The Search for God Page 3.1.3
In the previous article entitled “What is Philosophy,” I provided the goal of philosophy: To know the ultimate reality and to know that reality is absolutely true.
Reality is absolutely true.
What is Reality
When we speak about reality, what do we mean?
Reality is what exists.
We realize many things can be perceived by our senses and there are many realities that cannot be witnessed by our senses, such as truth, reason, and microscopic things.
The ancients had an idea of the atom but could not see one. We can “see” the atom and witness that microscopic world today, however, we cannot see a soul. We can feel the wind and witness its effect but cannot see it.
My food feels the effects of a microwave oven, but we cannot see microwave radiation with our eyes. I can think of example after example. Humans, on the one hand, rely on their sense perception but also understand there is an extrasensory world we cannot directly perceive.
Reality encompasses all these elements of the senses and the extrasensory world. We want to know if there is a reality of the soul. Do souls exist? Will something of us continue to exist?
Just like quarks now or atoms 2,000 years ago, do we just lack the instruments to explore that reality? We feel the wind, we feel a soul, but we can’t see those realities.
When engaging in philosophical consideration, we apply principles of logic and investigate these realities. Reality is what is. If the law of identity states whatever is, is, then reality encompasses all laws of identity and all laws of causality.
The Problem of Complexity
Let’s take something simple—I sneezed. That effect had a cause involving air, pollen, immune response, circulating cells, every tiny minute trigger and event that led up to that moment, such as: air flows, the type of flower, the concentration of pollen, and so on.
In a simple sneeze, the reality of what happened and why is so complex that we will never know the full truth. We can’t go back in time. In numerous instances when I work in the emergency room, people come in because they became dizzy and passed out.
They ask me, “So doc, why did I pass out?” First of all, I cannot go back in time, nor can I assess every function of the human body. So many factors are involved in a sneeze or in passing out that we often pass on investigating true reality.
Humans would waste more time assessing what happened in that specific instance, rather than theorizing a cause. So we develop theories, patterns, rules, guidelines, and shortcuts to help us answer extremely complex processes. Human senses observe and experience each of those events, but we know there is more to reality than we experience.
That truth, the truth that there is more to reality than we can experience, has been present and recognized since the dawn of humans. So the first problem we face is the vast complexities of reality to determine the truth.
So how do we handle such complexities?
How do we handle the truth about reality? We have so many responses. I choose to embrace the tension and recognize there are things I will never know or experience while at the same time seeking answers.
Others choose only to rely on their senses and focus on what they encounter. For these individuals, reality can be very epicurean: let us eat, drink, and be merry. Most people limit their consideration of these events because we have limited mental faculties and limited time.
The Reality of Time
As we explore the realities around us, many of us must shorten our exploration. Every vaunted explorer must go inside when the streetlights come on. Marie Curie’s time on this planet ended. There are only 24 hours in a day. We need sleep. We get exhausted.
We all know that human lives have a finite amount of time. The human scarcity of time, the one-way flow of time, and physical death are complex reasons that limit our exploration and knowledge of all reality. So how can we make better use of our time and what are the truly important realities to explore?
The truth about reality is that reality consists of everything within our universe, matter, energy, intangible aspects of time, causalities, things known, and things unknown.
- Do we need god to explain reality?
- So what if we as a society or individuals never know everything?
- Do I need to know why I sneezed?
- Do I need to know exactly why someone passed out?
Not really. I might want to know, especially if these events occur frequently. More than a sneeze and more frequent than passing out is the individual problem that all humans still have—death.
We are time limited
We have an expiration date. So while a sneeze or a bird flying seems trivial, just like most things in daily life, death is not trivial. The realities regarding death are the most important truths we should explore since it affects every single human.
Therefore, we need a being who truly knows reality to provide guidance, or we must discover this realm ourselves. Maybe we should draw on all our resources of science to answer this question. Forget cancer—what happens after we die? So we have a few possibilities regarding reality:
- Humans can discover the reality of death.
- A being who lives in time can describe the reality of death.
- A being outside time can describe the reality of death.
Humans have a time crunch, and we have not discovered the solution for over 5,000 years. So we look to transcendent beings, ones who might know about death. For these beings, we either have an all-knowing being or a non-all-knowing being.
If we have a being who is limited in knowledge, how can we trust what that being says? Put another way, how can we be certain of the truth? So again, we want an all-knowing being to inform us.
And again, we are stuck; if we want the truth about ultimate reality, we must demand an all-knowing being. Check out the article “How Could a being Be All-knowing?”
Proof of the Truth
Ultimate reality is a manifestation of the laws of identity and causality, so god would possess complete knowledge of everything in the universe and know how and why every event happens. Ultimate reality is whatever is or whatever has been, but what about what will be?
So how do we know the truth? How do we know it is truth if some being comes along and says, “This is reality,” or “This is the truth”? Do you take every being at their word? We demand proof. What kind of proof would suffice and satisfy our minds?
Reason, the Senses, and the Future
You might have heard someone say one of the following statements:
- Seeing is believing.
- Show me the money.
- Don’t just say something is true, show me.
- Actions speak louder than words
When we demand proof of the truth, we expect a being to display truth to our senses. Does this mean it will be done in a dream? What about taking someone to tour the realm of death?
We would need something that multiple or even hundreds of people are witnesses to. Something in our world that we experience with our normal senses, something physical. We would demand displays of knowledge backed by power.
Maybe something supernatural, something not against the laws of science and nature but beyond. Displays of transcendence, displays of timelessness, might we say miracles. This concept is hard for many people to accept.
Proof of existence
But let me ask you, if you were this being, if you were god, with all the attributes we have outlined, how would you prove your status? Would you say, “Take my word, trust me”? Of course, but what else?
So we should demand some display of knowledge and power that appeals to our normal senses, complements our reason of what is possible, and, if god’s attributes include all we have outlined, should be able to tell us about future events.
The search for ultimate reality prompts us to search for a being with all-knowledge, and to prove the truth of this knowledge. This god should manifest power that satisfies human reasoning and human senses, power such as supernatural events, prophecy, and miracles evident to hundreds of people, preferably at the same time.
What Next?
- What is the crucial concept?
- Only an all-knowing being can tell the truth about ultimate reality.
- Why is that significant?
- Without an all-knowing being, a god, humans cannot know the true reality about death.
- If you agree, the next steps.
- If you disagree, please consider reading.
References and Links
- AEON – Stuck With The Soul
- Britannica – Quark
- Wikipedia – Marie Curie
- Holy Joys – What is Truth, and How Can I Be Certain That I Know the Truth?