Class on Journey to Reality Chapter 5 - Personal Truth

Filling all things… Journey to Reality Chapter Five: Sacramental Thinking

St John 14: 1-7.  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

St. Basil the Great (On the Holy Spirit).  We understand the “way” to be the road to perfection, advancing in order step by step through the words of righteousness and the illumination of knowledge, always yearning for that which lies ahead and straining toward the last mile, until we reach that blessed end, the knowledge of God, with which the Lord blesses those who believe in him. For truly our Lord is a good way, a straight road with no confusing forks or turns, leading us directly to the Father. For “no one comes to the Father,” he says, “except through me.” Such is our way up to God through his Son. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.18.

 “Modern, westernized people tend to think about the world from the starting point of physicality.  The physical world, as we would say, is the primary reality… It is the objective, measurable world on which we can all agree.”  Page 50 of 142.

The assumption of materialists is that if a thing cannot be measured, then it is unprovable, a matter of opinion, AND of lesser importance.

The natural world is everyone’s baseline.  Religious or spiritual people have an added category, that of the “supernatural,” but as long as we operate in the material paradigm, these are the things that BY DEFINITION cannot be measured and are thus kind of optional.  Belief then becomes a way to stand up and assert that there are some things that are important that cannot be measured directly.  “I believe…” is our assertion that there is a supernatural reality and that it is well-ordered and that there are supernatural outcomes that should matter to us:

·      Forgiveness of sins

·      Sacramental marriage (vs. an agreement or contract)

·      Eternal life

When we talk about religion, it is often in materialist terms.

·      What good is it (for health, family, society)?

·      What does it cost in terms of time and money?

·      Does its system make sense?  E.g. Juridical vs. Therapeutic vs. Holistic Healing

But this worldview can only take us so far.  It “misses the mark” when it comes to understanding the world and how it works.

An irony:  the materialist world may allow us to see things objectively, but not truly.  I am playing with words here, but it points to the difficulty.

Objectivity refers to the quality of being unbiased and fair, making decisions based solely on facts rather than personal feelings or beliefs. It is often considered essential in fields like science and journalism to ensure accurate and impartial reporting or analysis.

Objects have attributes that can be measured.  As a social scientist, I was taught that we have a poor understanding of something if we cannot put a number to it and that if we took enough measurements, we could explain everything.  Omniscience – or godhood – then is a matter of having enough data and the computing power to run the numbers.  Omnipotence involves the ability to manipulate everything towards a desired outcome.  This is no longer just the stuff of science fiction. 

This is another one of those areas where claims are being made for technology that should not be made.  We can rightly question double-predestination, but what will keep us from doing the same thing as we grow in material understanding and power?

A step in the right direction is to recognize that there is a moral dimension to the world.  But the problem is that it cannot be measured.  Outcomes can be measured, but their values can only be asserted.  This is why both secular philosophers like Nichze and religious ones like C.S. Lewis and Fr. Seraphim Rose claim that this kind of worldview leads to nihilism and the assertion of will. 

Religious and spiritual people who believe in the supernatural will then say that God (or spirit, or Arche) is the solution to this problem.  Again, this gets us heading in a good direction, but it usually keeps within the materialist worldview.  Again, which system makes sense, agrees with what I prefer, has the best agape meal, and so on.

But it really is strange to come at God in this manner.  All we are doing is taking the “God of the Gaps” concept and applying to morality and value.  This is like looking at the world through a two-dimensional, black and white filter.

We can do better.  Let’s see how our ancestors did it.

They did not see the natural and supernatural as separate.  It was just “the world.”

Some things were visible and some things were invisible.  Just as we cannot see radiation, atoms, and gravity know them to be part of reality, so it was with our ancestors for the invisible things. 

“This idea that the physical and the spiritual are not seperable has a few important implications.  If we say that the physical and the spiritual have to go together, then what we’re really saying is that there is a spiritual quality to everything physical, and a physical quality to everything spiritual.  This means, among other things, that physical objects and actions can have intrinsic meaning.” (Page 53 of 142)

The example of two bisecting lines.  A Cross.  There is a story behind it, and that gives it subjective meaning, but there is more to it.  The things that are described in that story create meaning.  The cross is part of something primal and real it has “cosmic significance” (ibid).  And this is true regardless of whether people recognize it as such (example of vampires).

Another way of describing this older view is as “enchanted” (vs. disenchanted). 

Another way is that we are part of a grand story.  Stories are excellent at conveying meaning.  This is why some stories are said to be true even though they are fiction.  This is complete nonsense to the materialist mind.

What about objectivity?  Isn’t this view biased?  Isn’t it subjective?

It certainly is biased.  But it is only subjective because our perception of the world is incomplete and often wrong, and we really do assert our wills to create and share meaning. 

We have to go beyond thinking about things primarily as either objective – meaning things that can be measured, or subjective – meaning things that cannot. 

A refresher on objective vs. subjective:

Pizza.

·      Objectively, it has bread, sauce, and topics of a certain type and consistency and spices that affect the olfactory system in certain measurable ways.  This is seen as what the pizza IS.

·      Subjectively, we prefer certain kinds of bread, sauce, topics, and spices.  This is our opinion about the pizza. 

·      We can argue about what belongs on a pizza or how it should be prepared, but it’s easy to come to an agreement on what the pizza actually is. 

The problem with this kind of a dichotomy is that it turns value and meaning into a matter of opinion and not only does that lead to disaster – it doesn’t describe the way the world really is.

Why disaster?

Disagreeing about pizza can lead to arguments and bringing home a pizza one person sees as valuable and another doesn’t may lead to temper tantrums; but what if the thing being described is something like human life or someone else’s freedom? 

Why is it wrong?

Because everything has intrinsic value.  And this is because it has being through it’s connection to the source of value – the Arche.’

Personal Knowledge

Another step in getting us to where we need to go is to look at knowledge that is gained personally, from the inside. 

But even in relationships, we miss the mark.  Vices and virtues affect how well we can know things and people.  An angry person is going to notice – and even create – things in people and their behaviors that stoke their anger.  Humility allows the person to be open to the truth.  Vice clouds our vision.

“The practice of virtue is, therefore, an essential element in seeking knowledge and the ultimate truth of things.  Why?  Because reality is participatory.  Or, to put it more simply, if you’re a bad person, you’re also going to be a bad friend.  If you’re jealous, resentful, petty, or arrogant, your going to have a hard time building a relationship with anyone to the extent that those impulses control your life.  To have better relationships, you have to be a better person.  And if Truth itself is a Person, you’re only going to be able to know Truth to the extent that you’re able to have a relationship with Him.” (Page 61 of 142)

In summary: the physical and spiritual world are inseparable.  This gives everything meaning.  We learn that meaning through participation; this involves both intellectual and moral growth.  How can this work?  Tune in next week!

Some questions: 

·      How is personal knowledge more than just data?

·      How do we keep from pretending our subjective opinions are illumined?

·      How does anyone know how clean their mirror is or how true their sight is?