Gordon H. Clark Quote of the Day: Descartes's Thinking Man Is Not a Machinie

Descartes had been willing enough to regard animals as unconscious machines.  Punch the right button and a yelp comes out.  But Descartes knew that he himself was not just a machine; he was a thinking being--Cogito ergo sum.  Thinking is something that machines cannot do;  and by this thinking, including willing, Descartes was able to alter, if not the constant quantity of motion in the universe, at least the direction of the motions around the pineal gland and so control his own conduct.  However, despite this intimate experience of thinking, a non-mechanical man in a mechanical universe results in an awkward dualism.  Spinoza, with his strong tendency toward unity, would not have a man as a kingdom within a  kingdom.  The laws of nature could permit of no exception.  Mechanical law must be inviolable.  Even Locke in a skeptical moment said that for all he knew a body might be able to think.  In which case a soul would be unnecessary.  Then French writer, La Mettrie (1709-1751), abolished spiritual principles in his book L'Homme Machine:

Dr. Gordon H. Clark.  Modern Philosophy.  The Works of Gordon Haddon Clark.  Volume 5.  (Unicoi:  Trinity Foundation, 2008).   Pp. 45-46.

[This quote can also be found in the three R's book, Religion, Reason, and Revelation, and in The Philosophy of Science and Belief in God.]

The mainstream media is constantly bombarding the masses with the view that man is simply a biological machine and that humans are basically products of an aeons long evolutionary process.  Kindness, we are told, is simply a result of brain chemistry.  It makes the person who does an act of kindness feel a certain good feeling because of a certain hormone in the brain.  So science apparently can demonstrate that kindness is not really a virtue given by God to humanity but rather kindness is a result of the evolution of human brains and brain chemistry.  Oxytocin supposedly is produced when someone observes someone else doing an act of kindness.  Maybe someone should have demonstrated an act of kindness prior to all the sin coming into the world and maybe Adam and Eve would not have rebelled?   (See:  Random Acts of Kindness).

The fact of the matter is that science cannot tell us why bodies fall or what gravity is.  Science can tell us how things happen and explain or describe what is observed but not why.  Science cannot tell us why humans can think but animals cannot think.  And what about artificial intelligence?  Obviously computers and machines can do logical and mathematical calculations and do algorithms.  But can machines think sentient thoughts or be self aware?  Can machines make actual volitional decisions or do machines simply follow a flow chart that is pre-programmed into the software?

This is another reason I oppose any political system based on godless secularism.  Without God and the Bible society and governments degenerate into tyranny, totalitarianism, and oppression.  The only basis for a democratic republic, freedom of religion, speech, and the press is the Christian worldview deduced from the Bible.

 

“But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?” (Genesis 20:4, KJV 1900)