Let me ask you to ponder this for a minute. Remember, pondering is just reflecting without the need to draw a conclusion. Pondering is a from of reflection.
A common understanding of existence is that something exists if it has a form or state of being. Certainly a chair exist. Some people believe that only what we can observe through our physical senses exist and everything else is imagined or just has an existence in our mind and emotions. So objects like love of a parent or child may have observable behaviors associated with it, but love itself is just an abstract idea that really does not exist. In this case, what is real is physical and finite. If one benefit of something being real is that we can trust it and depend on it in our lives, then for something to be real to be physical means it is temporary and cannot be trusted but for a period of time.
Let me suggest that for something to be real, it must be permanent, or as Plato said 2500 years ago, an object that is real is eternal. The reason for this view of reality is that for something to be real it must not be bounded by time and space. In mathematics we call the infinite set of numbers the "real numbers." Something that is finite has a limited life, so we would not want to invest our affection in something that would end. We may enjoy and benefit from from visible objects that exist, like the chair, but we would not want to depend on it as real because it will at some point end or not be present.
Whether we think about it this way or not, most people long for permanence. We often infer this notion of permanent when we say, "do you really love me?" We want to know if it is "forever" or is there something that can cause it to end or a place it is not true. We seem to use the notion of forever to designate that we do not want to throw our whole self at something that we cannot depend on always being there. Thus, the notion of real has a special type of existence we instinctively require for our trust.
Of course, if someone believes life is finite and nothing abstract exists, then reality cannot be eternal. In this case what is real is generally considered anything that exist, is observable and is true or authentic (not fake). The issue of reality occurs when you believe life is infinite and there are unobservable objects that exist. So, if we have visible and invisible objects that exist, we must decide which is real? There are two schools of thought, philosophy and theology.
Philosophy claims that the visible object is real and that the invisible or abstract is only real if it maps identically to some visible object. Philosophies differ by how they believe the mapping of invisible onto visible is made. Theology is just the opposite. Here the invisible is eternal and real and that visible objects, which are temporary, point to or represent the invisible. Objects we can observe resemble what is real, but are not themselves real. they can be true (or fake) if they correctly reflect (or not) the invisible reality.
While you may no think about this often or at all, your core assumptions about "exist = real" influences almost all of how you think, feel, and act. It is a major core assumption upon which all of 'self" responds to in various circumstances. This is often how dissonance occurs. We reflect conscious 'self" to please what others see about us, but we long in our core for something else, we ask ourselves. "really?"
When faced with circumstances, both good and bad, whether you want to or not, whether you even can or not, you need to ponder if what you consider exists is in fact, real.
Note to Christian: How do the following Scriptures influence how you think, feel and act in the moments of your life?
2 Corinthians 4 & 5
John 17: 3
Ephesians 2: 6
Is "sitting with God in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus" more real to us than sitting in a chair? The answer is not trivial .....
No comments:
Post a Comment