Is man just a pile of aroms?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Linusthe2nd
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Linusthe2nd

Guest
Yes there really are people who believe that, I know its hard to believe, but its true. God wanted to make a material world, he wanted to make men, animals, and inanimate materials. What was he supposed to make them of if not atoms, molecules, and genetic material? So along comes our materialist or naturalist or mechanist and declares that nothing exists except the afore mentioned particles and components. What they fail to notice is that without man, animals, vegatation, minerals, individual existing natures and substances, the world has absolutely no meaning, truth, or significance.

Yes indeed. Men have a human nature, a body and an intellecutal soul. And the atoms, molecules, genes which serve as his constituent matter are what God used to make men. They, all together, mixed and combined is a specific way, constitute the particular matter which God determined was suited to the kind of soul he was going to unite with the bodies of men. So man is a specific substance, a specific nature which just happens to have a body constructed the way and out of the materials God deemed best. And that is the total significance of man’s material parts, they are suited to the nature of man, they serve the purposes of his nature. And thus they serve God’s purposes.

strangenotions.com/body-soul-and-the-mindbrain-question/

Linus2nd
 
Is man just a pile of atoms?
No, there are other elements involved besides atoms, such as electrons and other leptons, neutrons, protons, quarks and strings, and more. Further the atoms are not organized in a pile. There is a very detailed and involved structure involved in chemical and biological combinations which are not appropriately labelled as a pile.
 
It gets even worse. Imagine looking at our brain at a super super microscopic level: It’s simply a heap of quarks and electrons.
Of course, arranged in a very specific way, representing the most complex structure in the universe (as far as we know).

As Christians we also know that we are endowed with an immortal soul. But the body, yes, it’s just a heap of atoms (quarks and electrons, if you look a bit closer).
 
Tomdstone said:
Is man just a pile of atoms?
No, there are other elements involved besides atoms, such as electrons and other leptons, neutrons, protons, quarks and strings, and more. Further the atoms are not organized in a pile. There is a very detailed and involved structure involved in chemical and biological combinations which are not appropriately labelled as a pile.
Click to expand...
O.K. but is that all a man is? Did you read the article? It explains why man or anything else is not just a collection of atoms and sub-atomic particles.

Linus2nd
 
Hans_W said:
It gets even worse. Imagine looking at our brain at a super super microscopic level: It’s simply a heap of quarks and electrons.
Of course, arranged in a very specific way, representing the most complex structure in the universe (as far as we know).

As Christians we also know that we are endowed with an immortal soul. But the body, yes, it’s just a heap of atoms (quarks and electrons, if you look a bit closer).
Click to expand...
The author argues much differently. He argues that the soul organizes and directs the matter of the body for the development and good of the person.

Linus2nd
 
Linusthe2nd said:
O.K. but is that all a man is? Did you read the article? It explains why man or anything else is not just a collection of atoms and sub-atomic particles.

Linus2nd
Click to expand...
Also, why, uniquely it appears, does humanity amongst all the animals have an awareness of good and evil? Something that lifts us from the amoral to the moral; a state that takes us beyond the mere utility of nature?
 
I don’t think we need to rely on natures and substances to get meaning truth and signifigance. I also think that the mind and personality is an emergent property of the brain; there is pretty good evidence that this is the case.
However I don’t think that a human person is just their mereological atoms.
 
In other words, if you could precisely manipulate the configuration of various atoms and sub-atomic particles, could you re-create everything that constitutes a human? I think the answer is ‘yes’.
 
Is man just a pile of atoms?

No, but sadly, mankind is just a pile of Adams!

Peace and all good!
 
Neofight said:
. . . mankind is just a pile of Adams! . . .
Click to expand...
😃

Reductionists, though. may be even funnier.
To Mr. Materialist out there, imagine me laughing at you, how does that feel?
And, who, by the way, is feeling it?
Just a bunch of leptons etc right? Gimme a break.
 
Mount_Carmel said:
Also, why, uniquely it appears, does humanity amongst all the animals have an awareness of good and evil?
Click to expand...
Not sure. Don’t many dogs learn that it is evil to do your business on the carpet floor of your house.
 
Tomdstone said:
Not sure. Don’t many dogs learn that it is evil to do your business on the carpet floor of your house.
Click to expand...
No, dog’s do not learn what is evil. They learn what feels good and what does not and adapt their behaviors according. They make no moral judgments.
 
Yes
Source: am a pile of atoms.

Computers are not computers because of the software they run, man is not man because of some special favors.

A computer remains a computer even if I delete it’s operating system.

A man remains a man even if God stripped him of his purposes, meanings, or significance.
 
Aloysium said:
😃

Reductionists, though. may be even funnier.
To Mr. Materialist out there, imagine me laughing at you, how does that feel?
And, who, by the way, is feeling it?
Just a bunch of leptons etc right? Gimme a break.
Click to expand...
I am reporting this post.
It is offensive and uninformative, and in the end it is simply bullying.
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Did you read the link? Here is part 2: strangenotions.com/why-materialism-and-dualism-both-fail-to-explain-your-mind/

Linus2nd
Click to expand...
Stop with the links to defend your position. You clearly can’t do it without them. And you assume that simply reading the link posted will make everything so clear.

We have read it all. And when I say all, most of us have gone beyond what you have here by simply clicking on a link.

Don’t assume you know who your reader is.
Don’t belittle people that way.
Engage them in discussion and know how to do that.
This is, after all the Philosophy forum
Not the back fence.
 
He or she can not even spell the Title to the post correctly. He or she used aroms, when I assume they intended atoms.
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Yes there really are people who believe that, I know its hard to believe, but its true. God wanted to make a material world, he wanted to make men, animals, and inanimate materials. What was he supposed to make them of if not atoms, molecules, and genetic material? So along comes our materialist or naturalist or mechanist and declares that nothing exists except the afore mentioned particles and components. What they fail to notice is that without man, animals, vegatation, minerals, individual existing natures and substances, the world has absolutely no meaning, truth, or significance.
Click to expand...
There might be someone somewhere who is so mentally deranged that when looking at his baby daughter, he instead sees a bag of chemicals, but I doubt any materialist philosopher could see his child that way. Seems more likely that the phrase “pile of atoms” was made up by opponents as an attempt at mocking a philosophy they don’t like. (Anyhow, as the body is mostly water, shouldn’t it have been a puddle of atoms?)

Also, naughty materialists did a pincer movement on the OP blogger while he wasn’t looking. He says materialists stupidly only believe in matter, whereas Aristotelians intelligently believe in matter plus form. The only problem being that materialists went one better by coming up with string theory, in which there is no matter, only form.

So the issue seems to be about teleology rather than matter and/or form.
 
Linusthe2nd said:
The author argues much differently. He argues that the soul organizes and directs the matter of the body for the development and good of the person.

Linus2nd
Click to expand...
I don’t think the soul, if there is such a thing, can actually physically affect the body. Biologists seem to be in agreement that chemical processes are sufficient for the body to take on its shape and move.

If the soul were to physically affect the body (by physically organizing and directing the matter within it), we would see violations in the usual chemical laws, and so far as I’m aware, these haven’t been observed.
 
Linusthe2nd said:
Did you read the link? Here is part 2: strangenotions.com/why-materialism-and-dualism-both-fail-to-explain-your-mind/

Linus2nd
Click to expand...
Man is still man, even when stripped of his mental abilities. Or do you perhaps support euthanasia for people who are in hopeless comas?

The non-human animals are distinct from one another, even without reference to their abilities. We would not somehow immediately become indistinguishable from all the other animals if we lost our intellect.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top