Fourth Letter To Isla
Dear Isla:
In this my fourth letter to you, I will address the nature of God, the nature of reality, and the distinction between truth and belief. The subject was suggested to me by my rather feeble response to a recent question put to me by our good friend, Patsy.
During a late night discussion one Saturday in November, Patsy asked me, in essence, how I knew God existed. My mind was dull from the evening's wine and good friendship so my response to this most fundamental of religious questions was anecdotal rather than philosophical and, thus I fear, woefully inadequate. However, the question did start me thinking, resulting in this letter to you.
The concept of God is a human construction. To understand the meaning of this statement we must turn again to Cartesian Dualism. We know from Descartes that there exist two different realities: physical reality and intellectual reality. Physical reality consists of material things external to the human mind. Physical reality contains the things around us: the human brain and body, food, clothes, furniture, buildings, cities, land, the planet earth, the solar system, the galaxies, and, ultimately, the entire universe itself. Physical reality is what we mean when we use the term "nature." Intellectual reality consists of non-material, functionings of the mind which is internal to and formed by the brain. Intellectual reality contains what we mean when we say "I", our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions, our expectations, and the human constructs by which we share our thoughts and feelings with other minds.
Physical reality simply is as it is and need concern us only in its relationship to intellectual reality. The nature of intellectual reality is more complex. First, intellectual reality exists in a private form held by each individual human mind and in a common form held by all human minds through the constructs of mankind. Each individual's private intellectual reality is mortal and ceases to exist with the individual's death. On the other hand, common intellectual reality continues beyond the death of any individual and is the tangible form of human immortality.
Human communication is the most fundamental of all the constructions of mankind and is the basis for all human social activity. We humans are driven to communicate so that we know we are not alone. For when two humans communicate, they each share some part of their private, individual intellectual reality and, in so doing, modify the reality each held previous to beginning the communication. Thus, by communicating our individual thoughts and feelings, we are linking our minds into an intellectual network many times more effective than the mind of any single individual. We refer to this phenomena of human intellectual networking when we use the term "knowledge", for knowledge is not found ready-made in nature. Further, it is by means of the construct of communication, that individual humans ensure the continued endurance of a portion of their private intellectual reality beyond their death.
I may have died years before you read these words that I am at this instant writing. And with my death, my private intellectual reality dies with me. Yet, by means of the construct of this letter, you are able to share my thoughts and, hence, my intellectual reality. Homer, Aristotle, Mozart, Newton, Arnold, all are long dead, but the products of their intellectual realities continue to guide and influence human thought and emotions today. Thus, by means of communication, we humans assure the passing of the memories and learnings of one generation to the next and provide for the accretion of human knowledge.
It is important to note that this accretion of knowledge through communication occurs simultaneously at both the individual and common levels. When an individual communicates with another in any form, the individual gains knowledge simply by the act of framing the communication. For example, this letter has taken me over a month to write because I am not able to communicate to you my thoughts on the nature of God, truth, and belief until I have contemplated the subject in detail for some time. That is, in attempting to communicate my thoughts to you on this (or any other) subject, I learn what my thoughts are. Thus, communication is both a "sharing" and a "discovery" process.
From this we can see that communication is the means by which an individual's private intellectual reality is enlarged and enriched. All communication expands and cultivates your intellectual reality. However, for a young person, by far the most important enlargement and enrichment is that resulting from the formal communication process we call "education." Particularly, that education provided by a four-year university leading to a bachelor of arts degree.
The reason for this is that all programs of education leading to a bachelor of arts degree require a minimum course of study of what I call Western Civilization. Taking four-years to learn and truly understand the thoughts of the greatest minds of our civilization from Homer to Hawkins will not necessarily make you a better person nor will it directly increase your chance for happiness or even the chance for a good job after you graduate. It will, however, significantly enhance both your mental ability and your intellectual reality and, thereby, profoundly change forever the way you view the world and yourself within it. Putting it differently, all holders of bachelor degrees have achieved a recognized level of intellectual reality and mental development. This achievement forever sets us apart from 99 percent of the people in the world. This shared reality, this participation in 2500 years of accumulated human knowledge, this education, does not make us better, just different.
Isla, here comes the first, but short, lecture from your Godfather.
Acquiring this education is not easy; it demands a four-year commitment of your time and a great deal of mental effort. I urge you, however, to make the investment, for the intellectual rewards endure a lifetime.
I know that, to a young person, four years of study seems a long, long time. But I also know that 25 years after graduation, the four years at university are remembered as a single, golden afternoon in the springtime of your life. To put it precisely:
"Is it no small a thing
To have enjoyed the sun,
To have lived light in spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done...?"
That is the way I have long remembered my undergraduate days at Columbia College of Columbia University between 1952 and 1956. Four years of hard mental work and little money, but full of wonder as the best of human minds and talents were revealed to me by my professors. Isla, if you don't instantly recognize both the name of the poem and the name of the great English poet who exactly expressed for me my feelings in this letter far better than I ever could, I urge you to go to university and find out.
If you do recognize the quote, I congratulate you for your education is well begun. But there are more, many, many more equally great minds awaiting you at university. Having hundreds of such articulate and learned friends forever resident in your head as you go about your day, ready to leap to your mental assistance when you most need their ideas and words, is very, very, very reassuring. By giving us possession of such knowledge and the accompanying intellectual assurance, university education changes us. I urge you to come, come join us Isla: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."
Enough. On to the nature of God and the difference between truth and belief.
The other fundamental constructs of the human intellect are science, which seeks to understand and explain the nature of physical reality; philosophy, which seeks to understand and explain the nature of intellectual reality; the arts such as literature, painting, and music which seek to express feelings common to all humans; and technology which seeks to change physical reality to better suit humans through the application of the products of the other constructs.
A second aspect of the nature of reality is that intellectual reality invariably and unceasingly attempts to understand and shape physical reality to its own ends while introspectively contemplating itself. That is, the fundamental constructs of the human intellect have been applied independently by all humans everywhere throughout the entire history of our species in order to better human physical and mental condition. For me, this long history demonstrates that intellectual reality, of itself, strives to first understand and then improve. Thus, I conclude, that intellectual reality appears to have purpose.
Now we finally come to the heart of the matter. Purpose implies design in the sense of intent, and I can think of no natural process by which purpose can be designed into the human intellect. The origin of the design of the human intellect, therefore, must be outside the processes of nature. I call the origin of the design of the human intellect God. For me, the human intellect is the divine spark that is the human soul.
I also consider God to be the origin of physical reality. My intellect tells me that even a cursory contemplation of the origin of physical reality will very quickly take you to a point where there are questions that have not and, perhaps, cannot be answered. For example, if the universe began as a Big Bang, from what source came the process, the matter, the energy, and the physical laws governing the phenomenon? And, equally important, to what end was the universe created and to what purpose does the universe exist? The answers to all such questions I ascribe to the existence of God. I see God as the ultimate source of all that exists, including purpose. My personal cosmogony is that God did not directly create everything that exists, rather, God created creation.
Now for the tricky bit. I accept that these definitions are merely expressions of my own intellect and, thus, demonstrate only that this concept of God is a construction of my private intellectual reality. Thus, I cannot demonstrate that God exists. Nor can anyone. Nor can I or anyone else logically argue that God exists, in spite of the fact that some of the greatest minds in Western Civilization have attempted to do so.
What can be done is what I have done. I postulate the existence of God because it suits my personal intellectual nature to do so. That is, the nature of my intellect is such that I desire a concept of an ultimate creator that brings reason and order out of an otherwise chaotic and purposeless universe. To so postulate comforts my mind by completing the intellectual picture I have of the structure of reality and my place within it. Without postulating the existence of an ultimate creator, I could not answer such simple questions as: From whence came all of this and why? Without answers, my private intellectual reality would be formless and without structure, and I could not place myself within it. My mind rejects, nay abhors, a chaotic concept of reality. My intellect is ardent in its demand for a reality that has structure, order, and purpose. It is the essence of Me. So I postulate God.
For similar reasons of intellectual comfort, I choose to accept and participate in the continuing ancient myth that God chose to walk amongst us in the form of a man called Jesus Christ. Did Christ really exist? Was he actually the son of God? I do not know but I accept the premise until proven otherwise. I accept Christ as a belief, a working assumption, and, thus, I need no proofs, no demonstrations, no confirmations. God and Christ are part of my intellectual reality and, therefore, are as real for me as are all the other intellectual constructs I use daily, such as language and mathematics. However, I can neither explain nor defend my belief.
You, as do millions of others, may not feel the need to postulate the existence of God. Or your concept of God may be significantly different than mine, particularly, concerning the myth of Christ. All of which is perfectly acceptable because we are dealing here with beliefs not truths.
All beliefs are constructs of the human intellect and may or may not represent truth. Thus, all beliefs are valid, and, if they do not do injury to anyone, are acceptable. The Christian religion, as are all religions, is but a myth that each of us is free to accept or reject as truth. This fact is particularly important when faced with the supposed “words of God,” claimed by some religious fanatics. You would do well to respect their views, but ignore their claims as mere beliefs.
There are two general classes of truth: physical truth and intellectual truth. Statements concerning the characteristics of physical reality are all physical truths. The earth orbits the sun, water runs downhill, John is a male, Mary has natural red hair, my sock has a hole in the toe, and so on, are all statements of physical truth.
Statements concerning the constructs of intellectual reality may be intellectual truths (they may also be beliefs). Two and two are four, earth is part of the solar system, water runs downhill because of the force of gravity, I was born in 1928, and so on, are all intellectual truths because mathematics and physics are truth constructs of the human intellect as is the calendar.
But notice the difference between physical reality and intellectual reality. If your sock has a hole in it today, it will have the same hole tomorrow and every day thereafter wherever you take it in the world. But the statement that I was born in the year 1928 is true only by one calendar currently in use in one particular area of the world. By other calendars in other times and places, the statement is not true. So physical truths are unchanging, whereas intellectual truths may change with time and from place to place and from people to people.
Beliefs are even more variable constructs of intellectual reality. Generally, all statements concerning the affairs of mankind are beliefs. As Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Infallible proof is impossible in human affairs, and therefore the conjectural probability of the rhetorician is adequate." Meaning that people are persuaded to believe one thing or another by arguments based more on conjecture than truth and that this process, like it or not, for good or for ill, is acceptable in matters concerning human affairs.
What this means is that there is very little truth in any news report of any kind, including gossip between friends. Usually, only the initial statement of an event or activity is true, all the rest is the reporter's conjectural beliefs. Books on history and sociology, newspapers and TV, and all political speeches and statements are especially prone to the problem of more conjecture than truth. What you must learn to do is to sift truth from conjecture by questioning everything you hear or read concerning human affairs. Constantly ask yourself: Is that fact or conjecture? Basically, you arrive at an answer by comparing the statement made to your view of reality. Remember, that at any single moment, in any situation, your instant view of reality is truth.
With that thought Isla, I will leave you until next year.
Your loving Godfather,
In this my fourth letter to you, I will address the nature of God, the nature of reality, and the distinction between truth and belief. The subject was suggested to me by my rather feeble response to a recent question put to me by our good friend, Patsy.
During a late night discussion one Saturday in November, Patsy asked me, in essence, how I knew God existed. My mind was dull from the evening's wine and good friendship so my response to this most fundamental of religious questions was anecdotal rather than philosophical and, thus I fear, woefully inadequate. However, the question did start me thinking, resulting in this letter to you.
The concept of God is a human construction. To understand the meaning of this statement we must turn again to Cartesian Dualism. We know from Descartes that there exist two different realities: physical reality and intellectual reality. Physical reality consists of material things external to the human mind. Physical reality contains the things around us: the human brain and body, food, clothes, furniture, buildings, cities, land, the planet earth, the solar system, the galaxies, and, ultimately, the entire universe itself. Physical reality is what we mean when we use the term "nature." Intellectual reality consists of non-material, functionings of the mind which is internal to and formed by the brain. Intellectual reality contains what we mean when we say "I", our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions, our expectations, and the human constructs by which we share our thoughts and feelings with other minds.
Physical reality simply is as it is and need concern us only in its relationship to intellectual reality. The nature of intellectual reality is more complex. First, intellectual reality exists in a private form held by each individual human mind and in a common form held by all human minds through the constructs of mankind. Each individual's private intellectual reality is mortal and ceases to exist with the individual's death. On the other hand, common intellectual reality continues beyond the death of any individual and is the tangible form of human immortality.
Human communication is the most fundamental of all the constructions of mankind and is the basis for all human social activity. We humans are driven to communicate so that we know we are not alone. For when two humans communicate, they each share some part of their private, individual intellectual reality and, in so doing, modify the reality each held previous to beginning the communication. Thus, by communicating our individual thoughts and feelings, we are linking our minds into an intellectual network many times more effective than the mind of any single individual. We refer to this phenomena of human intellectual networking when we use the term "knowledge", for knowledge is not found ready-made in nature. Further, it is by means of the construct of communication, that individual humans ensure the continued endurance of a portion of their private intellectual reality beyond their death.
I may have died years before you read these words that I am at this instant writing. And with my death, my private intellectual reality dies with me. Yet, by means of the construct of this letter, you are able to share my thoughts and, hence, my intellectual reality. Homer, Aristotle, Mozart, Newton, Arnold, all are long dead, but the products of their intellectual realities continue to guide and influence human thought and emotions today. Thus, by means of communication, we humans assure the passing of the memories and learnings of one generation to the next and provide for the accretion of human knowledge.
It is important to note that this accretion of knowledge through communication occurs simultaneously at both the individual and common levels. When an individual communicates with another in any form, the individual gains knowledge simply by the act of framing the communication. For example, this letter has taken me over a month to write because I am not able to communicate to you my thoughts on the nature of God, truth, and belief until I have contemplated the subject in detail for some time. That is, in attempting to communicate my thoughts to you on this (or any other) subject, I learn what my thoughts are. Thus, communication is both a "sharing" and a "discovery" process.
From this we can see that communication is the means by which an individual's private intellectual reality is enlarged and enriched. All communication expands and cultivates your intellectual reality. However, for a young person, by far the most important enlargement and enrichment is that resulting from the formal communication process we call "education." Particularly, that education provided by a four-year university leading to a bachelor of arts degree.
The reason for this is that all programs of education leading to a bachelor of arts degree require a minimum course of study of what I call Western Civilization. Taking four-years to learn and truly understand the thoughts of the greatest minds of our civilization from Homer to Hawkins will not necessarily make you a better person nor will it directly increase your chance for happiness or even the chance for a good job after you graduate. It will, however, significantly enhance both your mental ability and your intellectual reality and, thereby, profoundly change forever the way you view the world and yourself within it. Putting it differently, all holders of bachelor degrees have achieved a recognized level of intellectual reality and mental development. This achievement forever sets us apart from 99 percent of the people in the world. This shared reality, this participation in 2500 years of accumulated human knowledge, this education, does not make us better, just different.
Isla, here comes the first, but short, lecture from your Godfather.
Acquiring this education is not easy; it demands a four-year commitment of your time and a great deal of mental effort. I urge you, however, to make the investment, for the intellectual rewards endure a lifetime.
I know that, to a young person, four years of study seems a long, long time. But I also know that 25 years after graduation, the four years at university are remembered as a single, golden afternoon in the springtime of your life. To put it precisely:
"Is it no small a thing
To have enjoyed the sun,
To have lived light in spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done...?"
That is the way I have long remembered my undergraduate days at Columbia College of Columbia University between 1952 and 1956. Four years of hard mental work and little money, but full of wonder as the best of human minds and talents were revealed to me by my professors. Isla, if you don't instantly recognize both the name of the poem and the name of the great English poet who exactly expressed for me my feelings in this letter far better than I ever could, I urge you to go to university and find out.
If you do recognize the quote, I congratulate you for your education is well begun. But there are more, many, many more equally great minds awaiting you at university. Having hundreds of such articulate and learned friends forever resident in your head as you go about your day, ready to leap to your mental assistance when you most need their ideas and words, is very, very, very reassuring. By giving us possession of such knowledge and the accompanying intellectual assurance, university education changes us. I urge you to come, come join us Isla: "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers."
Enough. On to the nature of God and the difference between truth and belief.
The other fundamental constructs of the human intellect are science, which seeks to understand and explain the nature of physical reality; philosophy, which seeks to understand and explain the nature of intellectual reality; the arts such as literature, painting, and music which seek to express feelings common to all humans; and technology which seeks to change physical reality to better suit humans through the application of the products of the other constructs.
A second aspect of the nature of reality is that intellectual reality invariably and unceasingly attempts to understand and shape physical reality to its own ends while introspectively contemplating itself. That is, the fundamental constructs of the human intellect have been applied independently by all humans everywhere throughout the entire history of our species in order to better human physical and mental condition. For me, this long history demonstrates that intellectual reality, of itself, strives to first understand and then improve. Thus, I conclude, that intellectual reality appears to have purpose.
Now we finally come to the heart of the matter. Purpose implies design in the sense of intent, and I can think of no natural process by which purpose can be designed into the human intellect. The origin of the design of the human intellect, therefore, must be outside the processes of nature. I call the origin of the design of the human intellect God. For me, the human intellect is the divine spark that is the human soul.
I also consider God to be the origin of physical reality. My intellect tells me that even a cursory contemplation of the origin of physical reality will very quickly take you to a point where there are questions that have not and, perhaps, cannot be answered. For example, if the universe began as a Big Bang, from what source came the process, the matter, the energy, and the physical laws governing the phenomenon? And, equally important, to what end was the universe created and to what purpose does the universe exist? The answers to all such questions I ascribe to the existence of God. I see God as the ultimate source of all that exists, including purpose. My personal cosmogony is that God did not directly create everything that exists, rather, God created creation.
Now for the tricky bit. I accept that these definitions are merely expressions of my own intellect and, thus, demonstrate only that this concept of God is a construction of my private intellectual reality. Thus, I cannot demonstrate that God exists. Nor can anyone. Nor can I or anyone else logically argue that God exists, in spite of the fact that some of the greatest minds in Western Civilization have attempted to do so.
What can be done is what I have done. I postulate the existence of God because it suits my personal intellectual nature to do so. That is, the nature of my intellect is such that I desire a concept of an ultimate creator that brings reason and order out of an otherwise chaotic and purposeless universe. To so postulate comforts my mind by completing the intellectual picture I have of the structure of reality and my place within it. Without postulating the existence of an ultimate creator, I could not answer such simple questions as: From whence came all of this and why? Without answers, my private intellectual reality would be formless and without structure, and I could not place myself within it. My mind rejects, nay abhors, a chaotic concept of reality. My intellect is ardent in its demand for a reality that has structure, order, and purpose. It is the essence of Me. So I postulate God.
For similar reasons of intellectual comfort, I choose to accept and participate in the continuing ancient myth that God chose to walk amongst us in the form of a man called Jesus Christ. Did Christ really exist? Was he actually the son of God? I do not know but I accept the premise until proven otherwise. I accept Christ as a belief, a working assumption, and, thus, I need no proofs, no demonstrations, no confirmations. God and Christ are part of my intellectual reality and, therefore, are as real for me as are all the other intellectual constructs I use daily, such as language and mathematics. However, I can neither explain nor defend my belief.
You, as do millions of others, may not feel the need to postulate the existence of God. Or your concept of God may be significantly different than mine, particularly, concerning the myth of Christ. All of which is perfectly acceptable because we are dealing here with beliefs not truths.
All beliefs are constructs of the human intellect and may or may not represent truth. Thus, all beliefs are valid, and, if they do not do injury to anyone, are acceptable. The Christian religion, as are all religions, is but a myth that each of us is free to accept or reject as truth. This fact is particularly important when faced with the supposed “words of God,” claimed by some religious fanatics. You would do well to respect their views, but ignore their claims as mere beliefs.
There are two general classes of truth: physical truth and intellectual truth. Statements concerning the characteristics of physical reality are all physical truths. The earth orbits the sun, water runs downhill, John is a male, Mary has natural red hair, my sock has a hole in the toe, and so on, are all statements of physical truth.
Statements concerning the constructs of intellectual reality may be intellectual truths (they may also be beliefs). Two and two are four, earth is part of the solar system, water runs downhill because of the force of gravity, I was born in 1928, and so on, are all intellectual truths because mathematics and physics are truth constructs of the human intellect as is the calendar.
But notice the difference between physical reality and intellectual reality. If your sock has a hole in it today, it will have the same hole tomorrow and every day thereafter wherever you take it in the world. But the statement that I was born in the year 1928 is true only by one calendar currently in use in one particular area of the world. By other calendars in other times and places, the statement is not true. So physical truths are unchanging, whereas intellectual truths may change with time and from place to place and from people to people.
Beliefs are even more variable constructs of intellectual reality. Generally, all statements concerning the affairs of mankind are beliefs. As Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Infallible proof is impossible in human affairs, and therefore the conjectural probability of the rhetorician is adequate." Meaning that people are persuaded to believe one thing or another by arguments based more on conjecture than truth and that this process, like it or not, for good or for ill, is acceptable in matters concerning human affairs.
What this means is that there is very little truth in any news report of any kind, including gossip between friends. Usually, only the initial statement of an event or activity is true, all the rest is the reporter's conjectural beliefs. Books on history and sociology, newspapers and TV, and all political speeches and statements are especially prone to the problem of more conjecture than truth. What you must learn to do is to sift truth from conjecture by questioning everything you hear or read concerning human affairs. Constantly ask yourself: Is that fact or conjecture? Basically, you arrive at an answer by comparing the statement made to your view of reality. Remember, that at any single moment, in any situation, your instant view of reality is truth.
With that thought Isla, I will leave you until next year.
Your loving Godfather,
posted by Bob Baker at 2:52 AM
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