By Mike Robinson
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| Everything proves God exists, even repaired boats |
Enduring
Personal Identity Requires God
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness” (Genesis 1:26).
If the world were not as scripture says it is, if the natural man’s
knowledge were not actually rooted in the creation and providence of God, then
there would be no knowledge. …The non-Christians have made and now make
discoveries about the state of the universe simply because the universe is what
Christ says it is. The unbelieving scientist borrows or steals the Christian
principle of creation and providence every time he says that an “explanation”
is possible, for he knows he cannot account for an “explanation” on his own.
The nonbeliever cannot account for the
intelligibility of various things, even his own persistent personal identity.
When someone says, “I’m Ernie,” and means that he is the same “Ernie” as the
person in his high school yearbook named “Ernie,” he is unknowingly borrowing
from the theistic worldview. Theism furnishes a reason one can be confident we
are who we are. Our physical bodies change every moment and every day. Human
beings lose one-sixtieth of an ounce of respiratory moisture and sweat every
minute; there is a net loss every second, meaning that humans physically change
every moment. Hence, under a pure materialist worldview, I am not the same
person I was a second ago. The skin replaces itself once a month. The stomach
lining is replaced every five days. The cells in the liver are replaced every
six weeks, and the skeleton about every three months. The body of every human
being changes constantly. The cells of a human body are in a constant state of
flux and are always being modified. In one year the average person has
ninety-eight percent of his atoms exchanged for new ones. In seven years’ time
every atom in a person’s body has been replaced. Thus the person is a new and
completely different being within the worldview of the firm materialist atheist
(faster if you visit the dentist frequently).
The atheistic materialist affirms that only the material world exists,
claiming that nothing spiritual or immaterial exists. After seven years
everyone is a different person. So the atheist cannot account for personal
identity. By his standard of an unalloyed materialist world, everyone is a
different person after seven years, because every atom has been replaced by a
new one.
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| Since all material things change, materialistic atheism is impossible |
The rigid materialist, under his worldview, would not be married to the
same woman he married nine years ago. They are totally different physically,
due to the complete replacement of bodily atoms every seven years. If he has a
child over the age of seven, then by the atheist’s standard he is not the same
child who was born to them. Therefore, if he wanted to be consistent in his
worldview, he should throw away all baby pictures along with his wedding album.
Every molecule in his body has changed. And in a strict materialist world, he
is a different person. But he will not throw away his baby pictures or his
wedding album, because he is basing much of his life on the truth of theism.
The atheist husband still hugs his wife without being unfaithful to her. He
will still take his kid to the park and buy him a balloon. But he will not buy
the stranger who is next to him a balloon. The atheist knows that his child is
the same child who was born to him years before. He lives much of his life on
the truth that the Creator exists. Can the information in one’s DNA be the basis for personal identity? No, since
twins have the same DNA but they
are two different individuals. Additionally, even though it is highly
improbable, two or more distinct men can have the same DNA
and yet remain totally different individuals.
Sartre … described his recent exposure to the philosophy of
Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and the other “phenomenologists” delving into
questions of experience and consciousness: “What is it for a thing to be? What
does it mean to say that you yourself are?” Pointing at one of the apricot
concoctions, Aron announced: “If you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about
this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!” (Sara Bakewell).
Bob and the Boat
A man named Bob builds a
fishing boat and names it Dolly Mae. A couple of years later he replaces all
the wood because the color is fading. He throws the wood in a pile on the side
yard. Later Bob replaces all the nails and metal binders with new ones. He
tosses them in the side yard with the wood. His friend sees the wood and nails
and asks Bob if he can have them to build a canoe. Bob lets him have them, and
the friend builds a canoe with all the wood, nails, and metal from the boat.
Which vessel should be named Dolly Mae? This
paradox exposes the problem that atheists have with human identity. The first
boat has none of its original parts—the canoe has them all, but with a
different shape. Hence, neither vehicle is the original; they have both
changed. The first has changed in its physical parts and the second in its
shape and design.
In the strict materialist view of life, humans
who lose body parts to disease or accidents are not the same people they were
before the loss. The Christian professes that man is made in God’s image. We
all have what scholars have called sensus deitatis, a sense of God or
deity. We know who we are by looking at God and His revelation. God’s word
announces who we are—our unchanging personal identity. Humans have a personal
identity that transcends the physical world. Christians can hold their
ten-year-old child’s hand and hug their grandparents and remain consistent
within their own worldview. When the anti-theist performs these types of caring
actions towards his loved ones, he is being inconsistent with his ultimate
precommitments.
The atheist knows that men have souls; and
although they deny this obvious truth, they live as though it were true. If
personal identity did not have an immaterial aspect, anyone who had lost a
couple of limbs in an accident, had his skin burned off in a fire, or lost a
couple of organs would not be the same person. His identity would change in a
materialist’s worldview. Suppose a man lost all his skin due to a chemical
accident. That same man had to have his kidneys replaced due to an adverse
reaction to the medication. He got so depressed; he drank in excess and had to
receive a new liver. One day, he was so despondent that he hurled himself out
of his third-story window and lost all his limbs. New technology provided him
with new limbs, new organs, and new skin. With almost his entire physical body
replaced, is he still his mother’s son? Is he still his wife’s husband? Is he
still the father of his little girl? Is he still the same man? The answer is
yes—yes because he has a spirit and he is a soul. He is more than the sum of
his physical parts; he is a human being created in the image of God.
With the element determining intrinsic nature in
mind, it would appear that the atheist’s worldview, a human being
is just a bipedal blob of water and protein. There is no moral reason for the
world to esteem a human being as anything more important than a bumblebee.
Nevertheless, we see atheists affirming the dignity and value of man; when they
do this they are living contrary to their own worldview.
Do the
Crime and Do the Time?
To reject the notion that
man has a spirit has implications for the penal system as well. According to
the atheist’s worldview, all that exists is the material world; if this were
true, after seven years the state should let all murderers out of prison.
Remember that they have had all their atoms replaced by new ones. Therefore,
they are now different people, according to the materialist worldview of
atheism. The materialistic atheist should not kiss his wife goodbye if they
have been married for over seven years. Materially speaking, they are totally
different people, so he is not kissing the same woman he married. He should not
choose to buy his nine-year old son an ice cream in preference to the stranger
next to him. To live consistently within a firm materialist philosophy is
unreasonable and bewildering.
We sip champagne on our tenth anniversary
with our spouses and buy birthday presents for our twelve-year-old daughter
because the Christian worldview is true; it is impossible for it not to be.
In Christ are hidden all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).
If there were no God, one
could not ever say, “I do not believe in God.” One could not say, “I,” because
there would be no interminable “I.” In principle one could not make any
assertion at all; only if God exists can one account for self-identity and
justify any personal assertion. It is not just that Christianity makes better
sense in describing human experience than atheism; it is the truth condition
for making sense out of human understanding.
Who is the source of all truth, order,
logic, mathematics, goodness, beauty, and philosophy? Bahnsen put it well when
he said:
The Christian offers the self-attesting Christ to
the world as the only foundation upon which a man must stand to give any “reasons”
for anything at all. The whole notion of “giving reasons” is completely
destroyed by any ontology other than the Christian one. The Christian claims
that only after accepting the Biblical scheme of things will any man be able to
understand and account for his own rationality.
For more see my book Reality and the Folly of Atheism HERE on Amazon
