9 – REALITY WITH A CAPITAL “R”

October 24, 2024

Just because you’re taught that something’s right and everyone believes it’s right, it don’t make it right.

Mark Twain

Typical of Twain’s wit – and apart from his bad grammar – this little proverb contains a true truth: there is a Capital “R” Reality* and it exists in every area of the Universe independently of our knowledge of, belief in, or assent to its existence.  That Reality is universally and objectively true, and is not subject to change because I “identify” this way or that or have “my truth.”

[*The capital “R” distinguishes objective Reality from reality which is subjective and “constructed” (made up).  Facts fall into capital “R” Reality; opinions and “identity” belong in lower-case reality.  So, gravity is a fact; its force acts on all things; gravity is not optional, no matter how you may “identify.” The same principle applies to Truth, Reason, Justice and other concepts that may be discussed.  When I use a term which I wish the reader to know has an objective reality, it will be capitalized.]

Gravity – gravitational force, to be precise  – is a self-evident example of Reality.  Everyone is gravity-bound, whether you “identify” as gravity-bound or not.  All people act in ways that take this Reality into account!  (To treat gravity as reality (optional) and not Reality, is to invite serious injury or death!)

Capital “R” Reality is embedded in the very structure of the Universe’s creator, and both reflects and reveals something about the Creator.  God exists independently of our knowledge of him, of our belief in him, and of our assent to his rule.  In the Bible, the most direct statement – i.e. revelation – of Reality in Creation is in Romans 1:20:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

It Is good to meditate on Paul’s words, so that we grasp more clearly how signs of God’s divine nature are all around us in Creation. 

In his divine nature, God is one: that is, he is without contradiction.  He is one being.1 This is clearly stated in Deut. 6:4: “The Lord, the Lord your God is one…” And this is affirmed elsewhere in scripture.  Take, for example, 1 John 1:5b: “… God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” [ESV]

And:      “For I the Lord do not change” [Mal. 3:6a – ESV];

And:      “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  [James 1:17 – ESV]

And:      “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”

The argument is both straightforward and simple: contradiction takes two or more!  And since God is one1, there can be no contradiction.  This is the Principle of Non-Contradiction.

Of course, there is more to God that non-contradiction; in him we find beauty, harmony, and power (omnipotence), among other attributes, and we see evidence of these in the “stuff” that makes up the Universe: awe-inspiring vistas, magnificent music, the brightness of the sun and the might of a great storm.  These are evidence of his divine nature in the things that have been made.

Still, God has no parts; his attributes are in perfect unity. 

Going forward, I want to focus on non-contradiction and how this invisible attribute of his divine nature is seen in the things, since the beginning of Creation, that God has made.

Next time: Restoring Reason – II

1           Yes, God is three persons, but Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in one Being, who is the Supreme Being.  God is self-existent, self-sufficient, without limit, and unbound by time or space – in fact, outside time and space while transcending them.  The ancient argument that the Trinity is really three gods mistakenly reduces the unbounded Supreme Being to conforming to the limitations of space and time.