Death and resurrection from the point of view of the cell-theoryBjörklund, Gustaf
Religion
Death and resurrection from the point of view of the cell-theory
Björklund, Gustaf
Biology; Future life
It is true that the philosophical structure that Björklund so
successfully commenced to upbuild is far from complete. But the basis
he laid is solid and will serve as a foundation for many temples of the
future, whether they who worship therein believe in Björklund’s God or
not.
This foundation is the fact overwhelmingly proved by Björklund, that life
is not a quality in matter or physical force, but must be of immaterial
origin and substance. Granting that time as well as space are forms in
which matter and physical force are comprehended by man on his earthly
stage of consciousness, Björklund has also demonstrated the immortality
of life. For if life be a reality, which is not here denied, with no
roots in matter or physical force, whether these are identical or not,
this reality exists outside of the forms, time and space, in which matter
appears. But whether matter and physical force exist per se, or are
mere transient phenomena or what their origin and purpose is, these are
questions that Björklund never was granted the time to discuss.
Björklund’s grand conception of the relationship between all living
beings and their organic upbuilding of larger conscious units, where
each individual of higher order is the sum total of all its constituent
members of lower order, is certainly a most helpful and inspiring
addition to our theory of evolution.
But the question why an evolution is necessary at all for beings that
are constituent members in The Perfect Being, is hardly satisfactorily
answered by Björklund. His ingenious explanation, fully presented toward
the end of this volume, still leaves us in a dilemma. Björklund holds
that Perfect Love has left it to time-existent beings to become of
Free Will what they of eternity have been to the All-Spirit; much as a
child, unless considered merely a mechanical toy, must of free will, grow
into the man that his father preconceived and all the time sees in it.
But even so we are left between Scylla and Charybdis, for either this
evolution has a purpose, which must be reached outside of time—that is,
it will come to a standstill; an ending in Nirvana—or else evolution
is everlasting, without final purpose, and its proper name—delusion.
Again the time-bound mind meets in this, as well as in every ethical
or metaphysical problem, if it be pushed to its ultimate consequences,
the same conflict or irrationality that is destined to baffle the
space-bound man, whether his microscope is restlessly at work to solve
the riddle of the divisibility of matter, or his telescope sweeps the
heavens in a vain search for the utmost star. This irrationality, that
everywhere surrounds us, is a chasm that only religion can bridge.
From a philosophical point of view, therefore, we must be satisfied if
our workable hypotheses in philosophy and in natural science do not
contradict each other; and Gustaf Björklund has shown us a road to
reconciliation between idealism and natural science, that for a long time
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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