Everything is real. All appearances are real as basic elements, whether these be sensory representations or solely mental representations. All of the basic elements of reality are useful, whether these are employed as abstract plans in the mind or as practical projects in the world. All that is useful must also be real. All basic elements are real whether they be abstract or concrete, universal or particular, subjective or objective, have a direct or indirect appearance, and even if the appearance were vague or clear. "Roundness" as an abstract idea in the mind is just as real as any round object observed in the world. Any abstract number in the mind is just as real as any number of objects measured in the world. "Justice" as an abstract idea in the mind is just as real as are laws and courts in the world.
The basic elements of reality can be combined into good combinations or false combinations. The good combinations always effect a useful and creative purpose. The false combinations always effect a uselessness and nothingness. Nevertheless, the basic elements of all true and false combinations always remain real. The falsity of any false combination always adheres to the nothingness inherent in the combination itself and never to the basic elements which are always real.
For example, if one adds 2+3=5 in one's mind, then one has put together a true combination of real basic elements that effects a useful result, even if that useful result only reaffirms the permanence of this useful combination. If one selects two oranges from one pile of mixed fruit and puts them together in a bowl with three oranges selected from another pile of mixed fruit, then one has put together a true and practical combination of five oranges that applies to the world. The results of this combination are useful whether one intends to make ambrosia or merely to reaffirm the fact that oranges are the same kind of fruit.
On the other hand, if one miscalculates that 2+3=6 in one's mind or as misapplied to the world, then one has put together a false combination even though all of the basic elements of the false combination are real. "Two," "plus," "three" "equals" and "six" are all real basic elements but, nevertheless, the combination is false. The combination is false because it is useless. The false combination really equals nothing because it has no usefulness or meaning.
The entire history of the human race consists of a process of inventing and discovering true and useful combinations of real basic elements, and usefully discarding false combinations of real basic elements. True and useful combinations are permanent and never change, just as 2+3=5 never changes. The only changes that occur, in the mind or in the world, are from one permanent combination to another permanent combination, or from a good combination to a false one or vice versa; and also from the inventions of good or false combinations using the basic elements of reality. Such changes may happen very swiftly or very slowly.
For example, Newton's law of gravitation consists of a permanent mathematical description of a good combination. Should the sun fail to come up in the morning, then this will happen only because this good combination of basic realities has changed to a false combination of basic realities. Perhaps the sun exploded in the night, and even though "sun" is a basic reality and "explosion" is a basic reality; the combination of these effect a useless and destructive result; that is, the removal of the law of gravity as it applies to the earth and the sun and its replacement with a false combination that effects the destruction of the earth and the sun. Nevertheless, the change from the good combination to the false combination never alters the permanence of the law of gravity itself. The law of gravity itself will work the same throughout eternity so long as other basic real elements are never added or subtracted from it. For this same reason, the miscalculation that 2+3=6 never changes the true permanent combination that 2+3=5.
For example, a man may invent a machine to accomplish some desired effect, only to find that the machine does not work. He has invented a false combination of basic realities. A woman may come along and look at the machine, and help the man out by subtracting certain parts and adding other parts until she causes the machine to work and produce the desired result. The new inventor has changed the false combination into a good combination. For the same reason, a teacher may change a student's false combination of 2+3=6 into a true combination of 2+3=5 by erasing the 6 and replacing it with a 5.
For example, Heraclitus said that one can never step into the same river twice, but Cratylus said that one can never step into the same river even once. Cratylus was right because in every fraction of a second a flowing river changes from one permanent system to another permanent system. Even though the positions of each molecule of water may change from each fraction of a second to another; nevertheless, the forces that determine the positions of every molecule of water in every fraction of a second never change. For the same reasons, one may quickly change the good combinations 2+3=5 to 1+4=5 to 0+5=5. But these quick changes from one permanent system to another never changes the good combinations 2+3=5 or 1+4=5 or 0+5=5 themselves. Should one reverse a film of a flowing river and rerun it, one will find that the positions of each molecule of water in each fraction of a second will be the same as in the first run.
For example, if one should view a coin from a perpendicular angle, the coin will appear to be round. If one should change to another system by subtracting the perpendicular angle and adding a horizontal angle from which to view the coin, then the coin will appear to be elliptical. All of the elements of both combinations are real. Yet, the first combination is a good one and the second is false. The world uses round coins, not elliptical ones. For these same reasons, 2+3=5 has proven to be useful in the mind and in the world, whereas 2+3=6 has proven to be completely useless.
For example, the idea of "justice" in the mind may evoke a good combination of real ideas that results in an ideal system that always effects "justice." But as practically applied to the world, the ideal system of justice sometimes fails because the laws and the courts have become infected with false systems. For the same reasons, 2+3=5 is always true in the mind, but when applied to the world it may prove to be part of a false system because a measured 5 may prove to be too much or too little to solve a particular problem.
In summary, reality consists of the useful and permanent good combinations of the basic real elements as well as the basic real elements of false combinations. Change consists of shifts from permanent combinations to other permanent combinations, or from good combinations to false ones and vice versa, or from inventions of good or false combinations using the basic real elements. This means that everything is real, and that falsity always equals nothingness. But since our minds can recognize this good combination, then the idea of nothing must also be a basic element of reality. Reality also consists of using the good combinations that have been invented or discovered, and usefully discarding the useless and destructive false systems.
God created the world as a highly complex interconnection of good systems. But when sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, all of creation became subject to the law of entropy which is a false system even though all of its basic elements are real. However, God has invented a plan by which sin and entropy can be eliminated and He can recreate the heaven and the earth.
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