Are you a person or a machine? Most likely, your initial reaction is that the question is
absurd…”of course I’m not a machine.” Yet, a great rabbi in the 13th century believed
that this is not only a legitimate question, but life’s most important question! He even
went so far as to assert that it is more important than the question, does G-d exist?
In our culture there are many highly educated people who sincerely believe that a human
being is nothing more than a machine; a machine run by the brain and neural activity.
They believe that the intuitive perception that I am a real person, a self, independent from
my physicality, who thinks, deliberates, and choses is nothing more than a fancy illusion.
You may feel that you’re a real person, but in truth, you are only a machine, not much
different than the PC on your desk except you are covered with flesh while the PC is
covered with plastic.
So is the question beginning to sink in? How awesome it is to discover that I am in truth
a real person or in spiritual terminology, a soul! When you say, “I am hungry,” who is the “I” that’s speaking? Is it a real person or a brain? Random evolutionary processes cannot
produce a person. Real persons, as opposed to virtual persons can only come into
existence through an act of creation. If there is no G-d there is no personhood. You are
at best a machine who feels like a real person.
The implications of being a real vs. a virtual person are cosmic. If a person is only brain activity then there is no free-will, thinking, or contemplation. And if there is no free-will and valuing, than one’s choices don’t matter any more than the “choices” made by a robot. If free-will doesn’t exist, than moral agency and moral responsibility don’t exist. And ultimately, if moral agency and responsibility don’t exist
then life is utterly meaningless.
So what will it be? Person or human machine?