The Sum of The Parts

The materialist has a neat enough worldview – a closed-system of sorts. The physical world is observable, and only the observable need be explainable.

We are made of stuff, and stuff is the cause of all we are and have and feel and do. From sexual hormones to memory pathways, synapses in the brain, or the assertion that ‘love’ is no more (and no less) than a chemical reaction. We are pieces and players in a complex, intimate, intricate, whirring machine of life. All the atomic bomb power of the core of a star, and the subatomic incremental growth in the formation of a flower, it’s all matter, it’s all material.

Piece by piece we trace our form, our movement, our being and purpose to bits of stuff; things, and bits of things. I am (however many million or billion) bits of matter and electricity. A tapestry. A combination of small things together to be bigger things. Simple things combining to be complex things.

In the materialist universe we have all the parts, now we get to watch what they do.

And somehow all those bits of stuff got around to organizing themselves into battalions of objects, swathes of nouns, categories of substance. Hierarchies, tribes, cultures. The stuff functioned at a higher and higher level, even to the point of making things who made theories about things.

Some of the stuff, when you combined it all in a certain way had more value than other combinations. Some minerals held more inherent capital, and some of the breathing beings even emanated a ‘dignity’. Not a dignity of beauty necessarily, but some silent nobility that made it very important to keep the bits of stuff that made blood inside the bits of stuff that made them.

It was one thing to disassemble a certain group of bits, but altogether more serious to dismantle another set.

Which is probably where the materialist runs into trouble. For all the explanatory power of this closed-set of observation (the triumph of modernist science!), when it comes to questions of a non-physical mind the picture blurs slightly out of focus.

What can matter say for the consciousness of man? Are his creative pursuits, complex philosophies, expressions of music, art, beauty, virtue of kindness and self sacrifice, are his very wrestles with his own ontology and mortality just a glitch in the machine? Are our minds simply deterministic light shows playing out a precise set of random collisions, put in motion by natural laws and pre-existent matter?

What does the materialist have to say of morality? The precision of the law court, weighing motives and actions, taking into consideration the value of human life. The millisecond of a gunshot that merits decades of exile. Or at a more basic level, the compass I have in my very bones that doesn’t seem to contribute to evolutionary ‘progress’ or come from the milieu of my childhood, but just prompts and guides me towards some sense of ‘right’. What is right? What is good? What is true? Is any one electron more ethical than another?

Or purpose, the goal of all these collision, the result of all these accidents. What is the definition of progress? Where is the finish line for all these agonizingly real moments of existence? When we get down to it, for all the explanatory power of molecular biology, we cannot ascertain the ‘ought’ from the ‘is’.

At the end of it all, the materialist can only explain these things by trying to stand on his own shoulders. An argument that uses the aching philosophical intelligence of the human soul to explain why he need not question anything or expect explanation. And at the moment this theory makes ‘sense’ to the mind, the question resets as to why we are so maddeningly driven in a pursuit of sense to begin with.

It is very rare to find a functional materialist - one whose beliefs translate consistently from the armchair to the wheelchair, from the funeral service to the wedding ceremony. Or in their sense of self, the quietly held, unarticulated belief he is more than the sum of his parts, that his raison d'être is more than that of the soil he stands on, it has to be.

For the one who limits their reality to the physical universe there is a simplicity of explanation, but it is at the cost of those invisible realities that are closest to the heart of who and what we are. The price of all this ‘clarity’ is the rejection of things most fundamental to us, more than that, most precious, even sacred.

It is the theist who can admit they stands on another’s shoulders, who is not afraid of the ghost in the machine. The theist takes the materialistic demand to only consider what ‘is’, but widens it to allow consideration for things we know to truly exists, without arbitrarily limiting that category to visible or material things. Even when starting from within the system, we encounter deep realities that demand an explanation beyond the system.

As David Bentley Hart articulates it, “an absolutely convinced atheist, it often seems to me, is simply someone who has failed to notice something very obvious—or, rather, failed to notice a great many very obvious things.”

new language

i thought about my friend sara learning german for her mission trip and my sister and brother-in-law learning spanish in chile. i thought about how strange it is to progress in those stages of understanding, stages of being able to be who you are in another language, say your opinions, express your feelings, to be in sync.

i thought that to be a citizen of another country is much the same. and i thought about how we are citizens of a heavenly country, and so we belong to a new culture. and it makes sense that we progress in stages to fit into that language and culture too. we grow in small and frustrating increments. some days we feel fluent and some days we feel out of place and defeated, but we keep growing, settling and learning. over time we live our lives in a new way, in a new culture. we are ourselves within the confines of perfection; we are who we have always been but new. our bodies and tongues and minds slowly sync in with the native people of a world of full-strength beauty and full-strength peace and justice and joy. that's what this life is; a transition from speaking lies to truth, a shift from being shadows to being citizens of the day.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, ” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. 

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you"

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! 

non-fiction

We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

reading

i have sometimes not enjoyed reading the bible
i have sometimes found it difficult and hard

but i have never once regretted doing it. ever.

He is coming back again

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

beginnings

how many dominos need to fall for it to be considered ‘the domino effect’? surely just one has to hit the other, surely the very first moment is as much a part of things at the last moment or the middle. the middle is more exciting but it’s not like the first 100 are preparatory and the last 10 are an optional conclusion. every connection in the domino set up is a part of that event, they’re just arranged in different places. in fact, the first few connections are essential to there being any later on.