In the second part of his lecture, Dr. Dennis Bonnette offers a definitive refutation of the philosophical errors of scientific materialism (atheism).
Dr. Bonnette shows that materialism is not identical to natural science, but rather is a philosophical interpretation of science—one that is badly flawed. In fact, it turns out that the methodology of natural science itself presumes metaphysical first principles, such as non-contradiction, sufficient reason, and causality – principles whose application to the physical world lead to the inevitable conclusion that there must exist a non-physical Creator of the physical world known as the God of classical theism.
Moreover, rather than blind physical evolution explaining the nature of man, we discover that human beings possess powers of intelligence that cannot be explained by the sentient activities of lower animals. The spiritual nature of human intellectual knowledge is proven by showing the difference between the intellectual concept and the sense image, with the latter alone being shared by lower animals. By possession of spiritual knowledge, man is shown to also possess a spiritual and immortal soul.
At the deepest level, materialism, with its reduction of all things to the level of tiny subatomic particles, manifests a lack of common sense, since it fails to recognize the existence of whole beings above the atomic level – including the very existence of one of its most famous advocates, Dr. Richard Dawkins. It turns out that, while scientific materialism may exist as a false philosophy, according to its own tenets, neither Dawkins nor any other scientific materialists themselves actually exist! But, since they do exist, their materialistic philosophy fails the test of basic common sense.
Dr. Bonnette shows that things do exist as whole beings above the atomic level. They need some unifying principle, such as Aristotle designates as a “substantial form,” which makes a thing one whole and gives it its nature as “horse” or “human being.” Materialism thus proves to be an inadequate worldview.
Dr. Bonnette’s recent book is Rational Responses to Skepticism.
If you missed the first part, “The Case for Atheism,” you may watch it here.
