The Axe at the Root of the Tree

Sharing Options

“A blind, purposeless and material process does not and cannot know that it is blind, or purposeless, or material. It cannot know anything. If thought is simply the froth on the waves of our brain activity, then one of the first things that thought loses is the ability to know that there is even such a thing as brain activity, or froth for that matter. If human argumentation is simply the epiphenomena that our brain chemistry produces, then there is absolutely no reason to trust human argumentation—including the arguments that urge us to believe that argumentation is simply the epiphenomena that our brain chemistry produces. If reason is simply what these chemicals do under these conditions and at this temperature, then we cannot know that such things as ‘chemicals’ exist, and we certainly cannot know about ‘conditions’ and ‘temperatures.’”

The Light From Behind the Sun, pp. 54-55