Is the living body simply a highly complex machine?
Modern science presents this view. To challenge the common belief that the world is driven by supernatural forces, four hundred years ago Rene Descartes proposed the theory that all events of the natural world have a purely material cause. Today, conventional science rigidly adheres to this material or “mechanistic” theory of life. The theory provides an invaluable framework for scientific research and has led to the discoveries of modern medicine. However, the theory ignores the evidence that life is a vast creative force of conscious intelliigence. And it limits the powers of the conscious mind to the substance of matter. Is the living body simply a highly complex machine? On first glance, one might be inclined to think so. In general, the body appears to operate by the same physical principals that govern any manmade device. Like a manmade machine, the living body has the material structure of muscles, nerves, circulatory systems, and so on that appear to channel the forces that ope
