Did you know that all of the philosophy, religion and science the world has ever produced is really a conflict between
2 different basic premises?
As a result of accepting one OR the other, every person who has ever lived has embraced one of two opposites as a way of life!
How you see truth, man, the universe, purpose, destiny--depends on which side of the two you accept and believe.
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What are the two premises and what do they mean for your life?
First comes first
So, which came first--was it things or thought? Material universe or a mind floating in nothing?
Existence or Consciousness--which?
The question of "Which Came First" is the primary question.
Philosophers call it PRIMACY (which came first?)
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If you heard two philosophers arguing about this what would you hear?
Primacy of Conscious
Primacy of Existence
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It makes no difference what you call it. The argument is real and ongoing.
For example, a religious person will insist that CONSCIOUSNESS (namely: God) was first.
Further, since they accept Primacy of Consciousness, nothing real is possible to them without the act of God's conscious will.
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On the other hand, many scientists, physicists, humanists, agnostics, atheists, materialists take the other side of the question.
Primcay of Existence means there was STUFF before there were any minds capable of thinking or consciousness.
Evolution is rooted in Primacy of Existence=we humans are the result of interaction between stuff and other stuff withOUT conscious direction.
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Religious people, as a result of accepting the Primacy of Consciousness, perceive a mode of being superior to our existence on this earth. These people easily accept a mysterious spirit-world and call it “another dimension,” which consists of denying dimensions.You cannot measure spirit, you see.
What identity are they able to give to their superior spirit realm?
They keep telling you what it is not, but never tell you what it is.
All the proponents of primacy of consciousness offer identifications consisting of negating:
God is that which no human mind can know, they say—and proceed to demand that you consider it knowledge—God is non-man, heaven is non-earth, soul is non-body, virtue is non-profit, A is non-A, perception is non-sensory, knowledge is non-reason. Their definitions are not acts of defining, but of wiping out material considerations.
Spirit is, well, spiritual, you see.
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Why not examine what you have to swallow as a person who accepts Primacy of Consciousness?
For instance, God is infinite. Nothing can be infinite, according to the Law of Identity.
Everything is what it is, and nothing else. It is limited in its qualities and in its quantity: it is this much, and no more. “Infinite” as applied to quantity does not mean “very large”: it means “larger than any specific quantity.” That means: no specific quantity—i.e., a quantity without identity. This is prohibited by the Law of Identity.
Is God the creator of the universe? There can be no creation of something out of nothing. There is no nothing.
Is God omnipotent? Can he do anything? Entities can act only in accordance with their natures; nothing can make them violate their natures . . .
“God” as traditionally defined is a systematic contradiction of every valid metaphysical principle. The point is wider than just the Judeo-Christian concept of God. No argument will get you from this world to a supernatural world. No reason will lead you to a world contradicting this one. No method of inference will enable you to leap from existence to a “super-existence.”
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On the other hand--if you accept Primacy of Existence you have to accept human consciousness is the result of stuff interacting with other stuff.
The implication is man is no different (except consciously and rationally) from the stuff of which he is made.
Man becomes a thing which transcends his own material parts.
Such a man, though transcending mere stuff--still goes out of conscious existence and returns to the elements from which he is made.
Death is the ultimate proof of man's material existence.
DOES IT SURPRISE ANY OF US MAN MOSTLY CHOOSES TO DENY THIS ULTIMATE END?