Can Matter be Organized to Think? | Early SDA D.M. Canright

Sabbath School With Branch Davidians

Can matter be organized so that it can think? Or is there an immaterial part of humans that is responsible for thought, reason, and emotion?

The SDA doctrine of the non-immortality of the soul is very well known among SDAs today, but what is less well known is the core reason behind this doctrine. This core reason is really the foundation on which the non-immortality of the soul rests, and it was plainly understood and explained by the SDA pioneers. If we don't understand this foundation, we're prone holding other beliefs that are actually in conflict with it, without even realizing it.

One such conflicting belief is that although the soul is not immortal - although the soul cannot live on after death separate from the body, there is an immaterial part of humans that is responsible for thought, reason, intellect and emotion that resides inside the body. In other words, it is thought that there is a conscious immaterial something inside of humans that just becomes unconscious upon death. It's the idea that humans are dualistic beings – two part beings, composed of a material body plus an immaterial soul. Not all SDAs conceive of human nature in this way, but some do.

The pioneers, though, did not believe that humans are dualistic beings. They often wrote that humans are unit beings, or unitary beings – singular beings made of matter, with no immaterial part. They believed that it is the body, and in particular the brain, that is conscious during life and that becomes unconscious upon death, not that there's an immaterial part of us that is conscious during life and that becomes unconscious upon death.

And a great publication on this subject is a pamphlet entitled "Matter and Spirit" by D.M. Canright. He argues in favor of the unitary materiality of human nature from a philosophical perspective, using logical argumentation and empirical facts. Join us as we go through Canright's reasons for believing that matter can be organized to think. For further study see: "MATTER AND SPIRIT, OR, THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN THOUGHT" A PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT. BY ELDER D. M. CANRIGHT. https://www.bdsda.com/matter-and-spirit-the-problem-of-human-thought/ "The Early SDA View of the Nature of Man | Are We Dual Beings or Unitary Beings?" https://youtu.be/dVp_VPkjYxw?si=6fEb5S7N-3ueF2HE "What is Materialism? The Seventh-day Adventist Foundation" https://youtu.be/iIEoLnNr71g?si=ruDQlazn6vqLHEKn 2024 Sabbath School, Quarter 2: The Great Controversy – Week 10

A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson.

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