Expert: Justin Choo - 10/22/2006

Question
Dear Reader,
My name is willy and I am very familiar with buddhism.
But there remain a few issues not dealt with by buddhism.
Such as intelligence behind creation.

One can clearly see that the bodies of all life forms
are constructed with great complex structure. Take for example the human body and the brain, both constructed
with amazing complexity as we all know today.

When it comes to creation, Buddhism only refers to cause,
effect and karma. But only cause and effect can never lead to complex creations.
Simple Example:
Put all the parts a house is made of on the ground.
Wood, metal, sand, glass, plastic, etc. etc.
Will these parts form themselves into a house by just
cause and effect ? Certainly not ! It takes intelligence to bring these parts together in the right way to make a house of it.
Another Example:
A Computer. Put all the parts of a computer on a table.
Metal, silicon, plastic, semiconducters, electricity,
etc. etc. Can just cause and effect bring these parts together to make a computer out of it ? Certainly not, it takes intelligence to bring these parts together in such a way that a computer comes out of it.
How much more is this the case for a human body and the human brain with it's millions of cells, all brought together to form a functional human that can think thoughts.
One can not say that just cause and effect can accomplish this.
It takes an intelligent cause to have an intelligent effect that leads to an organized creation.
Yet buddhism explains creation only in terms of cause and effect and does not refer to intelligence as a third agent operating behind cause and effect.
It is no question that intelligence is behind creation as we see it all around us until the farest distance in the universe. So how then is it possible that Buddhism explains creation only in cause and effect and nothing else ?

Another issue is that Buddhism claims that a human body is only the projection of the mind. It this is so then why do all humans have 2 eyes, 10 fingers and 1 nose ?
Why is there not someone projecting with his mind another
body with 4 eyes, 1 finger and 10 noses ?

Thanks in advance for any reply on this.
Greetings Willy


Answer
Hi Willy,

Thank you for communicating with me.  

Even if we can prove (which we cannot) that there is "intelligence" behind every creation, your query will still not be satisfactorily answered.  This is because we are trying to find the "original cause", or the "original intelligence", the First Cause, the Creator.  It is a never ending question, unless we want to compromise our stand and just stop at the "original intelligence".  Otherwise, logically we will have to ask a further question: Who is behind this "original intelligence"?  Who created this "original intelligence"?  And this goes on et infinitum.

The Buddha warned us not to dwell into speculation which had no end.  By simply depending on our human intelligence and limited physical faculties, we will never find out the beginning of phenomena.  He advised us to concentrate on conducting our lives wisely so that we would not suffer unnecessarily.

As to your second question, I would like to share with you this story.  Once there was this student sitting for his Philosophy exam.  There was only one question to answer in this 3-hr exam.  The question topic was "Why?".  This student just stared at the paper, while the rest of the students were frantically putting their thoughts in writing. As usual, the invigilator announced the final 1 minute left before time out.  This student was still deep in thought with a blank sheet in front of him!  Then he calmly took up his pen and wrote:  "Why not?"!


Smile from justinchoo :-)