Page 692 - Atlas of Creation Volume 4

Why are some phys i cists sud den ly so in ter est ed in hu man mind? Is mind as re al as mat ter? A few have even
be gun won der ing wheth er mind may be the “re al re al i ty” and mat ter a de cep tive il lu sion. What is it about
men tal ac tiv i ties that caus es such smart peo ple of fer such wild spec u la tions? Part of the rea son is the weird
im pli ca tions of two fun da men tal the o ries that have changed for ev er our sense of re al i ty: quan tum me chan -

ics, which in jects un cer tain ty in to the sub a tom ic scale, and rel a tiv i ty, which uni fies space and time on the
large-scale struc ture of the uni verse. But can the o ries of phys ics ex plain mech a nisms of the mind? Can the
be hav ior of at oms de ter mine the be hav ior of peo ple? Can the struc ture of the uni verse de scribe how we
think, feel, and know? 98

A per son’s life, per cep tion, love, joy, sor row, thoughts—in short, all that makes hu man be ings hu -

man—is very def i nite ly not the prod uct of the be hav ior of at oms. What en dows hu man be ings with hu -
man i ty, makes them ca pa ble of per ceiv ing the ex ter nal world, is some thing in de pend ent of the hu man
brain. We need an ex pla na tion be yond any ma te ri al con cept to ac count for some one be ing able to be
aware of some thing, to an a lyze it, think and choose, and for all oth er hu man char ac ter is tics. These
words by Thomas Huxley are sig nif i cant ev i dence that even a com mit ted ma te ri al ist can see the true

facts, de spite his be ing an ev o lu tion ist and even known as “Darwin’s bull dog”: 99

How it is that any thing so re mark a ble as a state of con scious ness comes about as a re sult of ir ri tat ing nerv -
ous tis sue, is just as un ac count a ble as the ap pear ance of Djin when Aladdin rubbed his lamp. 100

It is im pos si ble for a struc ture con sist ing of fat, wa ter and pro tein to give rise to hu man iden ti ty that
can per ceive, think, and re joice, an en ti ty ca pa ble of feel ing pride and ex cite ment. Materialists’ claims
have com plete ly col lapsed in the face of the fact that per cep tions are in de pend ent of the brain.

Sir Rudolf Peierls, one of the 20th cen tu ry’s lead ing phys i cists, has said this:

The prem ise that you can de scribe in terms of phys ics the whole func tion of a hu man be ing . . . in clud ing its
knowl edge, and its con scious ness, is un ten a ble. There is still some thing miss ing. 101

Peter Russell says that the ma te ri al world be long ing to us is some thing sole ly pro duced
by con scious ness:

When we re al ize that ev ery thing we know, in clud ing the whole ma te ri al world that we ex pe -
ri ence “out there” is part of the phe nom e non, the im age con struct ed in con scious ness, we

find the truth is a com plete re ver sal of our ev ery day view. Matter, as we know it, is a cre -
a tion of con scious ness. . . . Thus the ul ti mate na ture of re al i ty—the re al i ty we ex pe ri ence

690 Atlas of Creation Vol. 4