If Madonna Is Right...

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On her 1984 album, Like A Virgin", Madonna introduced a song called "Material Girl" in which she claimed that she was simply a "material girl living in a material world". If her statements are true, there are many implications than can be drawn from it. Let's simply look at a few of them.

Rocks Do What Rocks Do

In the picture above, you see a rock. It is simply a rock. It is no more than a rock. It materially exists as a rock. It will always be a rock.

Rocks have no morals. Rocks have no values. You can call rocks good or evil, but they are nothing but rocks until you use them for a specific or certain purpose. Rocks have no value until someone, with a sense of values, ascribes values to them. In fact rocks have no thoughts nor do they have a mind. Rocks don't kill people, people kill people.

What makes one think that this rock or any rock will one day, over eons of time, and environmental pressure, develop DNA, gain consciousness, become self aware, gain a sense of values, start to think, develop a moral "ought" and ultimately make moral decisions, (settle down and have other, "little rocks") and further formulate opinions regarding abstract concepts such as logic, math and science?

Is that even what rocks do? Do rocks become moral agents? Do rocks develop objective moral values? If rocks exist eternally, do they have transcendent values? If they do, how do we know they do? Have they ever communicated such to us? Most of all, where did all that "rock knowledge" and information come from?  

The Study Of A Rock

Petrology is the official name for the study of rocks. However, no rock is ever studied for any of the things I name in this blog. It would be a ridiculous notion to do so. It would be an even more ridiculous notion to believe that time and environmental pressures would change that at some point. One day, after a long process of erosion, rocks may turn to sand or even possibly dust, but the same basic material that they are now will always be even in the sum of its parts. 

Where is science in all of this and what does it tell us? Do rocks have values? Are rock values knowable? Are their values observable and or testable? Do their values lead to higher forms of thinking and intellect?   

 

Carl Sagan

Certainly rocks exist. The late atheist Carl Sagan proclaimed:

"The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be." ~ Sagan, "Cosmos" Pg. 4, 1980

But is that true? Based on what we know know about the "material" of the cosmos, can it possibly be true for all the reasons and even more that I've named above? If there was only cosmos, if all that there will ever be is cosmos, then there must be millions of moral rocks someplace out there. But there is a problem:

Rocks Don't Have Values, Certainly Not Transcendent Ones.

What I have set forth in this post has been very much tongue and cheek for those who approach life in a rational and reasonable manner considering the possibility that given the complexity of life, that we must of a certainty be more than purely material beings in our existence. The fact we are more than material is easily seen by our ability to communicate, think, have and share memories and reason. We have immaterial parts of our being such as mind and consciousness, which are not accounted for under a purely materialistic construct.

Luke 19:39-40 ~ "39-And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. 40-And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."

Those of us who are and have been enlightened, know that a rock can do nothing on it's own or nothing without what we know as the intervention of the supernatural power of God. 

Genesis 2:7 ~ "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." 

When God formed man of the dust of the ground, man was nothing more than the lifeless and mindless material from which he had been formed. He was shaped into a design, but that design had greater dimensional ability and capacity than the material from which he had come. When God breathed ( נָפַח -naphach - blow) the breath (נְשָׁמָה  neshamah) into man, at that point man became a living soul (חָי   

נָ֫פֶשׁ  chay nephesh) This living soul, that did not exist previously, consisted of certain attributes from God. These attributes and values were called "image" ( צלֶם tselem- form) and "likeness" (דְּמוּת demuth-similitude). That form and similitude included love, compassion, anger, justice righteousness and morality and most importantly, freewill. In part we can identify the attributes of God by assessing what attributes that we have been given. We can also look itnto the mind of God and determine what values are higher by looking at the values that we perceive to be higher values.

Rocks have no sense of self sacrifice, nor do they have a sense of giving. They are morally neutral. On the other hand, among mankind, when given the worst possible set of circumstances, moral neutrality isn't a virtue. No matter where you find man, and no matter what he knows, higer values always include, love, self sacrifice, equity and justice. 

The determinism of materialm was done away with, within man.  Rocks are not and cannot be held responsible for anything they do, or anything they neglect to do  (if there is such a thing) However, man is unusual and totally different than the rocks. He can be held responsible, has a moral "ought" (under most rationalles) and can set forth and follow values and value systems that not only benefit his existence, but als the existence of others.

Man's plight is to walk on rocks and shape rocks into things that are useful to himself and other like himself. Rocks have no such capacity or ability. Unfortunately, man has lowered himself to the status of rocks, reverting himself back to a place that is ultimately foriegn even to himself.     

Boy...You Must Be Dumb As A Box Of Rocks!

Being dumb as as "box of rocks"...Well a rock asks no questions. Certainly a box of them would be silent also. Neither would they provide answers to anything asked of them. The problem is, not the rock or rocks. The problem is the person that thinks that a rock or a box of rocks will one day answer, even the smallest and most simple question.  

Blessed!