?)]
Now put humans on Earth and if I maintain my view that I am nothing more than atoms and there is no God, I should fit in quite nicely. All should go on the same way as if there were no humans. We all have our habitats, no pollution, things die with no resistence to death. Again, a change in the enviroment is of natural causes.
But none of this is true. Humans do not fit in to Nature like a missing piece to a puzzle should fit in to complete the picture. The puzzlepiece called Humans comes into Nature abnormally. Notice what we do to Earth. We modify of colonize Nature to suit our wants and needs.
[NOTE: this behavior is shared by ants, termites, birds, spiders, beavers, and a host of other organisms.]
Look around you: your house, your car, the cut fingernails are all forms of out power over Nature. Whereas Nature only wishes to kill our thinking. When we say, "Let's do things Naturally," we mean to conform to the usual or ordinary course of things. But our minds, that thing composed of atoms, which is supposed to come about just like the rest of Nature, constantly change Nature from what it should be. For instance, if I have a flu, Nature, the 'whole show' would rather my immune system to fight it off. Reason or my mind, would rather take a vaccine or medicine. Is not the medicine Nature modified? Or say I have cancer. Nature wants it to spread. Reason wants radiation. Is that not Nature modified? At every turn, my mind is AGAINST Nature while Nature is largely powerless to resist my actions and only seeks to kill my Reason.
So we see there is a difference between myself and Nature. There is a difference between Reason and Nature. If what I called Reason truly comes from Nature, I cannot call my thinking Reason, can I? If my Reason comes from Reason, then I can continue to call my thinking Reason. The second view is my only option. I can't say the whole human race came to exist just like Nature when I have control over Nature and Nature, no, the entire Universe is against Reason itself. If Nature is against Reason, I must conclude that I am outside of Nature. |