Rethinking Reality

Last month, I wrote a post titled Subjective/Objective Reality. In it, I made the point that subjectivity is equally an important part of reality as objectivity is. My position in that post was that moral and spiritual laws are subjective because they can not be seen with the eye, touched with the hand, or examined under a microscope. Yet, as I maintained, moral and spiritual laws are real since they proceed from the mind of God who is absolute.

I now, however, take pause to reconsider, whether or not right and wrong are indeed subjective after all. The reason for this second thought is that, as I have said before and say again, God is love. The reason that we as human beings even have a concept of love; the reason that it is an essential part of the human being, is that we are created by and in the image of God who is love. Love is not just an idea. Love is not even confined to being an action. Love is Persons. God is love (Genesis 1:26-27, 1 John 4:8).

Now God is Spirit (John 4:24). But I'm not entirely certain that that means He is non-objective as a Being or Entity. Perhaps we may conclude that a spirit, and also the Spirit, is another kind of objectivity though transcendent over and apart from the natural universe. We are spirits who have bodies, and we are persons. And God is Spirit, and Personal. And God is love. And love is the fulfillment of the Law of God (Romans 13:8-10). 

I conclude then that God, from eternity past and forever, is a kind of love in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is, that the subjective idea of love actually comes from the objective Persons of God who is love. And we being made in His image are in the image of love, though because of sin, the image of God in us is distorted. That is, God who is love has made us to have the subjective concept of love, which comes from Him and leads to Him. As an old Christmas carol says "Let loving hearts enthrone Him". If we do not love Him, then we do not love, even if we claim to.

And furthermore, Jesus, being the Son of God, also became a flesh and blood human to die for our sins which alienate us from God. So being God incarnate, He is perfect love, from eternity past with the Father, incarnate also as a flesh and blood human. And so it might be said that in God, and also in humanity (since we are created in the image of God) that which would otherwise be subjective, is found instead to be objective.

However, until one comes to be reconciled with God through Christ, one can not personally know God who is love. And as stated above, God is Spirit. And whoever would worship Him must do so in spirit. As the apostle Paul, through the Holy Spirit, pointed out; the carnal, or natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. The natural man can not receive the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned (2 Corinthians 5:18-21, 1 Corinthians 2:14).

Subjective/Objective Reality

[Note to reader: If you read this post, make sure you also read my later, August 2013 post titled Rethinking Reality; in which I consider a different view].

Reality is made of both objective and subjective truth. But there may be some confusion as to what the words "subjective" and "objective" mean. Subjectivity might be confused with relativity, and objectivity with absoluteness. But these are not the same things.

A thing that is objective belongs to the realm of material objects. It is a physical thing; whether it be a granite bolder at Devil's Den in Gettysburg, Pa, or a neuron inside one of your brain cells. 

A thing that is subjective belongs to the realm of the intangible. It has no physical substance, or material form. It can not be seen with the eye or touched with the hand. It can not be put under a microscope. A thing that is subjective has to do with thoughts and feelings. It has to do with the mind. And that includes the mind of God.

The laws of right and wrong belong to the subjective realm. You can not see a moral law with your eyes. Nor can you touch is with your hand. It is not a material object. It is not a physical thing. It is subjective. But it is real and absolute if it comes from the mind of God, who created all things. The love and righteousness of God are not less real because they are subjective.

C.S. Lewis knew the importance of subjectivity in evaluating reality. He found pure objectivity horrifying because it leaves out considerations of beauty and emotion. Objectively speaking "It is what it is". And if you leave subjective reasoning entirely out of the picture, you will find no reason why anything should or shouldn't be any different.

This is one of the main things that brought Lewis out of atheism, and eventually into Christ. As he pointed out in his book, Miracles, if all our thoughts were merely the product of random processes inside the physical brain, there would be no reason to believe that any of our thoughts could be valid observations. 

But then, as he continued, there would be no reason to suppose that our thoughts really were merely the product of random processes inside our physical brains. It would be "a proof that there are no such things as proofs - which is nonsense" (Chapter 3, paragraph 6). 

He came to realize that the mind is something more than the physical brain. It transcends the physical world, and thus provides a window into, or a connection to spiritual realities. By God's grace, it can even be the channel by which we learn of Him.

God Omnipotent

There are some who scoff at the Christian faith, saying that it is impossible for an omnipotent God to exist. The one who makes this claim will typically ask some variation of the question, "Can God make a rock too heavy for Himself to move?" 

When one answers "No", the mocker will say "Oh? Why not? He is all-powerful, isn't He?" And if one answers "Yes" the mocker says "Well than He's not omnipotent, if He creates a rock and then is not able to move it".

C.S. Lewis was very charitable to give an answer to this question. He said that "nonsense is still nonsense". He explained that God is all-powerful, but He is also logical. He is Logic and the source of logic. That is why He created a logical universe, and logical beings in His own image. 

Nothing God does will defy logic. He can command nature, and nature obeys Him. But that does not defy logic any more than a teacher giving an assignment defies logic. He made the laws of nature and has the power to intervene in nature - to perform what we call miracles.

For example, Jesus commanded the wind and the waves to be still, and they obeyed His command (Luke 8:22-25). But that is not the same as if He commanded the wind and the waves to be still but not still, both at the same time. 

Poets may talk of being still while not being still; but when they do, they actually mean something like "I'm physically still, but emotionally turbulent". That is a paradoxical statement, but not a contradictory statement.

The Bible has paradoxes in it. But paradoxes can be reasoned out logically, and reconciled. That is why they are paradoxes and not out-right contradictions. They only seem contradictory on the surface.

So here is the problem with the question "Can God make a rock too heavy for Himself to move?". The question suggests that in order to be omnipotent, God has to also be not omnipotent. And that is nonsense. God does not have to be not omnipotent in order to be omnipotent.

God is omnipotent. And because He is omnipotent, He can make a rock of any size and any weight; and is also able to move it.