Article November 23, 1907 Issue

Our critic's comprehension and clear elucidation of the...

George Shaw Cook

Illinois State Register

Our critic's comprehension and clear elucidation of the theory that "mind is matter" practically resolves itself into the paradoxical proposition that intelligence is non-intelligence. The belief that non-intelligence through brain processes can evolve thought, suggests the following questions: Why should the matter in the human brain be capable of thinking, any more than the same amount of more or less similar and equally non-intelligent matter in some other part of the human body? The so-called substance or stuff composing the human body is made up very largely of plain every-day water. According to the American Cyclopedia, Vauquelin's analysis shows the brain to be "an emulsive mixture of albumen, fatty matter, and water." The table giving the results of Vauquelin's analysis shows the proportions to be as follows: Eighty per cent water, seven per cent albumen, and thirteen per cent of other materials. Why should the water and albumen in the brain be endowed with the capacity to think any more than the water and albumen in a poached egg? What is it that says the water inside a man's skull can think and the water outside of the skull cannot think? Is it not possible that the human or mortal mind existing independent of and outside the human brain makes the distinction and causes the difference through its own asserted law?

To accept the theory that the brain thinks and is the seat of even a human sense of intelligence would destroy the hope of continued consciousness beyond the grave; and to accept the theory that the human brain is even temporarily the seat or residence of divine Mind is not only pantheistic and therefore anti-Christian, but precludes the hope of immortality for the simple reason that man's ability to think or to be conscious of existence would cease with the dissolution of brain matter. Is it conceivable that a good God, who is Spirit, would create man out of non-intelligent matter and thereby make him subject to sudden or gradual extinction by means of accident or disease? According to this theory a "live dog" would not only be "better than a dead lion," but also better than a so-called "dead man."

The only possible logical escape from the hopeless doctrine of annihilation lies in the acceptance of the premise of Christian Science that the one cause, creator, and preserver of man and the universe is the self-existent, eternal intelligence, Principle, or Truth, which we call God; and in the necessary conclusion from this premise, namely, that man and the universe (all that really and eternally exists), are the mental or spiritual creation or manifestation of this cause.

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