You Are NOT an Animal!

If you go out to an empty place on a clear and dark night and look up into the sky, you will see thousands of stars and a few nearby planets. As we look up at the vast expanse of the night sky, we are often filled with awe. But what we can see with our eyes is only a tiny fraction of our own galaxy.

It wasn’t until 1923 that scientists proved that there were other galaxies beyond our own. Since then, our knowledge of the universe has increased so quickly, that it is impossible for any one person to keep up with all of the discoveries.

One of the most amazing things about the universe is that we can understand it. The motion of the stars and planets and distant galaxies can all be explained by the laws of physics. The universe is like a giant machine that operates in a predictable way.

Here on earth, almost everything we see can also be explained by physical laws. Earthquakes and volcanoes, the wind and the waves all follow predictable physical laws.

Plants grow in predictable ways. Even animal behavior follows predicable patterns. Birds build nests, migrate, and reproduce in predictable ways according to instincts. Everything around us looks like one giant machine that follows predicable physical laws.

Many scientists believe that you and I are also just physical machines inside of the giant machine of the universe.

But for some reason you don’t act like a machine.

Are Humans Machines?

You’re a thinking person who makes choices. A thinking person who imagines the future. You think about what you are thinking about. You think about yourself. You think about right and wrong.

If you’re just a machine—if you are a just a robot that is following pre-programed instructions or instincts—then none of this should be possible. So how can we explain these experiences?

If you look at animals, you will see that most of their behavior is similar to a robot. A chicken looks for food in a very robotic way: scratch, scratch, peck, peck. Scratch, scratch, peck, peck. If you put a chicken on a hard tile floor, it will continue to follow its built-in instructions for finding food. Scratch, scratch, peck, peck. The instructions don’t work, but that is the only thing a chicken knows how to do.

But when you jump from apes to humans, the robot analogy seems to fail.

A human brain is about three times larger than the brain of a chimpanzee. Considering differences in body size, we should be an instinct-controlled, robotic creature that is about twice a smart as a chimp.

But we aren’t just twice as intelligent as chimps. We are thousands of times more intelligent. While chimpanzees figure out how to eat ants with sticks, humans figure out how to build spaceships to go to Mars. How can a small increase in size explain this huge increase in intelligence?

But that isn’t the main problem. The main problem is that humans seem to have free will.

Do Humans Have Free Will?

You know from experience that you make choices every day. You decide whether you will get married, if you will have children or not, where you will live, what you will do with your life, what you listen to, and what you believe. You are in control. This is not the activity of a predictable physical machine. It is the activity of an independent mind with a free will. That isn’t something science can explain with physical laws.

Your entire life experience indicates that there is some part of you—what you call your self—that doesn’t follow the laws of physics. There is some non-physical part of you that is able to make real, independent choices.

Some people are committed to the idea that the physical world is the only world that exists, so they deny the existence of free choice. They say that all of your decisions are determined by physical laws, so you can’t really make independent choices. They say your experience of making choices is just an illusion.

The idea that we can’t make choices is a logical consequence of the belief that the physical world is the only reality.

But this idea is not scientific. It is anti-scientific. It destroys all possibility of science and rational thought. Because if scientists cannot control their own thoughts—if all of their thoughts are predetermined by the laws of physics—then there is no reason we should believe their thoughts are true.

If no one can choose their own thoughts—then our thoughts have no real meaning. All of the achievements of humanity are just the mindless product of the laws of physics. Everything anyone ever said and wrote about science and religion and life have no more meaning than a sunset or a snowflake.

If no one has any control over their choices, you can’t blame people for their crimes. If a murderer only kills because he was predestined by the laws of physics to kill, we can’t blame him for that. Nor can you praise anyone for doing good. Nothing would be right, and nothing would be wrong. Nothing would be good, and nothing would be bad.

If it is true that you don’t have a non-physical self that can make its own independent choices, then you are just watching a movie of your life that you cannot change. If that’s the case, there is nothing you can do to improve your life and life has no meaning or purpose.

Life would be pointless and hopeless.

But every time you make a choice, you prove that you aren’t just a machine. You prove that there is some part of you that operates outside of the laws of physics. Something that isn’t physical.

You know that there is a non-physical reality, because you experience it every day.

And that is good news.

You are not just a machine. You are not just an animal whose life is controlled by instinct.

You can make choices. You can shape your own future. You can have goals and dreams. And you can seek to understand your purpose.

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In the next episode, I will share some discoveries of science that give a good reason for you to believe that your life has a purpose.

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