For over two thousand years, men have been disputing over the question “Can matter think?” Socrates (B.C. 400) is largely responsible for having” assumed that our thinking powers arise from the possession of an innate Divine spirit which, he argued, being immaterial, was necessarily eternal and therefore had an existence before our birth and would survive our decease.
Many notable men in this country have given consideration to this supremely momentous subject. Among such was John Locke1 (1632-1701) who frequently conferred on the question with his personal friends, including Sir Isaac Newton. Locke lived in a time of intolerance when the differing ideas on religion, science and politics aroused much bitterness. He was distressed by the acrimony displayed between the sects; and he also observed that often the disputations sprang from an illogical way of thinking. This led him to give attention to the methods of reasoning by which truth could be attained. As the result of his investigations, he published in 1690 the classic “Essay on the Human Understanding.” This work, which has passed through some forty editions, together with translations into many languages, is deemed of such importance that its author is acknowledged to be “one of the most conspicuous figures in the intellectual history of modern Europe.” “It was,” states the Encyclopaedia Britannica,“the first extensive attempt to estimate critically the certainty and the adequacy of human knowledge when confronted with God and the Universe.”
This meant that the author had the task of investigating how far, through our consciousness, the human understanding can reach; the enquiry involving the examination of consciousness itself, as to what it really was in origin and in operation.
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Author: R. Overton
Keywords: John Locke, Locke, soul, nephesh, science, christianity, reasonableness of Christianity, immortal soul, eternal soul
Bible reference(s): Genesis 2:7, Genesis 35:18, 1 Kings 17:21-22, Job 12:10, Job 27:8, Job 33:18, Job 33:22, Job 33:28, Job 33:30, Psalms 16:10, Psalms 30:3, Psalms 33:19, Psalms 49:15, Psalms 94:17, Proverbs 23:14, Ecclesiastes 3:21, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:20, Acts 2:27
Source: “John Locke and His Quest for the Soul,” The Testimony, Vol. 10, No. 119, November 1940, pp. 338-40.
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