There is no scientific explanation for why matter comes together to create life; for nonliving matter to form living beings. For matter to become mind. If there is something more than matter in the effect, there must be something more than matter in the cause as well. Life begets life, and you cannot have life come from anything but life; something cannot give what it does not have so if something does not have life, it cannot give life.

There is more to life than matter, and because matter is not living, it cannot be the cause of life, so whatever the cause of life is, it must be living. It has to have a soul itself, because (by definition) the soul is the life of the body. Then we see that there is more than just “life” in a body, there are things that make up what “life” is. So there must be something that is the cause of its thoughts and emotions, its desires and allows it to reason and to choose. When you see that how can you think that all that “life” came out of inanimate matter? Why? Why should inanimate matter come together to create life, and all the consequential things that life brings? That sort of order requires a mind behind it, and if it does there must be some first being that initiated life — someone who put the universe in order. Life is not matter, it is souls and souls are not material, they’re spirits. Matter and spirit are two different things, and spirit does not come from matter.

@1 year ago with 7 notes
#matter #spirit #God #creation #philosophy #life #universe #science #soul #writing 

“And what is the object of my love? I asked the earth and it said: ‘It is not I.’ I asked all that is in it; they made the same confession (Job 28: 12 f.). I asked the sea, the deeps, the living creatures that creep, and they responded: ‘We are not your God, look beyond us.’ I asked the breezes which blow and the entire air with its inhabitants said: ‘Anaximenes was mistaken; I am not God.’ I asked heaven, sun, moon and stars; they said: ‘Nor are we the God whom you seek.’ And I said to all these things in my external environment: ‘Tell me of my God who you are not, tell me something about him.’ And with a great voice they cried out: ‘He made us’ (Ps. 99: 3). My question was the attention I gave to them, and their response was their beauty.

— Augustine, Confessions (10.6.9)

@1 year ago with 4 notes
#Augustine #Confessions #God #beauty #creation #world #external #internal #love #happines #life #ends 

There is no scientific explanation for why matter comes together to create life; for nonliving matter to form living beings. For matter to become mind. If there is something more than matter in the effect, there must be something more than matter in the cause as well. Life begets life, and you cannot have life come from anything but life; something cannot give what it does not have so if something does not have life, it cannot give life.

There is more to life than matter, and because matter is not living, it cannot be the cause of life, so whatever the cause of life is, it must be living. It has to have a soul itself, because (by definition) the soul is the life of the body. Then we see that there is more than just “life” in a body, there are things that make up what “life” is. So there must be something that is the cause of its thoughts and emotions, its desires and allows it to reason and to choose. When you see that how can you think that all that “life” came out of inanimate matter? Why? Why should inanimate matter come together to create life, and all the consequential things that life brings? That sort of order requires a mind behind it, and if it does there must be some first being that initiated life — someone who put the universe in order. Life is not matter, it is souls and souls are not material, they’re spirits. Matter and spirit are two different things, and spirit does not come from matter.

1 year ago
#matter #spirit #God #creation #philosophy #life #universe #science #soul #writing 

“And what is the object of my love? I asked the earth and it said: ‘It is not I.’ I asked all that is in it; they made the same confession (Job 28: 12 f.). I asked the sea, the deeps, the living creatures that creep, and they responded: ‘We are not your God, look beyond us.’ I asked the breezes which blow and the entire air with its inhabitants said: ‘Anaximenes was mistaken; I am not God.’ I asked heaven, sun, moon and stars; they said: ‘Nor are we the God whom you seek.’ And I said to all these things in my external environment: ‘Tell me of my God who you are not, tell me something about him.’ And with a great voice they cried out: ‘He made us’ (Ps. 99: 3). My question was the attention I gave to them, and their response was their beauty.

— Augustine, Confessions (10.6.9)

1 year ago
#Augustine #Confessions #God #beauty #creation #world #external #internal #love #happines #life #ends