Divine Illumination and Revelation
Section Three
REALITY
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| Human beings do not create their
own experiences and the events of experience therefore imply a source
external to the human entity. This source is called reality and it is, in
part, defined by human experiences of it.
Reality and truth are two sides of the same coin. Claims about reality must be true. Otherwise they cannot be claims about reality. False realities are illusions and assertions based on illusions have no value. The Creative Source tells us about reality every time we solve a problem providing we have followed the practical and moral rules which govern intellectual enlightenment. If these rules are ignored the result is an understanding based on illusion. In philosophising or theorising beyond the facts we endeavour to grasp the meaning of larger segments of reality. So we try to understand physical or intellectual reality as a whole based on a sampling of the facts of experience. Reality in its entirety cannot be understood from the investigation of experiences of that reality. Starting from the knowledge that the Creative Source will answer any question based on a problem that we can understand, the strategy is to find a real problem of experience the answer to which is the understanding of ultimate reality. Working from this problem definition, the solution specification, and supplementary questions, when submitted to the psychological processes, result in knowledge of God in what is termed methodical revelation. The methodology of intellectual enlightenment by the Creative Source therefore leads to the understanding of reality, both as a whole, and in its parts. The truth is the meaning of reality and the word "Truth", with a capital letter, is often used to refer to the meaning of ultimate reality, or God. Part One IDEAL REALITY In the Middle Ages Christian philosophy recognised three forms of reality. One was the physical reality with which every living creature must learn to deal. The second was ideal reality, or the universe of ideas. The third, and most important, reality was God Himself. As Christians their interest was in understanding God, not the physical world. The understanding of God could only be reached by intellectual effort and through the understanding of the ideal reality. The basic model of ideal reality is that of the cognitive entity, the "I", processing experience to achieve new and extended understandings. To the intellect there is only understanding and it recognises only understanding. That which cannot be understood even as a problem, does not exist for the individual. The individual cannot break out of his process of understanding within his private world of the intellect to observe something beyond. There is some similarity between this view of ideal reality and Descartes' fundamental proposition. According to Descartes, "I thence concluded that I was a substance whose whole essence or nature consists only in thinking, and which, that it may exist, has need of no place, nor is dependent on any material thing: so that "I", that is to say, the mind by which I am what I am, is wholly distinct from the body and is even more easily known than the latter, and is such, that although the latter were not, it would still continue to be all that it is". To
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Ideal Reality Chapter One THE INTELLECT SUPPORT SYSTEM The classical view is that there is a reality outside oneself which may be observed. These observations, seen as sense data, amount to facts about this external reality. Knowledge of this external reality is based on the factual record given by the senses. A problem may be seen to occur when subjective experience is examined. People do not experience sense data intellectually and have no access, direct or indirect, to the information that is passed from the senses to the brain. They have, instead, only understandings of sensory events. The physical senses respond to physical processes in the external objective world, but what is actually experienced are subjective phenomena created by the mind. Human understandings of sensory events are subjective translations of physical experiences into psychological experiences and are not direct observations of external reality. There is, therefore, no corpus of reliable physical data on which to base a theory of knowledge of an external reality. This situation gives rise to a problem of knowledge of reality. If people have no access to sense data they cannot know directly about the external world. They know instead about their own psychological responses to this data. Since subjective experience is psychologically determined, what goes on inside the human mind has a significant influence on what can be known. The intellect is a component part of the psyche and a complete understanding of the psychology of knowledge demands an investigation of the psyche beyond the bounds of the intellect. The investigation of the human psyche is prior to all other knowledge projects and the conclusions of this study determine what may be known in all other sciences. To
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◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Ideal Reality Chapter Two THE REALITY OF THE INTELLECT For human beings the viewpoint is always from within the intellect. It is the intellect which is the primary environment of the individual and the Cosmos is external, secondary, and logically remote. The Creative Source and the intellect support system have been shown to interface to the intellect. The support system is the interface with external reality and the intellect lies logically between this interface and the Source of new ideas. Diagram 3.1.1 shows the relationships of the entities comprising intellectual reality, which, in addition to the intellect itself, are:- * The Intellect Support System, which is the most immediate entity. This system incorporates the psychological processes involved in the creation of knowledge and understanding. * The Cosmic Manager which, through the changing patterns of the cosmos, gives the raw data of experience. The cosmic management system is that set of rules or laws controlling the operation of the physical universe. Ideas of the Cosmos have been undergoing radical revision in recent times, and the impact of the new thinking on epistemology must be considered. Physics, as the study of space, time, and matter has, in the 20th century, offered theories which contradict, not only previous physical theories, but the commonsense view of the universe. These theories are not compatible with each other and there is no general agreement on their meaning. To
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◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ Ideal Reality Chapter Three KNOWLEDGE OF GOD The Explanation of Knowledge of Ultimate Reality This overview surveys the ways by which individuals come to know of God. These are:- * formally by report, which is the method of education.
* subjectively, directly and rationally. This form of knowledge is based solely and directly on the events of individual experience. The survey relies on positions established in the earlier chapters, and particularly on the account of the problem solving method and the Inner Creative Source of all new ideas. Rigorous method is not necessary to knowledge of God, as the Source as the Teacher responds to the simple desire to know formulated as a philosophical purpose. The Creative Source provides the means to explore Fundamental Reality, using the knowledge methods that work for physical studies. Questioning the Source leads to knowledge of ultimate reality. To the more mature theological understanding, which is capable of assimilating complex answers, the flow of explanation from the Source may have the appearance of revelation, which is defined as the free gift of knowledge of God by God. However, as it is the solution to the usual form of requisition of knowledge it is better described as methodical revelation. Revelation as a free and unpredictable act of God, is outside a study of epistemology. ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ The Source as the Teacher of Ultimate Truth The Source is a teaching agent through which the individual can come to know of God. To
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