Hello again.
I had a good conversation with a friend of mine and the
readers of his blog. The conversation was focused on questioning people’s
beliefs and understandings about God. It was a good dispute, very helpful and I’m
thankful because now I have a set of logical questions that intuitively came to my mind.
OK, lots of people believe that there is no God, nothing
created us, there are no supernatural forces, no divine energy and so on. The
widespread idea among these people, some of them eminent scientist, is that our
consciousness, our mind, our feelings, dreams and desires are formed by the
complex combination of biochemical reactions in the brain, they speak about
dopamine, serotonin, some other substances and so on.
Well, I am no expert in this sphere, but I asked myself
some questions.
First. If our mind is formed by biochemical reactions
that act like executable “programs” and trigger other “programs”, other
reactions and if they all determine our behavior, then what is the difference
between our brain and some computer device? There should be no difference:
humans respond to the environment, computers respond to given commands and
programs written by us.
But if we were computers, then how do QUESTIONS form in
our mind? And more: How do DESIRES form? Some basic desires would probably form
by chemical reactions, but what about ideas, creativity, curiosity, compassion?
Are they chemical reactions? Would Art exist if we were just like computers
that respond to the environment?
OK. There are reactions. But reactions are the product of
some form of activity. Activity leads to reactions and then these reactions
trigger other activities, but please notice that there must be activity at the
first place. Now. If the human mind is formed by chemical reactions, then what
is the Activity that triggered them? If the Big Bang is the reaction that
created the Universe, then what is the Activity that triggered it?
Let’s go back to computers. They react, they respond to
commands. But they do not have free will. If our mind is like computer that
reacts and responds to given commands and environmental conditions, then how do
we have free will? How do we make DECICIONS? How do we have IDEAS?
Activity comes from free will and reactions are the
products of that activity. But activity is not a reaction. Reactions are the
result. Our mind, our consciousness cannot be only made of reactions. There
must be both Activity and Reactions. Otherwise we would be nothing more that
machines, slaves, robots that don’t even think, they would just respond, not
even aware of their existence.
It's not just logic that we have to apply here. We have to use our intuition and senses as well. All must be in harmony.
We’re made of Desire. And more.
We are Alive. And we do not even question it, we just
know it.
I will leave the answers of all these questions to you.