The standstill in our conversation has resulted from this question: Can we prove the existence of God? Even though we talk about the truthfulness of Scripture, the 2,ooo years of church history and theologians who have made excellent points, and our own experience of life change as a result of knowing God, our atheist friend refuses to budge. As we discussed in a previous blog post, those who identify as Freethinkers or Skeptics appeal to logic, reason, and empiricism to form their beliefs. They do not accept beliefs based on dogmas or traditions. So how then do we prove the existence of God?
Our atheist friend has put the ball in our court. What do we do now? We use the greatest tool that God has given us: our mind. (1 Peter 1:13)
Let us ask our atheist friend a question: What do they mean by, “prove the existence of God”? For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume our atheist friend asks us to prove the existence of God empirically or scientifically. Can we prove God scientifically? Well … no. The problem here is that science deals with the material, or physical, world. Science cannot and does not deal with the metaphysical. What is metaphysics: a branch of philosophy that attempts to understand reality as a whole and attempts to explore the realm beyond our senses (taken from "A Dictionary of Philosophy Terms" by Anthony Flew, 2nd Ed.). But just because science cannot prove something metaphysically does not mean that we are not rational and reasonable to believe it. (For a brief explanation of this, here is William Lane Craig in a debate with Peter Atkins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vnjNbe5lyE)
As I stated earlier, we are going to use our mind. What is our consciousness? What makes us … well, us? There are quite a few theories that try to explain our consciousness; some theories argue that our consciousness is a function of the brain while other theories argue that our consciousness is a separate field that either exists outside of our realm of exploring or we just haven’t found a way to explore it yet. For an illustrated guide to some of the major theories, follow this link: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/what-is-consciousness/
But what is known is this: science does not have an answer for what consciousness is and it is likely that science will never have an answer let alone an approach (http://www.iep.utm.edu/hard-con/). So can we know that belief in our own consciousness is logical? Well, again, we can’t fully make that claim. Philosophically, explaining consciousness is a very ambiguous and difficult task. This was a surprise to me. When I started to write this post, I posited that consciousness was a metaphysical truth. What I didn't realize was how involved the arguments are concerning the nature of consciousness. As one philosopher wrote, "Explaining the nature of consciousness is one of the most important and perplexing areas of philosophy, but the concept is notoriously ambiguous." (http://www.iep.utm.edu/consciou/) The two main questions concerning consciousness is: How do I know that I am aware of myself (or how do I know that there are other minds)? and How is the conscious mental state related to the body? The major theories of how the conscious mental state relates to the body fall into one of two categories: Materialism (our consciousness is a physical thing) or Dualism (our consciousness exists outside of time and space). If you are up for the challenge, here are two articles from an online peer reviewed journal that discuss the two categories of consciousness: materialism (http://www.iep.utm.edu/consciou/) and dualism (http://www.iep.utm.edu/dualism/). The only thing that can be agreed upon at this point is that our consciousness relates to our perception of the world around us.
For a poignant look at this, here is another xkcd webcomic: http://xkcd.com/1163/ In the comic, the character on the right (commonly referred to as “Cueball” in the overall series arc) notes that he relies on his brain to understand the world but he does not understand how his brain works. Because of this, he’s not even sure if this is a problem. As long as his mind continues to operate the way it always has, Cueball can conclude that his mind is working normally. However, he has no way of knowing if this is how his mind is supposed to operate because he has nothing to compare it with.
So what does this have to do with whether or not God exists? As I stated in a previous post and in this post, the central belief to the Christian worldview is that God exists. This presupposition is immovable and is necessary for anyone to hold Christian beliefs. For our atheist friend, the central belief to their worldview is likely that the material world is all that exists. But how do they know the material world is real? By their perception of it. And how are they able to perceive it? By their consciousness. So the central belief of their worldview rests on a presupposition that cannot be proven to be true. This does not mean that their presupposition is false, it only means there is no way to confirm its truth either scientifically or empirically.
So in response to our atheist friend’s question, no, we cannot prove the existence of God via scientific means. However, this does not preclude the existence of God. As we have seen from above, it is not unreasonable to hold a belief that cannot be proven via scientifically or even philosophically. My goal is not to prove that God is logical; I want to show that God is the basis for logic. Using our atheist friend’s own tactic, we have shown that they hold a belief that contradicts their own stance (beliefs must be based on logic, reason, and empiricism). Apart from God, reality does not make sense and there is no reason for anything (John 1:1-3, Romans 1:20)
While this may give our atheist friend pause to think of a rebuttal, this will likely not cause him to become a Christian overnight. As I stated in my previous post: “we must understand that we can only influence them to consider all of the evidence available to them about the existence of God (Romans 1:18-20). The rest is up to the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s wisdom to them (1 Corinthians 1:24-25), to transform them (2 Corinthians 3:17-18), and to renew their minds so that they may know Him (Romans 12:1-2).”
But this is not the end, but far from it. Our atheist friend still has more questions for us and we still have more answers to work through.
“The natural man at bottom knows that he is the creature of God. He knows also that he is responsible to God. He knows that he should live to the glory of God. He knows that in all that he does he should stress that the field of reality which he investigates has the stamp of God’s ownership upon it. But he suppresses his knowledge of himself as he truly is. He is the man with the iron mask. A true method of apologetics must seek to tear off that iron mask.” – Cornelius Van Til, “The Defense of the Faith”
Blessings, Brian Ceely
P.S. If you are interested more in the topic of consciousness and Christianity, here are some follow up readings:
Michael Stevens of the YouTube channel, VSause, provides an interesting look into consciousness. He also provides a link to a play list of other videos about consciousness, mental disorders, and illusions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjfaoe847qQ
Alvin Plantiga is a brilliant philosopher and apologist. His seminal work, God and Other Minds, was written in 1960 and updated in 1990. In the book, he makes a rational appeal for the belief in God and addresses the problem of other minds.
There is a group that is arguing that consciousness is a field of quantum physics and thus can be proven physically. While I don’t agree with their conclusion, I find this to be a fascinating website. http://quantum-mind.co.uk/
-------
Brian Ceely
*Bio Coming Soon*
Excellent as usual.
ReplyDelete'Consciousness as a field of quantum physics' should be a hoot. Right up my ally. I'll be checkin' it out.