Drum Machines Don't Have Souls

Loosely based on "The Argument of the Unmoved Mover" by

St. Thomas Aquinas

The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. 

A skilled drummer, moving her hands over a drum, produces the sounds of organized rhythm.  Who can doubt this or not be moved by it during a night of entertainment?

It is certain, and evident to our senses, that in the world some things are in motion. 

Certainly, we see the hands of this drummer moving in time, 1,2,3,4, while hearing the sound Dum Dum Pa Te Re, Dum Dum Du Pa Ta Te Re emanating from the skin of the drum head and making us want to move.

Now whatever is in motion is put in motion by another, for nothing can be in motion except it is in potentiality to that towards which it is in motion; whereas a thing moves inasmuch as it is in act.

The hands of this drummer, creating the rhythm that moves us while in the audience, were put into motion by the heart and mind of the drummer, from where else?  Ever since the drummer loved this pattern and then learned and practiced the pattern, she's been quite ready to play the pattern, only lacking the opportunity to play it before an audience - that's all.

For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality.

Before then, she was just a woman desiring to play something recognizably cool on some instrument already known to most cultures around the world as a hand drum.  Before then she was just the baby girl in a family who loved to perform music in front of her siblings.    Before then she was conceived in love by her mother and father after a night of dancing at Ricky Ricardo's nightclub.

But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality.

But first, it took seeing herself capable of loving, learning, and playing such an instrument.  In most cases, prior to becoming a drummer, one needs:

• two hands-check, 
• a belief in ones own sense of rhythm-semi check, 
• a love of music-check, 
• vainglory for the adoration of an audience-bold check, and 
• perhaps even a genetic disposition to perform music-check (she had brothers that were in a band).

Love first, to get her through all of the purchasing of instruments, lesson books, tapes, private lessons, practice and more practice and then the big leap into performing music next. 

Thus that which is actually hot, as fire, makes wood, which is potentially hot, to be actually hot, and thereby moves and changes it.

One day, finally, standing straight before her audience, tapping her foot in time 1, 2, 3, 4, out comes the pattern from her heart and mind, to her hand, to the drum head, Dum Dum Pa Te Re, Dum Dum Du Pa Ta Te Re.

Now, we too feel this love of music, fully evolved in a passionate delivery of rhythm over a hand drum.  Hearing it moves us and the rest of the crowd and we begin to sway and tap our feet to the beat.

Now it is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect, but only in different respects.  For what is actually hot cannot simultaneously be potentially hot; but it is simultaneously potentially cold.

While the drummer is right on the mark with her drumming, those of us in the audience continue to feel this incredible pull to get up and dance, which we all do, but some of us can dance while the rest of us cannot; we are all moved by the beat to try anyway, maybe even someone in the audience will be so inspired now to take up drumming too.

It is therefore impossible that in the same respect and in the same way a thing should be both mover and moved, i.e. that it should move itself. Therefore, whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another.

She sees us dance and is filled with joy, making her want to also dance, but she cannot, as she is the one providing the very beat that we are dancing to. 

If that by which it is put in motion be itself put in motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and that by another again.

Driven by her own music genealogy, mutated forward from the million plus year old primordial soup she originated from, she could try to seamlessly switch on her pre-programmed drum machine, set a drum loop, and leave the bandstand and join us in dance.   As she comes toward us we might envision the programmer of the drum loop having sat in some home studio operating some music software created by some mathematical formula translated into bits and bytes, in some office run by some person who took 4 years of electrical engineering at some college formed by some board of directors, managing the assets of some wealthy donors…..

But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other mover; seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are put in motion by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is put in motion by the hand.

….and precisely conclude drum machines don't have souls and wouldn't move us quite like our human drummer with love in her heart.

Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.

Tasting It

We all forget but still, we are created creatures, we have limits.  Even our best scientific discoveries, while trying to go further, while pursuing the origin of our beginnings, end up at a wall.  A wall that seemingly prevents us from going any further, a wall of finality. 

Underlying all biology, chemistry, cosmology, and other fields of the natural sciences are common physical principals, these we can observe.  Below these, the scientist finds even more order; in fact the deeper science delves, the more orderly and mathematical the world becomes.  Finally, science gets to a point where only assumptions regarding our origin remain.  The human mind goes as far as it can go, until no more can be understood; man's finite mind trying to understand the Creator's infinite mind, no wonder we struggle to understand.

Many of us here would assume God the Creator as the ultimate source, the first mover.  But others seemingly refuse "to bow down" if you will, to the notion of God the Creator, imposing instead far greater, fantastic theories of chance; speculative but non provable scientific hypotheses.

Rational scientists believe theories like these would require a far greater leap of faith than simply, faith in God.

So, "Have faith" we tell each other.

I started to realize how many things I actually put faith in.  Take flying in an airplane for example.  Just looking at the plane from afar, never getting on it, could I have judged by reason alone that it would fly?  Would I thus demand to understand every detail of the airplane, every wiring schematic, every mechanical detail, the principals of aerodynamics, the psychology of the flight crew, the maintenance records, the financial status of the owner of the plane, etc. before I would fly in it?  No, into the darkness I went, taking a huge leap of faith into the workings of all these multiple variables, finally just getting on the plane and trusting. 

Probably, like me, you too already rely a great deal on faith in others; faith in your fellow mankind to do their jobs well, in many areas of your life.

"You can taste 'in the darkness of faith' and come to a surer knowledge than by seeing in the light of reason.  When it comes to ultimate important truths, you cannot judge by reason any more surely than you can tell whether an object is sweet or bitter by looking at it. You must taste it."

"Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." urged St. Bonaventure.  Sometimes, this tasting is the only way to find out.  In tasting we either choose God or we go back to the wildly speculative scientific assumptions for the explanation of our ultimate "source."
  
Many of the great scientific minds have tasted and chosen God.  Here's what has helped me so far:

• opening up to Christian ideas regarding creation, 
• applying natural reason to understand creation: 
• the creation one can actually see and touch and 
• the creation one can't see and touch,
• analyzing the mysteries occurring in my own life and asking: chance or design?, and 
• listening during prayer.     

I too have gradually come to believe what lies beyond this "wall of finality" to be no other than God Himself.

How blind I had become following the ways of the world and shutting out God as an impossibility!  Now, a repentant sinner, I've come to believe in Jesus Christ through the Gospel writings and hence I'm learning even more about God through historical revelation accounts as written in the Bible. 

If I can give you any advice, taste it for yourself.  Start by making a short prayer to God asking Him to give you what you need to begin the journey.  Don't try to understand how it will happen either.  With eyes gradually opened in faith, you'll be led by the Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ and you'll begin to see real, concrete manifestations of God everywhere you turn.  In the process, let Him know that you regret your sins and that you accept His forgiveness through His Son.  

You can repeat this prayer in your car, while at work, or any other time throughout the day, simply gather your thoughts and make a brief prayer.  In fact, repeating brief prayers like these put you in the habit of daily communication with God.  Just talk to the One whom created you and know that He will respond, you'll see for yourself.  What have you got to lose?  Nothing.  More importantly, what have you got to gain?  Everything, you are restoring your relationship with God the Almighty, your creator and the creator of the heavens and and the earth.  Everything, including eternal life in paradise, Heaven.

 Tasting it and finding it is sweet.