Conscious Clay: From Science via Philosophy to Religion

By William Allison Shimer

THE EXCITING “BULL SESSIONS” that so often generate more heat than light, and absorb college students and others in animated arguments far into the night, are nine times out of ten on subjects discussed in these pages. In fact, this book is largely a product of many years of individual and group discussions, as well as of prolonged study in and out of universities of the three essential departments of the modern mind—science, philosophy, and religion.

The approach here used is chosen for the scientifically inclined person of today in non-Christian as well as in so-called Christian lands. Jewish and Christian teachers of former periods started by quoting the Bible, but that does not appeal to the skeptical youth of this age. Facts of experience and science must now be the starting point.

The arguments employed in these chapters are directed not at the devout religionist but to the troubled and inquiring mind. If this brief but comprehensive analysis of the world, life, ethics, and religion is followed through and its unexpressed implications are thought out and lived out, many will find, I trust, a unifying outlook that will lead not only to happiness, even in tragic misfortune, but to creative living that gives personality survival beyond what we call death. All readers can find interest and profit, I hope, through the adaptation of these ideas to their own experiences, beliefs, and problems, and thus receive some aid in the all-important task of developing their own philosophies of life.”—William Allison Shimer, Preface

• Language: English
• Publisher: Muriwai Books
• Release date: Dec 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789126310

William Allison Shimer

William Allison Shimer (1894-1983) was an American professor of philosophy, who had a distinguished career in the fields of philosophy and education. Born in Freed, West Virginia, he graduated from the Glenville State Normal School (now Glenville State College) in Glenville, West Virginia in 1914. He received his A.B. degree from Harvard University in 1917, followed by a master’s degree from the University of Rochester in 1922. He received his second master’s degree in 1923 and a Ph.D. in 1925 from Harvard and then went to the University of Paris as a Harvard Fellow. During his extended stay on the continent he traveled extensively. After teaching philosophy at Ohio State University for four years, he became very active in the Phi Beta Kappa organization, as executive secretary of the United Chapters and as secretary of the Foundation. During his time there, he founded and edited both The American Scholar magazine and The Key Reporter. In 1943 he resigned to join the armed services and served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy, commanding a unit of the V-12 Navy College Training Program. After World War II, Dr. Shimer was selected to become president of Marietta College in Ohio. Serving during a period of rapid post-war growth, he worked to expand the school’s enrollment and physical plant. He hired the distinguished Swiss philosopher Fritz Marti to start a philosophy department at the college. Dr. Shimer and his wife Dorothy moved to Hawaii in 1947, and he taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The Shimers also became involved with the World Brotherhood (later renamed the Council on World Tensions), an international organization founded under the auspices of the National Conference of Christians and Jews to promote understanding among different religions and cultures. Shimer retired in 1968 and passed away in 1983.

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Text originally published in 1948 under the same title.

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CONSCIOUS CLAY

FROM SCIENCE VIA PHILOSOPHY TO RELIGION

BY

WILLIAM ALLISON SHIMER

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 4

DEDICATION 5

PREFACE 6

PART ONE—MIND AND ATOMIC ENERGY 8

CHAPTER ONE—LIFE, THE KEY TO DIVINITY 8

CHAPTER TWO—GOD AS REVEALED BY THE WORLD 16

CHAPTER THREE—KNOWLEDGE TO LIVE AND DIE BY 24

CHAPTER FOUR—THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF PERSONALITY 30

CHAPTER FIVE—GROUP PERSONALITY 39

CHAPTER SIX—UNSEEN PERSONALITIES 45

PART TWO—VALUE AND RELIGION 49

CHAPTER SEVEN—IS ANYTHING WORTH WHILE AND IF SO, WHY? 49

CHAPTER EIGHT—ARE RELIGION AND THE CHURCH ESSENTIAL? 66

CHAPTER NINE—HOW CAN WE LIVE CREATIVELY? 76

PART THREE—LOVE, DEATH, AND PROGRESS 82

CHAPTER TEN—SEX, LOVE, AND MARRIAGE 82

CHAPTER ELEVEN—UNCREATIVE PERSONALITIES 95

CHAPTER TWELVE—HOW CAN WE RECOGNIZE PROGRESS? 104

CHAPTER THIRTEEN—THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION 113

CHAPTER FOURTEEN—APPRECIATION AND WORSHIP 117

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 120

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Shimer has had a distinguished career in the fields of philosophy and education. Born in West Virginia, he taught in the rural schools there when he was sixteen years old. He received his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and then went to the University of Paris as a Harvard Fellow. During his extended stay on the continent he traveled extensively. After teaching philosophy at Ohio State University for four years, he became very active in the Phi Beta Kappa organization, as executive secretary of the United Chapters and as secretary of the Foundation. During his time there, he founded and edited both The American Scholar magazine and The Key Reporter. In 1945 he became president of Marietta College, and, during the two years that followed, he coped ably with the many problems which came up with the sudden influx of post-war students. During the past two years Dr. Shimer has been in Hawaii as Visiting Professor in Philosophy at the University of Hawaii.

DEDICATION

To

D. B. S.,

A. S.,

And

E. S.

whose nearness encourages

far-reaching optimism

PREFACE

THE EXCITING BULL SESSIONS that so often generate more heat than light, and absorb college students and others in animated arguments far into the night, are nine times out of ten on subjects discussed in these pages. In fact, this book is largely a product of many years of individual and group discussions, as well as of prolonged study in and out of universities of the three essential departments of the modern mind—science, philosophy, and religion.

The approach here used is chosen for the scientifically inclined person of today in non-Christian as well as in so-called Christian lands. Jewish and Christian teachers of former periods started by quoting the Bible, but that does not appeal to the skeptical youth of this age. Facts of experience and science must now be the starting point.

The arguments employed in these chapters are directed not at the devout religionist but to the troubled and inquiring mind. If this brief but comprehensive analysis of the world, life, ethics, and religion is followed through and its unexpressed implications are thought out and lived out, many will find, I trust, a unifying outlook that will lead not only to happiness, even in tragic misfortune, but to creative living that gives personality survival beyond what we call death. This is true, I believe, despite the fact that many readers will not accept the conclusions reached in certain chapters. Some persons will like the general philosophical view of the world or of God but not certain of the practical applications of this view to such problems as crime, sex, war, business, education, or religion. Others will like those concrete discussions in the later chapters but not the earlier treatment of general principles. All readers, however, can find interest and profit, I hope, through the adaptation of these ideas to their own experiences, beliefs, and problems, and thus receive some aid in the all-important task of developing their own philosophies of life.

Here we shall be concerned with a search for beliefs that fit the age satisfactorily; with a philosophy of life, a practical philosophy by which one can live today and die tomorrow with peace of mind; with a vital faith based on the conviction that truth in the long run is the safest guide to life, that at least the quest of truth is an activity essential to the satisfaction of the rational mind. Only in constructive thought, reading the omens from every direction and circumstance, can the damning uncertainty of the troubled seas of knowledge be penetrated by a saving light by which to steer life’s course. Uncertainties are not damning for the man who dares to use creatively his powers of mind and heart—for such a man uncertainties are but challenges to adventure which may discover new seas of vision and continents of fact to explore and possess, and new harbors of truth, beauty, and goodness where voyagers may rest betimes.

No approach to a philosophy of life can be made today without acknowledgment to the many philosophers, scientists, and teachers of religion whose tried and willing shoulders lift up any who wish to see over the heads of the crowded present into the wider views of the future. I am particularly grateful to my teachers: especially to Ralph Barton Perry for guidance in wide reading of philosophy and science; to William Ernest Hocking for insight into the various religions of the earth; to Clarence Irving Lewis for an introduction to logic and ethics; and to Alfred North Whitehead for his scientific and comprehensive view of the world and for his encouragement toward building a philosophy of my own. The professional philosopher, scientist, and religionist, however, will recognize this treatment of their findings and problems as a brief summary view for the general reader and not as an exhaustive technical analysis and establishment of the various propositions set forth.

My gratitude goes also to many friends who, through the decade the manuscript has been in preparation, have urged its completion and given criticisms and suggestions. Especially helpful have been Dorothy E. Blair, Helen Power, and Will D. Howe. Their careful readings led to many revisions. Obviously, this book is the creation of many minds, many who cannot be given credit by name (perhaps they prefer it so!), but all will continue to live creatively in the readers who find here any helpful thought.

W. A. S.

PART ONE—MIND AND ATOMIC ENERGY

CHAPTER ONE—LIFE, THE KEY TO DIVINITY

God is seen God

In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod.

ROBERT BROWNING

1. INTRODUCTION

HAVE YOU KNOWN SOMEONE who was killed or maimed in war? Have any of your relatives died while young? Have you ever asked why God permits such tragedies? What about the thousands killed in plagues and fires and floods? Why were tuberculosis and leprosy bacilli created? Why are some babies born horribly deformed or hopelessly insane? Is it right or wrong to let such babies die? Why do we exist, anyhow? What are we supposed to do with our lives?

Before such questions can be answered we shall need to know whether there is a God and, if so, where He is and what His powers and purposes are. Where shall we turn for this information?

Suppose we happen to be skeptical youth who say the Bible and the Koran and the other ancient religious revelations are really nothing more than the words of ordinary men—good men, perhaps, but very ignorant in comparisons with those we today call learned. How is one who lacks faith in the traditional theological teachings to seek answers to these crucial questions?

Obviously we must begin with the facts we know, scientific and otherwise, and look for any evidence concerning the probable nature of ourselves and our environment.

Try this homely experiment on yourself, or a friend. Cup your hand in front of you and ask what is in it. The quick reply will be Nothing; then a little consideration brings, Well, air, I suppose. But further analysis adds up the following:

1. Air

2. Dust particles of many different substances

3. Germs of various kinds—animal life

4. Bacteria, hundreds of them—plant life

5. Water vapor

6. Chemical elements and compounds, including

Oxygen

Nitrogen

Hydrogen

Carbon

Carbon dioxide

and many others

7. Millions of molecules

8. Billions of atoms, protons, electrons, etc.

9. Light rays and color rays from nearby and distant objects, including the stars

10. Cosmic rays

11. Gravitational forces

12. Sound vibrations

13. Radio waves by the dozen—music, speech, codes, etc.

We do not doubt the existence of those things even though we can actually see very few of them. Our senses are not keen enough to detect them, but we have been clever enough to invent instruments and devise experiments that prove their existence. They are things as real as the chairs and tables and walls that we can see.

Or do we see the chairs? Do we really sense any of these things that we believe constitute our environment? Do we know anything outside our knowledge, our minds? Well, at least each of us does know that his mind or life really exists That is an intuitive certainty. So let us begin there.

2. LIFE’S SOURCE

Heaven, hell, miracles, revealed commandments—all the old certainties by which men long have lived—are gone! How often college students and others have so lamented or boasted their disillusionment. But even for the most skeptical, one age-old certainty remains: namely, the indisputable awareness of one’s own life. Starting from the sure reality of your simply being alive and conscious, you can prove with reasonable probability that everything is, like you, conscious clay; that the whole universe is alive and conscious, and that it has as well other attributes of divinity; is, in fact, the God in which you live and move and have your being. Your life is the key to the nature of the world and of divinity.

Let us admit at the start, as an attractive hypothesis, that the scientists are right in believing the universe to be composed of some sort of electromagnetic substance or energy and that man is made of, or evolved from, or within, this same universal substance. This fact burst upon the attention of the world with the explosion of the atomic bomb. We knew then that the whole earth, including our bodies, might be disintegrated into pure energy. As a piece of wood or a gallon of gasoline burns up and disappears as gases, so the gases themselves can be made to disappear as intangible energy. In fact, all these things, everything, are nothing but energy moving so rapidly in regular orbits that they seem solid or liquid or gas. Like the revolving blades of an electric fan or airplane propeller, they might as well be an unbroken or solid disk to the hand that attempts to thrust through them.

Now, obviously, we too are made of this universal energy. The crucial question then is this: Whence come our life and consciousness?

Two answers are accepted by students today as plausible: Life is either a product of non-living material, or else it is an intrinsic quality of living material. Either life results from the peculiar organization of substance, or else it is as eternal and originless as the substance it vitalizes. It is as if you should build a grandfather’s clock, and when you put the last wheel in place it should suddenly begin to tick and even to speak to you and complain of an ache in its spring. You would jump to the conclusion that you had discovered a marvelous way of putting the parts of a clock together, or else that there was some kind of life in the parts you had assembled. Man is natures clock; his body is put together from the chemical compounds of the earth. Are these compounds made of living energy, or do they merely produce life as a gristmill produces flour? Life is either found only in the protoplasm that constitutes the bodies of plants and animals, or it is found throughout the universe, manifesting itself in all things, not merely in plants and animals.

Neither of these alternatives can be proved or disproved. Each person who would formulate a philosophy must choose that which seems the more probable. One path may lead easily to atheism; the other to faith in God. Having noted this, the thinker should forthwith forget it and, regardless of consequences, choose that which seems the more likely to be true. Note merely that it is an important crossroads of thought and that the decision should be made with the greatest care.

Personally, I must choose the second alternative—that universal substance is intrinsically vital. I choose it not only because of many positive reasons that will appear as this discussion proceeds, but also for the negative reason that I cannot understand with my intellect or feel with my intuition how it would be possible for mere matter to become alive. If this universal energy composing the electrons and atoms is essentially lifeless, insensitive, without awareness, how could it be so arranged or so organized as to become alive and aware of experience? I can imagine the construction of a marvelously complex machine that would be more versatile than I—speak more languages, do more things and do them more skilfully—but I cannot imagine such a machine as feeling or knowing or purposing. Of course the fact that I cannot imagine or conceive the emergence of life and consciousness from lifeless substance does not mean such emergence is impossible. I can only say that of the two beliefs I must accept that which seems to me the more reasonable or probable. My mind tells me that if a given stuff is inanimate it will stay inanimate, that life comes only from life. I know I am alive; I accept the scientific teaching that I am of the earth earthy; therefore, I conclude that the earthy earth, the basic material of which all things are made, is a vital material. The universe consists of vital energy or living substance, or, to say the same thing from the other point of view, the universe consists of energized vitality, substantial life, visible or tangible mind, spacio-temporal spirit. Man is an intimate part of this living universe.

This vital universe is God. Or, if you prefer, the principle or element of life immanent and omnipresent in the universe is God. That which we see and touch is Gods body; that which we experience and live is God’s life. We share divinity, creative capacity, and are one with God as creator of the world. But all this calls for further explanation.

3. MAN’S ARROGANCE TOWARD NATURE

You and I and our kind have been disgracefully arrogant toward nature. And as usual this arrogance has employed fallacious logic. Our only plea lies in ignorance and good intentions.

The sophistry runs like this:

I am alive;

I have certain unique characteristics;

Therefore, nothing is alive that does not have these characteristics.

It is thus concluded that water and crystals and planets—all manner of things—are not alive. The bare skeleton of this illogical reasoning is this: x is y, x is z; therefore, only z is y. Or for example: Fishes swim, fishes live in water; therefore, only creatures that live in water swim.

Too many biologists have unwittingly been guilty of this fallacy of logic. The biologist knew privately and intuitively that he himself was alive, He assumed to be alive also all creatures whose behavior he found to resemble his own. He then analyzed the stuff of which these creatures are made and named it protoplasm. All protoplasmic creatures, both plants and animals, he observed to be like himself in gross behavior. They receive and assimilate food, grow, excrete waste material, heal certain wounds, and reproduce their kind. Therefore, all creatures characterized by such behavior were said to be animate, and those not so characterized were considered inanimate. In fact, the modern biologist actually undertakes to define life in terms of such common types of behavior. That is an objective or scientific definition, and as such cannot be condemned as false. We can and should say, however, that it is an unfortunate degradation of the good old word life—a word much older than biology or any other science.

This objective definition of life, like Newtonian dynamics, works very well for gross phenomena but breaks down when fine distinctions are necessary. As the gradation of animal life descends in the direction of the non-biologic objects, such as crystals, the behavior of animal and plant life becomes less and less distinguishable from that of so-called inanimate things. On the border line there are, for instance, several viruses, micro-organisms too small for the most powerful microscope