Argument On Lucifer

"The Problem of Pain."

We might as well join in the argument again. It is always there for us. Addressing the Christian Peter Berg, the unnamed first person narrator says:

"'...if I did suppose a, well, a spiritual principle or something is behind the universe...'" (p. 110)

For present purposes, we can stop him there. He goes on to argue that whatever "made" the universe cannot be understood within a single dogma but I want for now just to focus on that phrase, "...spiritual principle...," leaving out the "...or something..."

First, a principle is an abstraction, not a concrete reality. A red object is a concrete instantiation of many properties - e.g., it has a specific size and shape as well as a colour - whereas redness is an abstraction from many objects, existing only as a concept in our minds (although Plato would disagree). The most basic reality which explains the observed universe and which therefore pre-existed human minds must be a concrete reality. Virtual particles and quantum fluctuations in a vacuum do not seem very "concrete." However, "concrete" in this sense does not mean solid, tangible and impenetrable. It refers only to a reality that exists independently of consciousness and that we can think about by abstracting its properties from it. What those properties are is an empirical question and they are bound to differ from the properties of the objects of familiar perception.

Secondly, "spiritual" can only mean "of consciousness." The evidence is that some organisms have become conscious and that, before they did that, only unconscious forces and processes were at work. Gravity, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces, quantum interactions, entropy and natural selection are all unconscious.

Logically, consciousness is a relationship between a subject and an object. Self is recognized as such only by contrast with other. Sensory deprivation plus total amnesia - which is what I expect after death - would be identical with unconsciousness. Thus, a single entity pre-existing cosmic differentiation would not be capable of consciousness and therefore would not be "spiritual."