subject: Spiritualism vs Materialism : Either...Or [print this page] Spiritualism vs Materialism : Either...Or
Spiritualism versus Materialism
The Enigma of the Universe
Justifications concerning the sense of the existence of man are multiple and diversified. The relations between man and the universe are complex and lead to various explanation.
Here we advance the idea that:
"The fact that the universe, until today, remains an enigma, ourselves being included in this enigma, and that ultimate knowledge' remains inaccessible, denotes a significant phenomenon".
Atomists-Mechanicists versus Vitalists-Finalists
The controversy between the atomists-mechanicists-
reductionalists arguments proclaimed by scientists and the arguments of the causalists-vitalists-finalists, re open to non-cognitive speculative knowledge.
Causal Explanation
To explain the enigma of man's existence a hypothesis of an external, or internal, finality, a cause-creator, emerges as a probability. This confronts man with two options: either to believe or not to believe in this causal finality. Man has the freedom and the will to deliberate his choice between the two options. He has a well defined duration of a life-cycle to do so.
Freedom of Choice
Man has the free choice as a well the intelligible decision, which is free and voluntarily binding
on every individual. This choice catalyses human life towards a precise goal. The evidence that we attempted to advance, in support of the factuality of our notion of the choice, can be empirically verified. Every individual, adult and sane, is constrained to deliberate his choice before his death.
Man is equipped with innate faculties to think and to believe. By realizing that knowledge, as it is in its present state, does not lead to ultimate knowledge', being knowledge of the inaccessible origin, cause, reason of being, presence and finality of everything, he is constrained to take a decision of
choice according to his personal convictions.
God: Personal Convictions
Although the principle thesis of monotheistic religions is "God is", the choice remains always free and voluntary in these doctrines.
Should the sense of life be considered according to the perspective of the choice then, knowledge resulting from the forced confrontation between man and Universe, can take another dimension in terms of meaning of finality.
Ultimate Knowledge
The individual, in this case, must have free access to all means of knowledge, and to have freedom and free will as well as the responsibility necessary to deliberate his ultimate choice'.
Society will then be oriented in this precise directionality and the final goal of education prepares man for such an important decision.
We maintain that, in such a perspective, man must have his dignity as well as his value as a human being by determining his own choice and hence be liberated of all influences and pressures practiced every day throughout time.
We assume that the purpose of man's existence is, "to look into the universe and decide whether or not there is a God."
Although the choice between the two options is subject to empirical verification the reason of choosing, incumbent, remains itself a mystery.
We question the relation between the three enigmas -man, universe and God- from a hazardous point of view indicating certain "directionality" towards specific "finality".
Universality of Enigma
The probability of such a postulate remains subject to the universal enigma of knowledge itself.
If man and the universe are two enigmas can knowledge provide solutions?
