METAPHYSICS PART 3: THE SUPERNATURAL AND MATERIALISM
In the last post we learned that the "primacy of existence" view of reality is the only proper choice. The alternative is the "primacy of consciousness" which will always lead to the invalidation of the 3 axioms. We'll now examine the supernatural a little further in depth.
I have a feeling this post will be bad for business.
Ok, I don't actually see dead people,
thank you metaphysics!
THE SUPERNATURAL
The concept of supernatural means something that is "beyond nature". It describes things that aren't of the world we can experience with our senses, and things that have properties that are different than the rest of the world we experience. "Nature" is another word for existence, and as we've already learned, existence has identity as does everything in existence. Therefore, the supernatural would imply something that is somehow beyond existence, and thus beyond identity! The very notion of the supernatural shatters all the axioms to pieces, and thus our ability to form a rational view of reality. The most common form of the supernatural is the notion of God, so we'll start there.
Here is a brief list of the rational metaphysical arguments against God:
The first problem with God, is that there is an infinite regression that it leads to. If God created the universe, then what created God? And then what created that, and so on into infinity. A typical response to that would be along the lines of, "we're not able to understand God, we must just accept him." Christianity gets around this problem by having an "uncreated God". In other words, there is no rational explanation, only a supernatural one. The next problem, is that to create the world, God would need to have consciousness before existence. Since it's impossible to have consciousness before existence (that would invalidate the term), that's not in the realm of possibility. A God couldn't exist before existence, so then how did he become conscious?! He would be conscious of nothing, he would be...unconscious! Then, there's claim that God is "infinite". Infinity, in our world, is an imaginary thing, denoting only a potential that something could go on forever. Pertaining to an object, infinity is impossible. You can keep dividing a line into smaller and smaller pieces, but at the end there's always a specific number of pieces, never an infinite amount. In our reality, nothing can be infinite.
Finally, we are told that God can perform miracles. It's important to note that miracles aren't merely the unusual. Winning 20 hands of blackjack in a row would be unusual, but seeing Elvis Presley walk by in the casino would be a miracle! By their very definition, miracles would violate the law of identity and causality, and thus can't exist in a rational philosophy. Now, if Elvis Presley did show up, we might have a philosophic problem on our hands, but notice that most "miracles" people speak of are either unverifiable, or in the unusual category. Claims of miracles, infinity and primacy of consciousness are all things that can only be explained by leaving the knowable laws of philosophy, and delving into the supernatural realm using faith.
The concept of supernatural means something that is "beyond nature". It describes things that aren't of the world we can experience with our senses, and things that have properties that are different than the rest of the world we experience. "Nature" is another word for existence, and as we've already learned, existence has identity as does everything in existence. Therefore, the supernatural would imply something that is somehow beyond existence, and thus beyond identity! The very notion of the supernatural shatters all the axioms to pieces, and thus our ability to form a rational view of reality. The most common form of the supernatural is the notion of God, so we'll start there.
Here is a brief list of the rational metaphysical arguments against God:
The first problem with God, is that there is an infinite regression that it leads to. If God created the universe, then what created God? And then what created that, and so on into infinity. A typical response to that would be along the lines of, "we're not able to understand God, we must just accept him." Christianity gets around this problem by having an "uncreated God". In other words, there is no rational explanation, only a supernatural one. The next problem, is that to create the world, God would need to have consciousness before existence. Since it's impossible to have consciousness before existence (that would invalidate the term), that's not in the realm of possibility. A God couldn't exist before existence, so then how did he become conscious?! He would be conscious of nothing, he would be...unconscious! Then, there's claim that God is "infinite". Infinity, in our world, is an imaginary thing, denoting only a potential that something could go on forever. Pertaining to an object, infinity is impossible. You can keep dividing a line into smaller and smaller pieces, but at the end there's always a specific number of pieces, never an infinite amount. In our reality, nothing can be infinite.
Finally, we are told that God can perform miracles. It's important to note that miracles aren't merely the unusual. Winning 20 hands of blackjack in a row would be unusual, but seeing Elvis Presley walk by in the casino would be a miracle! By their very definition, miracles would violate the law of identity and causality, and thus can't exist in a rational philosophy. Now, if Elvis Presley did show up, we might have a philosophic problem on our hands, but notice that most "miracles" people speak of are either unverifiable, or in the unusual category. Claims of miracles, infinity and primacy of consciousness are all things that can only be explained by leaving the knowable laws of philosophy, and delving into the supernatural realm using faith.
There
is no argument for God that doesn't lead to the contradictions of all
the axioms. Accepting the notion of God means abandoning what we do
know and entering the realm of the unknowable. In essence, we're going
from what we know to be true (existence exists) to the unfathomable and
unknowable (consciousness preceding existence). If you want to travel
to the unknowable, go ahead, but understand there are repercussions
that will unavoidably pop up in the rest of your philosophy. The only
way to ponder the notion of a God is to abandon reason, leave the realm
of knowable existence, and rely instead on faith. The good news, is at
least most honest religions acknowledge that faith is the only means
by which they operate, and even wear it as a badge of honor.
Unfortunately, faith and emotion are not valid means of knowledge and
we'll get into why in Epistemology. If you have a rational view of
metaphysics, the question of "who created existence?" or "is there a
God?" isn't even valid, because these are questions that are
supernatural in nature, meaning they don't pertain to reality. The only
response is, "existence exists", and move on.
Of course, God isn't the only supernatural being people have thought up. It's amazing to see atheists or others who may say religion is stupid and irrational then conjure up some amazing beliefs of their own. Ghosts, demons, the Loch Ness Monster, Astrology, positive and negative "energies", psychics and superstitions, to name just a few. These all fall under the banner of the supernatural, and as such violate the law of identity. If there were such a thing as a ghost, then it would have identity, we could identify it with our senses, and it would become apart of "nature", thus ceasing to become supernatural. For a psychic to see into the future would require "primacy of consciousness" and thus obliterates that axiom. Despite the fact that some people insist or desperately want there to be the supernatural, none have ever been verified, and thus they require faith, or a "sixth sense" (which is a nonsensical term) in order to exist.
To many, it might seem that a rational view of metaphysics would make the world less exciting, interesting, and even purposeless. Nonsense! Personally, I find it comforting to not worry about ghost or demons, or think that I need a lucky charm to get through my day. Do I wish that there were a heaven and a benevolent God looking over us? I guess so, but just like with the baby wishing for the stuffed animal to make a sound, I know I can't wish things to be true. A rational philosophy takes what we know, which is existence exists, and goes from there. Fortunately, a rational view of existence still allows for two incredible features of humanity, emotions and creativity. These will be covered more in the other branches of philosophy, but these are the elements of reality that truly make the world an incredible and "magical" place. They give us things like airplanes, books, symphonies, happiness, love, and even a purpose for our lives, as we'll later see in ethics.
To many, it might seem that a rational view of metaphysics would make the world less exciting, interesting, and even purposeless. Nonsense! Personally, I find it comforting to not worry about ghost or demons, or think that I need a lucky charm to get through my day. Do I wish that there were a heaven and a benevolent God looking over us? I guess so, but just like with the baby wishing for the stuffed animal to make a sound, I know I can't wish things to be true. A rational philosophy takes what we know, which is existence exists, and goes from there. Fortunately, a rational view of existence still allows for two incredible features of humanity, emotions and creativity. These will be covered more in the other branches of philosophy, but these are the elements of reality that truly make the world an incredible and "magical" place. They give us things like airplanes, books, symphonies, happiness, love, and even a purpose for our lives, as we'll later see in ethics.
MATERIALISM
To be clear, a rational view of metaphysics, and the rejection of the supernatural does NOT lead to what's known as materialism, one of the most destructive and evil philosophies out there. The philosophers that put forth this line of thought include Hobbes, Marx and Skinner. Materialism champions nature, or existence, but denies the importance or even outright the concept of consciousness. In this view, the world is only a bunch of subatomic particles floating around the universe, and consciousness is viewed as more of a spiritual phenomenon that could be explained away by the laws of physics. In essence, materialism views man as a body without a mind. Our intelligence is just a result of subatomic particles dancing around, and is therefore "determined" like the rest of the physical universe. Because consciousness can't be put in a test tube and measured, it doesn't really exist. When this view of metaphysics is taken to the political realm, it tends to limit individualism and advocates collectivism, often leading to ideas like Communism, Fascism, genocide and eugenics.
To be clear, a rational view of metaphysics, and the rejection of the supernatural does NOT lead to what's known as materialism, one of the most destructive and evil philosophies out there. The philosophers that put forth this line of thought include Hobbes, Marx and Skinner. Materialism champions nature, or existence, but denies the importance or even outright the concept of consciousness. In this view, the world is only a bunch of subatomic particles floating around the universe, and consciousness is viewed as more of a spiritual phenomenon that could be explained away by the laws of physics. In essence, materialism views man as a body without a mind. Our intelligence is just a result of subatomic particles dancing around, and is therefore "determined" like the rest of the physical universe. Because consciousness can't be put in a test tube and measured, it doesn't really exist. When this view of metaphysics is taken to the political realm, it tends to limit individualism and advocates collectivism, often leading to ideas like Communism, Fascism, genocide and eugenics.
The essential error in this, is that materialists, who may very well love science, want to try to study and understand philosophy by the means of the physical sciences. This is a fallacy, as our means of knowledge as humans is reason, not science (more on that in epistemology). Science is a result of our ability to reason, it can never explain reason itself. In fact, it took centuries of philosophical thought just to properly validate the scientific method. We wouldn't study history by using chemistry, or study psychology by using economics. Studying philosophy by the means of physics is just as wrong. Just because we can't weigh or put consciousness in a test tube doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Even if someday we could scientifically explain consciousness or even create a robot with consciousness, it doesn't change the meaning of it. Consciousness is the faculty to perceive existence, and ironically, if you try to prove that consciousness doesn't exist, you've just shown that it does! Philosophy needs to be studied by means of philosophy. However, remember the important lesson from Part 1; that contradictions can't exist in reality. If you ever see anything in your philosophy that is contradicted by science, or psychology, economics, etc. (assuming those fields were applied properly) then that should be a red flag telling you you've made an error somewhere. Always check your premises, and be relentless in rooting out the error. That is perhaps the most valuable lesson in all of metaphysics.
Congratulations, you have finished Metaphysics! Obviously, whole books could be written on just this subject, and you're encouraged to learn more on your own, but these are some of the essential points in order to start a journey toward a rational philosophy on life. If it hasn't sunk in, re-read the posts if need be. Next up is Epistemology, where we answer how we know things, and if we can rely on our knowledge. First, you deserve to relax and have a beer, as apparently that's what philosophers do!
Congratulations, you have finished Metaphysics! Obviously, whole books could be written on just this subject, and you're encouraged to learn more on your own, but these are some of the essential points in order to start a journey toward a rational philosophy on life. If it hasn't sunk in, re-read the posts if need be. Next up is Epistemology, where we answer how we know things, and if we can rely on our knowledge. First, you deserve to relax and have a beer, as apparently that's what philosophers do!