On Truth and Falsity

                             The Usefulness of Reality

The skeptics claim that they suspend judgment as to whether or not any appearance is real or not. But they also propound arguments that no sense objects or thought objects can be real. pb. OP. They seem to believe that both objective appearances and subjective appearances can be but mere illusions. But if that were true, then only nothingness could be real. But nothingness would have no power within it to produce illusions. This fact can only mean that consciousness has to be real even if it only produces illusions. But the skeptics argue that even consciousness cannot be real. Evidently, they believe that nothingness can produce illusions. But if nothingness happens to be all that can really exist, or non-exist, then mind and all of its illusions would be impossible. The skeptics admit that humans have appearances, but something about this connection has to be real. But as Heidegger informs us, every person is a "being in the world." As such, humans can use their thought objects and their sense objects to create useful systems that benefit themselves and others. This means that humans possess the power within themselves to abolish all illusions and cause themselves, and the world they are in, to become real.

Humans also possess the useful idea of nothing which humans can use in its formulation of useful systems. Heidegger expressed the idea of nothing as the constant thought of the imminence of death which acted as as continuous limitation on all of the creative abilities and possibilities that humans can have. This fact can only mean that because humans possess a real idea of nothing, then all that happens to be more than nothing; that is, something, can only be a consciousness of reality. In other words, since humans can be conscious of the useful idea of nothing that indirectly indicates unreality, and humans can also be conscious of their sense objects and thought objects as being useful in creative ways, then humans must be conscious of reality.

A person holds up a hammer to a skeptic and asks him if it is real or not. The skeptic answers that according to his form of logic the hammer cannot be real. The person then asks the skeptic if the hammer is but an illusion. The skeptic replies that the hammer is just an appearance which could be an illusion. The person answers the skeptic that he just admitted that there is a possibility that the hammer could be real. The skeptic replies that he has suspended all judgment as to whether or not the hammer is real. The person then asks the skeptic if he has ever had an illusion; that is, has he ever thought that something would appear, but it did not appear. The skeptic replies that he once thought that a god would appear to him but it did not. The person then explains to the skeptic that his illusion happened to be one example of the fact that whenever humans have illusions, they always prove to be useless. The skeptic agreed that in his case, his illusion proved to be useless. The person then holds up the hammer again and tells the skeptic that he can use that hammer to drive nails which is a creative act, but if the hammer were but an illusion, it would be completely useless and non-creative. Therefore, by his creative usefulness of the hammer, he can make it real. The skeptic answers with a puzzled look on his face.

On Truth and Falsity

                           The Source of Reality

Another example of how the skeptics attack reality is that they adduce in their philosophy that no one can tell the difference between that which is real and that which is not real in appearances if one man is alive, has sight and is breathing, and another man is dead without sight or breath. pb. OP ps. 173-174. All humans are systems and very complex systems indeed. This means that the already existing elements of reality can be added or subtracted from their systems. When a person dies, their bodily consciousness loses all sense objects and thought objects, but that does not mean that sense objects and thought objects become unreal. This simply means that all of the sense objects and thought objects still retained by alive humans, including consciousness, becomes subtracted from the body of the dead person.

Reality happens to be a vast, interconnected system of sense objects and thought objects made possible by consciousness. When a person dies their body loses all contact with reality, but that does not mean that reality itself becomes unreal. As long as consciousness is real, there will be reality. Some consciousness partakes of reality in very limited ways, such as with bugs or germs. But an intelligent consciousness can manipulate a high degree of reality to formulate true or false systems.

When a person dies, their bodily consciousness and their reality becomes subtracted from their system. The only real system they have left is the fact that alive humans can see their dead body. A dead body has no consciousness of time and space. Since a dead body can have no idea of nothing itself, then it enters into a state of absolute non-existence except for the fact that alive humans can see the dead body. Within itself, a dead body enters into a state of absolute nothingness. This condition happens to be the only state of unreality. Conscious humans never experience unreality. Alive humans can use the real idea of nothing to indicate falsity which indirectly indicates unreality.

If a consciousless universe existed before the advent of any consciousness at all, then that universe would be in the same state as a dead human. There could be no time and space. Only absolute nothingness would non-exist. Consciousness could never evolve in such a universe because it would possess no powers of creation whatsoever. But if an Infinite Intelligence exists who possesses an Infinite Reality, then He could create a real universe with time and space, limited consciousness, and humans with intelligence and creative abilities because of their greater contact with His reality. Psalm 147;5 (KJB)

On Truth and Falsity

             The Reality of All False Formulations

Every system that humans can create are either inductive systems, which may be true or false, syllogistic systems, which may be true or false, or speculative systems which need to be investigated to determine if they are true or false. But the basic elements that form any system that humans can create are always true and real. These basic elements have to be true and real because if there were any possibility that they could be unreal, then all useful systems would be impossible to create. Unreality can only be useless, and has proven to be so in human experience.

Reality actually consists of a vast spectrum of interconnected experiences of real sense objects and thought objects produced by that basic element of reality that is human consciousness. Humans always select from that vast spectrum whatever elements they need to create any system whether true, false, or speculative. In fact, humans happen to be incapable of experiencing anything that is not true and real. Falsity itself is a true and real idea because it is useful.

Humans can form false systems, but every false system always comprises true and real elements. A person can correctly declare that a particular false system does not exist. But that person can never declare that the elements of any false system must be unreal because he has already experienced those elements. The falsity of a false system always adheres to the useless combination of true and real elements, never to the true and real elements themselves. Humans possess the ability to recognize false combinations by their use of the real and useful idea of nothing. False formulations always mean nothing because they are always useless. But the recognition of their falsity is useful. False formulations prove to be useful to humans because they can use the idea of nothing to usefully discard them from reality.

For example, a person can rightly state that a unicorn does not exist. But he cannot state that "horns" and "horses" do not exist because he has experienced them. He can use his real idea of nothing to recognize that this false combination does not exist. Yet, he never experiences the non-existence of the unicorn. In fact, humans never experience non-existence at all. Humans can only experience that which is true and real, even within all false formulations. This fact happens to be true of all false combinations

On Truth and Falsity

                       The Reality of Induction

The skeptics invalidate induction logic just as they do all forms of human logic except their own. pb. OP p.164. But they ignore the fact that inductive systems only fail because particular sense objects or thought objects are added or subtracted from an isolated inductive system. If a scientist repeats an experiment again and again and always obtains the same result, but one day gets a different result, he will immediately conduct an investigation to discover whatever happened to be added or subtracted from his experiment that caused it to deliver a different result. That scientist will do that because they all know that as long as the elements of an inductive system remain the same, that inductive system will always yield the same result.

The fact that the sun rises every morning is an inductive system. That inductive system will never fail as long as all of the elements that hold the earth in orbit around the sun remain the same. Only if, for some reason, gravity fails, or the sun explodes, or some other drastic event happens, will that inductive system fail. The skeptics happen to be wrong about inductive systems because they ignore the fact that an inductive system can always be changed by the addition or subtraction of other elements.

On Truth and Falsity

                             Reality Proves Itself

While the skeptics admit that humans have appearances, they deny that there can be any proof that appearances are real. pb. OP ps.143-160. But if appearances were not real, then they could only be illusions, and true reality would have to be something different. But the skeptics assert that proof that anything is real can only be impossible. Even if their supposed true reality were discovered, would it not be subject to all of the impossible tests, such as the infinity test, that the skeptics apply to appearances? The skeptics actually argue that true reality can never be discovered. But if it is impossible to ever discover what true reality could be, would not appearances be the same as true reality, even if they are illusions?

The skeptics argue that appearances are mere sensations, and therefore, might not be real. But if sensations are all that humans can possess, how could anyone recognize true reality even if they found it? For what reason do the skeptics separate sensations from reality? Sensations themselves could be the true reality. Since sensations as appearances can be all that humans can possess, and any other reality is impossible to discover, then appearances can only be the same as reality.

What do the skeptics mean when they assert that appearances could be unreal? If the skeptics mean that appearances could be unreal because some non-evident true reality exists behind those appearances, which, by their own admission, can never be discovered, then, by a logical elimination, only appearances can be real. If the skeptics mean that unreality equals non-existence, and therefore, appearances mean nothing, they contradict their own admission that humans actually have appearances which are the same as sensations.

In addition, when one closely examines the appearances which humans possess, one finds that unreality never directly appears to humans. One finds that unreality always consists of a false combination of two or more appearances. For example, when one closely examines any false system such as a lie, one finds that they always, without exception, comprise true appearances. When a child lies to his mother and tells her, "I did not eat the candy," the "I" is a true appearance, the "did" is a true appearance, the "not" is a true appearance as an idea in the mind, the "eat" is a true appearance, the "the" is a true appearance, and the "candy" is a true appearance. The same happens to be true of all false systems. When the mother discovers that her child has lied to her because of the smear of candy on his face, she realizes that his false system means nothing. She uses her real idea of nothing to equate his false system with unreality, but she never directly observes the unreality. Since humans never directly observe the unreality in false systems, then that can only mean that all appearances must be real.

In addition, humans can use both sense objects and thought objects to create true systems that prove to be useful for the benefit of their fellow humans. This means all objects must be real since all unreal objects could only be useless. The skeptics, even to this day, believe that thought objects have less meaning than do sense objects. But since both prove to be useful in the creation of useful systems, they have to be equally real. Thought objects can be abstracted from sense objects, but in cases where they could not have been so abstracted, they had to have been given to the mind. But thought objects happen to be just as real as are sense objects in the same sense that a photograph of a person is just as real as is the person. Sense objects and thought objects are equally real in the vast spectrum called reality because both happen to be useful in the creations of beneficial systems. Sense objects and thought objects both have to be real appearances because unreality never directly appears in this spectrum of reality. Human consciousness can use the useful and real thought object called "the idea of nothing" to indicate the falsity within all false systems which always comprises true and real appearances. "Falsity" is a true and useful idea. "Nothing" is a true and useful idea. All of the appearances in all false systems are true and real. But unreality itself never directly appears to human consciousness.

When God created humans, He calibrated all of the sensations and appearances that humans can possess with reality itself. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 2:7-9; Genesis 2:19-20. (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

                     The False Logic of the Skeptics

The skeptics contend that the form of logic used by the dogmatists is always invalid, whereas their own form of logic is valid. At times. the skeptics make the dogmatic conclusion that the logical arguments of the dogmatists cannot be real, but that contradicts their own conclusions that no one can ever tell the difference between truth and falsity. In other words, they dogmatically conclude that the arguments of the dogmatists can never be real even though they also maintain a philosophy that states that no one can tell if anything is real or not. pb. OP ps. 130-140

The skeptics admit that humans have appearances. They also admit that according to their logic, judgments can be made about appearances. But all of their judgments about appearances are the same; that is, that no one can tell the difference between the real and the unreal. But if that happens to be the only valid judgment that humans can make, then all speculative logic and investigations into that which is real or not real, according to the skeptics, can only be useless and a waste of time. But if humans can make only one valid judgment, then all other judgments about appearances can only be invalid. The skeptics dogmatically assert that their one judgment can be the only valid judgment, but if that is true, then human intelligence itself would be impossible. If human intelligence were impossible, then all judgments would be impossible including the skeptics one judgment. In effect, the skeptics argue that humans have no intelligence, and that humans must be equal to the animals and should conduct their lives accordingly.

On Truth and Falsity

                            The Reality of Truth and Falsity

The skeptics contend that no one can discern the difference between truth and falsity, and therefore, truth cannot really exist because it would always be nullified by falsity. pb. OP ps. 122-127. They actually maintain that neither truth nor falsity can exist. When they make this argument, they misuse both their intelligence and true logic. According to their logic, one wonders how they could have ever obtained the ideas of truth and falsity. If no difference really exists between truth and falsity, no one could ever become aware of truth and falsity. If it were true that no human can really tell the difference between truth and falsity, then humans would possess no intelligence, and human consciousness would be equal to that of the animals. The animals simply accept their stream of consciousness as it comes without any consciousness of it or any judgments about it.

But humans are aware of their stream of consciousness, and therefore that gives humans the intelligence needed to manipulate their sense objects and thought objects to form systems that can increase knowledge and benefit their fellow humans, or that can be discovered to be false and usefully discarded, or speculative systems that need investigation to determine if they are true or false. This fact can only mean that the ideas of truth and falsity can only be innate to the human mind. The ideas of truth and falsity could not have been derived from an evolutionary process because, as the animals consciousness demonstrates, truth and falsity do not appear in experience except as independent needs such as food and water. Intelligence is required to obtain the ideas of truth and falsity. But the ideas of truth and falsity had to exist prior to human intelligence because they could not have just inexplicably appeared out of nowhere.

Humans can be conscious of their stream of consciousness which gives them intelligence, but in order to be conscious of their stream of consciousness, humans need another consciousness, and still another which proceeds toward infinity. Human consciousness has a connection to the infinite, connected to it by the infinite, since human consciousness proves to be far to weak to carry itself to infinity. This means that humans derived their intelligence, and such ideas as truth and falsity, from the infinite. But since ideas cannot exist without consciousness, then the infinite would have to possess both an Infinite Consciousness and an Infinite Intelligence. Psalm 147:5 (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

                               God's Gift of Reality

The skeptics maintain that what they call the "regent part," which they equate with the soul, cannot be apprehended, and therefore, its objects cannot be apprehended as they really are. pb. OP ps.118-122. But what they mean by the phrase "regent part" can only be consciousness. The skeptics admit that humans have appearances, but then they deny that both consciousness and its appearances can be known to be real. In other words, they equate both consciousness and its appearances with nothing. But nothing cannot produce appearances. Their conclusions clearly cannot be the case since consciousness really does have appearances whether those appearances are real or not. This means the skeptics have tacitly admitted that at least one true fact exists; that is, that consciousness really does have appearances whether or not they are true and real. If consciousness were in a state somewhere between reality and unreality, it could not produce appearances, or if it did, those appearances could only exist in chaotic state. This fact establishes another undeniable fact; that is, that consciousness has to be real because it really has appearances whether or not those appearances are real or not.

Consciousness has to be real because it effectively produces appearances whether those appearances are real or unreal. If consciousness were unreal, it could produce no appearances whatsoever. Since it does produce appearances then it must really produce them. Consciousness has to be real in order to do that. Experience has taught humans that unreal systems always only produce the real idea of nothing which humans can use to identify the falsity and the nothingness which adheres to false systems. Falsity and nothingness always equals unreality, but humans never directly experience unreality. Humans only experience the real idea of nothing that indirectly indicates unreality. True and real systems always work. False and unreal systems never work.

The skeptics further assert that the only way to determine if consciousness and its appearances can be true and real is to put both to an infinite test. Only if an infinite consciousness exists can consciousness be known to be real, and only if an infinite set of the objects of consciousness exists can those objects be known to be real. But if consciousness really has appearances, whether real or not, then that means that consciousness itself has to be real and can be proven to be real by an infinite test. Finite consciousness really does have appearances, whether real or not, and those appearances constitutes the stream of consciousness to finite consciousness. But intelligent, finite consciousness can be conscious of its stream of consciousness which requires another consciousness. But since finite consciousness possesses this additional consciousness, it can only be conscious of it by means of still another, and of that still another, which proceeds toward infinity. Although finite consciousness happens to be far to weak and limited to carry itself to infinity, the very fact that finite consciousness can proceed toward infinity provides evidence that an infinite test of its reality can be possible. That part of human consciousness that proceeds toward infinity could be called the spirit of humans that connects to an Infinite Consciousness. This Infinite Consciousness would complete the connection of human consciousness to infinity and prove that limited human consciousness can only be true and real. Proverbs 20:27 (KJB).   

The skeptics contend that consciousness can only know its sensations that it receives from its appearances and not the real objects themselves. But these skeptics can never know if their supposed real objects exist if there can never be any way of apprehending them. They dogmatically assert the non-evident. But if God created a real human consciousness then He must have also calibrated that consciousness to be apprehensive of real sense objects and thought objects. The very sensations of its objects of consciousness happens to be the same as the reality of its objects. But the skeptics confuse the issue by their assertion that different sensations occur to different persons under different circumstances, and that fact proves that no one can tell if the objects of consciousness are true and real or not. But they ignore the fact that when different sensations occur to different persons under different circumstances, that only means that different systems occur within different streams of consciousness. All of the elements of all of those systems can still be true and real.

God has calibrated humans to be conscious of real sense objects and thought objects displayed as sensations or impressions on consciousness. The problem with weak humans is that they often combine true and real sense objects and thought objects into false systems that mean nothing. For example, 2+3=6 is a false system even though every number and sign are real and true. "Bitter" is a real and true sensation even though it can appear in a false system when an unhealthy person tastes honey. "Round" is a true and real appearance even though it can occur in a false system when a person observes a square tower from a distance. God has given true and real sense objects and thought objects and all of their spectrums to humans which constitutes reality. But humans can by accident, by mistake, by weakness, or by deliberate action formulate any of these real objects into false systems which happens to be the only unreality that humans ever encounter. Even so, humans never directly observe unreality. Humans only observe that by the use of the real idea of nothing, they can determine that false systems mean nothing and can be usefully discarded from reality.

On Truth and Falsity

                           The Reality of the Intellect

The skeptics use the word "judgment" in an illogical way. They claim that true judgments need to be made to discover if anything observed by the intellect can be true and real, and then they maintain that all such judgments can only be impossible. One wonders how they ever obtained the idea of "judgment" in the first place. pb. OP ps.114-118. The skeptics certainly do not refrain from using their judgment to declare that no one can tell if anything is real or unreal. In other words, the skeptics maintain that the only true and real judgment that humans can make is that no one can tell if anything is true and real or false and unreal. But how can anyone make that judgment without a real mind to make it? Apparently, the skeptics believe that an intellect that could be real or unreal can not know if any of its appearances are real or unreal. But how could such an intellect make any judgments at all? The skeptics simply ignore the fact that all unreal appearances are useless unless humans apply other ideas to those useless systems in order to make them useful.

The skeptics do admit that humans have appearances. Since humans certainly have appearances, then those appearances must appear to something. In humans, the intellect happens to be a product of consciousness. Humans can use their intellect in creative ways. Therefore, the skeptics must be tacitly admitting that appearances can only appear to human consciousness. But the skeptics require an impossible test that humans must somehow get outside of their appearances, and their consciousness as well, in order to be able to judge whether or not both are real or unreal. But in this impossible test, the skeptics ignore the true logic that when all possible answers to a question or a problem have been logically eliminated except one, then that one solution has to be the true one. Sherlock Holmes knew that. This fact can only mean that when all impossible tests are eliminated because they can produce no results, then the one true and certain fact has to be that only consciousness can have appearances.

Another undeniable fact happens to be that humans can use their appearances; that is, their sense objects and thought objects, to formulate systems that prove to be creative. One wonders how creative systems could ever be unreal since they all prove to be beneficial to humanity whereas unreal systems prove themselves to always be useless. The skeptics argue that because each individual can form their own systems of speculation or opinion about the nature of reality, then that proves that no one can tell the difference between truth and falsity. But the skeptics ignore the fact that while humans know some truths and realities, they are also on a quest to discover whatever truths and realities that lie hidden within the unknown. The skeptics also ignore the fact that each person has individual freedom and their own individual stream of consciousness which they can use to formulate their own systems that attempt to describe the nature of reality. In other words, each individual has their own creative systems within themselves. Sadly, some humans misuse their freedom. Even so, humans often get most of their conclusions about the nature of reality wrong, but each individual has the right to speculate in their own creative ways, even the skeptics. The very fact that humans can use their sense objects and thought objects in creative ways, even if only in speculation and opinion they get most of their conclusions wrong, proves that all of their sense objects and thought objects must be true and real because systems that are not true and real always prove, in themselves, to be useless. All systems of speculation and opinion can only be creative, even if they prove to be wrong, because when they are discovered to be wrong, they can all be usefully discarded from reality. In this way, wrong conclusions increase human knowledge just as much as does true conclusions.  

Systems of speculation and opinion must be investigated to determine if any conclusions reached are true and real or false and unreal. Since about the sixteenth century, the scientific method has been used as a tried and true means to discover the truth or the falsity in many speculative systems. But modern scientists have become arrogant in that, for political reasons, they have embraced certain speculative systems that possess no evidence to support their conclusions, such as the theory of evolution.

On Truth and Falsity

                              Only Reality Appears

The skeptics contend that no one can know if their sense objects and thought objects are true and real or false and unreal. The skeptics maintain that the dogmatists do not know because some of them are idealists, some realists, and some a mixture of the two. pb. OP p. 112. But if humans can use their sense objects and thought objects to formulate systems that benefit their fellow humans, then whether they appear only to the mind, or their sense objects all exist exterior to the mind in the world, makes no difference whatsoever. All sense objects and thought objects can only be true and real in either case.

The skeptics do not know if honey is really sweet or bitter because it tastes different to a healthy person and to an unhealthy person. But they ignore the fact that these are two entirely different systems. The system where honey tastes sweet to a healthy person adds to the general knowledge of all humans and is therefore a useful system. When honey tastes bitter, for whatever reason, then that is a useless system. As a universal rule, all systems fit into one of these two categories. Humans can formulate true and useful systems that improve the general knowledge and/or the well being of their fellow humans. But when humans formulate false systems, they use the very same sense objects and thought objects that they use when they formulate true and useful systems. This fact can only mean that all of the sense objects and thought objects that form useful systems or false systems must be true and real. They prove to be useful in either case. "Bitter" is a true taste whether it occurs in a true system such as unsweetened chocolate or in a false system such as the taste of honey. Falsity always occurs in the false combinations themselves, never in the elements of those combinations.

When a person discovers that a system he thought was a true one turns out to be a false one, he never discovers anything that is not real. A person observes a tower from a distance and sees it as "round," but when he walks closer to the tower he sees that it is really square. His false system that includes the true sense object "distance" and the true thought object "round" happens to be false simply because it mistakenly combines two real objects that prove to be useful in any other useful system that requires the inclusion of the real sense object "distance" and the real thought object "round." This fact can only mean that humans never observe and experience anything that is not real, but humans can use its sense objects and thought objects to form true and useful systems, or false systems, which proves that they all must be true and real. For example, a person can imagine that a unicorn exists. He uses two thought objects derived from experience called a "horn" and a "horse" to form his false system. He knows that his system is false because it is useless and means nothing. He has made use of his real idea of nothing to determine that his imagined unicorn is really false and useless and means nothing although it comprises two real thought objects. But he never directly observes the unreality of the unicorn. The fact that humanity can use its real idea of nothing to indicate the reality of false systems, and humanity can also use its sense objects and thought objects to form useful systems that increase knowledge and benefit their fellow humans, and humans never directly observe or experience unreality, only goes to prove that all of its sense objects and thought objects can only be true and real. God has calibrated human consciousness to be able to observe and experience only reality, and unreality can only be a vast emptiness that humans can never directly experience.

On Truth and Falsity

                       The Dogmatism of the Skeptics

The skeptics use their own forms of logic and reason to reach conclusions that they believe to be true. When they do this, they contradict their own doctrine that everyone should suspend judgment as to what could be true or false. The skeptics make judgments. One cannot make judgments without some idea of what is true and false. They judge that human intellect happens to be incapable of reaching any conclusion as to what is real or unreal. Their dogmatic truth happens to be that human intellect and reasoning powers are pretty much useless, except for their own.

They also judge that any conclusion to which the dogmatists may reach by inquiry can only be impossible. They apply an impossible infinity test to any conclusions that the dogmatists logically come to. In order to judge anything as being impossible, one must have a true idea of the possible. Their dogmatic truth happens to be that the logic and reason of the dogmatists can only be impossible, but their own logical judgment that no one can ever tell the difference between truth and falsity has to be absolutely possible. The skeptics thus conclude that the possible is true and and the impossible is false. One wonders why the skeptics do not suspend judgment as to the truth and falsity of that belief.

The skeptics further conclude that the dogmatists cannot know the difference between truth and falsity because they all disagree with each other. But the skeptics ignore the fact that each dogmatist uses his own form of logic and reason to make inquiries as to what could be true or false. The dogmatists use systems of speculation and opinion that can be investigated to determine if any of their conclusions could be true or false. The dogmatists get most of their ideas wrong, but they still have the right to formulate systems of speculation and opinion by the use of their logic and reason. If the possible is true, as the skeptics admit, then it is quite possible that the dogmatist could get some of their ideas right. The ancient dogmatic philosophers got most of their conclusions wrong, but just the fact that they tried to advance human knowledge contributed to the advancement of civilization. Many scientists postulate theories that upon investigation later prove to be false but they should be commended for trying to discover the truth. Even false speculations prove to be useful for the discovery of truth because they all can be usefully discarded and put out of reality. The skeptics actually dogmatically assert that their own form of logic and reason should be the only one considered to be true, and all other forms of reason and logic should be considered absurd. A logical judgment that something is absurd means that one must consider the opposite forms of logic to be true.

The truth that the skeptics actually reach for themselves is that human logic and reason, except for their own, is pretty much useless, and that humans are really not much better than animals, and therefore, humans should adopt the amoral lifestyle of the animals. Human civilizations are pretty much based on philosophy, and so humans can thank God that the philosophy of the skeptics was never adopted by any and all civilizations because if it had been, then all human progress would have come to an abrupt halt.

On Truth and Falsity

                             Reality Cannot Be False


The skeptics admit that their bodies hunger for food and thirst for water so that they can stay alive. pb. OP p.92. Food and water are appearances, but they happen to be necessary to keep humans alive. The skeptics assert that all appearances could be false, but falsity always happens to be completely useless and equal to nothing unless humans add other ideas to false systems in order to make them useful. All this means that food and water cannot possibly be false or unreal because these have proven to be useful systems that keep humans alive. Since the systems of food and water can only be real, then all of the elements of food and water must also be real. When one reads a dictionary in any language, one finds that all of the words have meaning, even if they mean nothing, and therefore denote sense objects and thought objects that happen to be useful in the formulation of beneficial systems or false systems. That can only mean, by the use of inductive reasoning, that all sense objects and all thought objects experienced by consciousness must be true and real.

Some may counter with the argument that all appearances could be but an illusion, even if useful. They contend that human consciousness could exist in a kind of dream state. But a dream state of consciousness happens to be quite different from an awake state. Dreams often make little sense, and any type of thought object can unexpectedly appear in the dream state. That seldom happens in the awake state. When humans encounter systems that make little sense in the awake state, they often instigate investigations of those systems to find out why. Humans seldom do that in the dream state. Fantastic events can happen in the dream state. They seldom happen in the awake state.

In addition, if consciousness produces appearances that are all mere illusions, one would still undeniably have to admit that consciousness produces them. Even if consciousness produces only false appearances, consciousness can nevertheless use those appearances to formulate beneficial or false systems. But since all illusions have proven to be useless and false except when humans can add ideas to them to make them useful, then such a consciousness could never produce beneficial systems. Even false systems have proven to be beneficial because they can be usefully discarded and put out of reality. All of this means that a consciousness that produces only falsity could never produce any beneficial systems. If consciousness produced only false sense objects and thought objects that it could nevertheless use to formulate beneficial and false systems, and all falsity became useless within those systems, and no means could be found to discover that all appearances were false, then that illusory reality would be indistinguishable from reality itself. Consciousness is a basic, irreducible system that produces the full spectrum of reality. Consciousness has to be a true system. If consciousness were a false system, it would be useless and would produce nothing at all. In other words, consciousness has to exist in order for reality to exist. If consciousness did not exist, only an absolute nothingness would non-exist. That fact can only mean that an Infinite Consciousness must exist in order to create an eternal reality. Genesis 1:1 (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

                 The Skeptics Cannot Avoid Reality

The skeptics admit they they can use their minds to establish a system that allows them to use their idea of nothing to exclude from their systems all judgments as to whether or not any of their appearances are real or not real. They do not mean that their idea of nothing can negate appearances; they only mean that their idea of nothing gives them the ability to consider all their appearances as being equal to nothing as far as their suspension of judgment is concerned. pb. OP ps. 74-75.

But when the skeptic asserts that he can use his mind that possesses the idea of nothing that he can use to make his suspension of judgment about the reality or unreality of his appearances, he has actually established a system that works to produce a result. He admits that his mind, by its use of his idea of nothing, can formulate a system that actually produces a result, even if that result is false. In other words, he admits that his mind and his idea of nothing can be used to formulate a system that produces a result which means that his mind and his idea of nothing have to be real because if they were not real, they would be useless. Even in the skeptical philosophy, the skeptic cannot avoid the fact that the powers of human reason can formulate systems by the use of its sense objects and thought objects that produce results even if those results are false. The usefulness of the mind and all of its sense objects and thought objects can only be real.

The skeptics also claim that for every argument that the dogmatists make for the reality of appearances, the skeptic can devise an equal argument that appearances cannot be real. pb. OP ps. 75-79. But the skeptics ignore the fact that the dogmatists attempt to formulate appearances into systems that benefit their fellow humans, even it only by an increase in knowledge. The dogmatists can also formulate systems that prove to be useless and false, but in either case, the dogmatists formulate systems that really and undeniably produces results. Because the dogmatists can formulate systems that produce real results, whether true or false, then the elements of those systems; that is, the appearances, must themselves prove to be useful, and therefore, true and real. Otherwise, the appearances themselves would be useless, and no systems of any kind could be formed from them.

One of the mistakes the skeptics make is that they can easily formulate systems that can demonstrate that appearances could be untrue when they ignore the usefulness of systems of appearances. Appearances, considered by themselves, could be true or false if they are not used in any way. Sextus Empiricus was a physician, but apparently, he ignored the fact that when he mixed the elements of his medicines together and gave a medicine to a patient and that patient recovered from his sickness, then that fact had to mean that his system of medicine helped his patient to really recover, and therefore, every element of his medicine had to be true and real.

The skeptics also assert that if any system of appearances should prove to be useless or simply a matter of speculation or opinion, then that fact would also prove that the elements of those systems could also be useless and untrue. But they ignore the fact that the ability of the mind to use its appearances to formulate any system, whether true or false or speculative, proves that the mind and all of its appearances have to be true and real. If the mind and all of its appearances actually existed in a state between truth and falsity, then even if appearances existed at all, they could only exist in a state of complete chaos and uselessness.

On Truth and Falsity

                          How Consciousness Works

While the skeptics contend that no one can tell the difference between truth and falsity in appearances, they do admit that humans have appearances. Since appearances cannot be denied, the question arises as to what do appearances appear? Appearances are moving pictures in the world, but how did they get there? The only possible answer is that consciousness produces them. This fact can only mean that consciousness has to be the active agent capable of producing pictures in the world. Consciousness can produce its appearances even if they all are false. Consciousness can really produce pictures that cannot be denied, and that can only mean that consciousness has to be real. The empiricists assert that humans can only learn from experience. Consciousness also holds the power to produce abstract pictures within consciousness. If consciousness happens to be the only power capable of producing pictures of sense objects and pictures of thought objects, then consciousness has experienced them all.

Human consciousness also possesses intelligence. By its use of intelligence, consciousness can make sense of its moving pictures whether of those in the world or those abstracted from the world which reside as ideas in consciousness. Intelligence holds the power to form its sense objects and thought objects into words and those words into systems, such as sentences, so that intelligence can communicate with other humans and can formulate systems that benefit one's fellow humans. Intelligence could abstract ideas from sense appearances and form a system called a "wheel," and then turn that "wheel" into a sense object that benefits human transportation. Intelligence could abstract ideas from pieces of rare medals and turn those ideas into a system of "numbers" in money that would benefit human commerce. Since consciousness possesses the undeniable ability to use its intelligence to form beneficial systems, then those systems would also have to be real. But how could they be real if formed from sense objects and thought objects that could be false, assuming that falsity means whatever is useless? When the skeptics asserted that no one can tell the difference between truth and falsity in appearances, did not they mean that the true would be useful and the false would be useless? If human intelligence can form useful systems from all of its sense objects and thought objects, then all of its appearances and ideas would have to be real since they all are useful.

But human intelligence can also form systems that are useless or even harmful, such as lies. This means that intelligence can form the idea of falsity. But where does falsity appear to consciousness? When intelligence examines all of its false systems, it finds that all false systems comprise those same useful sense objects and thought objects that have proven to be useful in  the formation of useful systems. That fact can only mean that falsity always resides in the false combinations of true and real objects and ideas and never in the objects and ideas themselves. But that also means that falsity never directly appears to consciousness. So how did human intelligence ever get the idea that a system could be false? Humans noticed that some systems meant nothing or were even harmful to humans. For those reasons, humans called those systems false. But in order to realize this fact, humans used the true and real idea of nothing to make those determinations. Human intelligence had to realize that false systems mean nothing because they all are either useless or harmful to humans. But this knowledge of falsity also proves to be useful to human reality because false systems can be usefully discarded.

Even so, many systems in human knowledge happen to be systems of speculation or opinion which humans must investigate to discover whether they are true or false. But these systems also always comprise true and real objects and ideas. When humans discover that one of these systems is true and real, then that benefits as an increase in human knowledge. When humans discover that one of these systems is false, then that system can be usefully discarded. But some humans use false systems that harm others because of their own evil systems in their minds, or because they believe that through the use of harmful systems they can somehow, someday come to better systems.

The falsity that never directly appears to consciousness has to be the same as unreality. So how did consciousness ever obtain the indirect concept of unreality if it can only experience the true and the real? Consciousness obtained that indirect concept by the use of the real and useful idea of nothing. But how could consciousness use the idea of nothing since it too never directly appears to consciousness? The only possible answer has to be that both the indirect concept of unreality and the inexperienced idea of nothing had to have been given to human consciousness by an Infinite Consciousness because without those two concepts, humans would never be able to know reality because in order to know reality, humans must know how to recognize the true and real and eliminate the false.

On Truth and Falsity

                               How Reality Works

Certain truths which become known through intuition to be true, have to be true simply because they cannot be false. These are called a priori truths. The skeptics would argue that a priori truths cannot be true unless they are tested to infinity. "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line" happens to be a system considered to be an a priori truth. But the skeptics would contend that in order to prove that this system is true, one would have to gather an infinite number of examples of this system and compare them to know for certain that this system is true.

But if this infinite test has already been made because all a priori truths reside in an Infinite Mind, then one can be certain that this system can only be an a priori truth. Psalm 147:5 (KJB). Even so, God would never inform humans that a priori truths must be real because He has put them to an infinite test. If God did that, He would also have to prove that an Infinite Mind exists. God does not desire to prove His existence because to do so would mean He would have to abrogate the free will He has given to humans. Humans would be compelled to believe in Him, and that fact would leave the value of His great Love unproven. In this fallen world, God desires that every human freely choose to believe in Him and love Him because that happens to be the only way that God's great Love can be proven to be true and real for every human. Only freely chosen love can be real love. Only through the freely chosen love of all humans for God can He overpower and purge all evil from His creations. John 12:47; II Peter 3:9-13. God proved His infinite Love for humanity when He sacrificed Himself to save all of humanity, but that proof can only become real for humanity when all humans come to a time when they freely choose to believe in His great Love and sacrifice for them. God cannot purge all evil from His creation until that happens. John 12:31-32; Luke 3:6 (KJB).

God created humans to possess consciousness, self-consciousness, intelligence, a conscience, free will, and goodness. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31 (KJB). Humans can be conscious of their stream of consciousness which constitutes all of their sense objects and thought objects. This is also self-consciousness. Humans also possess intelligence which means they can manipulate their sense objects and thought objects to create useful systems that benefit themselves and the rest of humanity. This desire and ability to create good systems constitutes the goodness that God puts into every human He creates. But because of their fallen nature, humans can also use these same sense objects and thought objects to invent false systems of "excessive pleasure" and "excessive pride" called sin and evil which prove to be harmful to themselves and others. But God also gave humans a conscience that tells them that those false systems are harmful and wrong, especially when a person deliberately commits a cruel and evil act. "Pleasure" is a perfectly good sense object, and "pride" is a perfectly good thought object when used in creative systems, but they can be misused. Sin and evil happen to be a misuse of God's good sense objects and thought objects for the invention of false systems. Humans also possess free will by means of which they can freely choose to create good and useful systems or sinful and evil systems. But God has proven that His infinite Love for humanity can only be real when He sacrificed Himself to save humanity from the eternal, negative effects of sin and evil. God desires that all humans freely choose to return to faith in His infinite Love that can never fail. I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB). God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB). For these reasons, God knows exactly how to cause every human to freely choose to reject all sin and evil and return to faith in His great Love which will forever prove that His infinite Love can never fail. Only then will God be able to purge all sin and evil from His entire creation and recreate it all to be righteous. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:5 (KJB).

How then does God inform humans that all of their sense objects and thought objects can only be true and real? Since God cannot inform humans that He has put them all to an infinite test, then He must inform them through intuitive knowledge of a priori truths. God lets humans know that a priori truths must be true and real simply because it is impossible that they can be false. All mathematical knowledge and all formal logic fits into this category. But for the sake of free will, God also allowed humans to have some doubt as to whether or not all other sense objects and thought objects could be true and real. This fact allowed the skeptics to form their doubtful systems of philosophy. But humans should realize that all of the basic, irreducible elements of their consciousness must be true and real simply because they cannot be false. The basic and irreducible idea of a "circle" constitutes the complete spectrum of all sizes of circles. The basic and irreducible idea of "hard" constitutes the full spectrum of all sense objects that possess some hardness. The basic and irreducible idea of "justice" constitutes the full spectrum of all systems that claim to be just and fair. The same can only be true of all the basic, irreducible ideas that God has given to human knowledge. When human consciousness blends all of the complete spectrums of all the basic and irreducible ideas together, that constitutes the true and real nature of reality.

On Truth and Falsity

                               The Reality of Causation

The skeptics believe that if any person desires to get their philosophy right, then those persons should adopt the skeptics philosophy that no one can discern the difference between truth and falsity in their appearances. This means that the skeptics believe that all appearances could be but mere illusions. But if the skeptics would examine their sense objects and thought objects more closely, they would observe that illusions, by themselves, always prove to be useless. Humans can add or subtract other ideas to systems of illusion to make them useful but, by themselves, illusions are always useless or even harmful. On the other hand, humans possess the mental power to use sense objects and thought objects to create systems that prove to be beneficial to their fellow humans. Humans can also use these same sense objects and thought objects to invent false systems, such as lies, that always prove to be useless or even harmful to their fellow humans. One would think that since humans possess the ability to formulate sense objects, such as machines, and thought objects, such as abstract mathematical formulas, into useful and beneficial systems, then both the objects used and the beneficial systems created would both be true and real. One would also think that since illusions always prove to be useless or harmful, then all basic sense objects and thought objects and their useful systems would have to be true and real. One would also think that since humans can also formulate false systems with the use of real and true sense objects, such as machines that do not work, and real and true thought objects, such as lies, then that fact would prove to humans that falsity never appears in reality, but only occurs as the result of false systems comprised of true and real objects. Falsity never directly appears to the human mind. Humans always use the true and real idea of nothing to indirectly indicate the non-appearance of falsity which, in turn, indicates that false systems should be usefully discarded. This fact means that every sense object and every thought object that humans can experience has proven to be useful in some way, and therefore, true and real.

The skeptics attack the idea of causation as being a proof that appearances can be true and real. The dogmatists used the idea of cause and effect to try to prove that appearances can be real. But the skeptics counter the dogmatists' arguments with the contention that causes are never directly observed, that the dogmatists disagree with each other about what causation could be, and since one cause would need another cause to explain it and still another cause to explain that cause reaching toward infinity, then no one can know that causes can be true and real. pb. OP ps.68-70. The skeptic, David Hume, adopted the idea that causes are never directly observed with his theory of association. Hume opined that one never observes one thing causing another. One can only observe two or more events happening repeatedly at the same time, but which may not happen the same way in the future. Just because the sun comes up every morning does not mean that it will come up tomorrow morning. Hume believed that inductive reasoning can fail. But inductive reasoning never fails if a particular system that repeats itself never changes. If the sun does not come up in the morning that will happen because the system of gravity that holds the earth in orbit around the sun became weaker and the earth flew off into space, or the sun exploded, or some other drastic change occurred in the repeated system. Inductive reasoning, within an unchanged system, never fails, but changes within an inductive system can cause it to seem to fail. If a scientist obtains a different result from an experiment that always produces the same result, he will immediately investigate to find out what changed in his system that produced the different result.

In addition, causes can be indirectly observed. Hume contended that if a person pushes a book across a table to a friend, that person never observes the cause of the motion. That person only observes his fingers in contact with the book with both in motion across the table. But one knows by experience that a book lying on a table will always remain that way until its system changes. In other words, sense objects have inertia. When one applies one's fingers to push the book, one feels the pressure of the weight of the book against one's fingers. In this way, one establishes a system where one experiences the weight of the book by a needed pressure on one's fingers which has to be the same as the force needed to move the book across the table. One can therefore establish a valid logical system that pressure means force which, in turn, causes the movement of a book with the use of the fingers. One can also logically assume that force can cause motion in any sense object even though one never directly observes the force or the cause itself.

If both force and cause are true and real elements of reality, then how did they become real? The skeptics argue that one can never know that they are real because one cause needs to be proven to be real by another cause and still another toward infinity, and this infinite test happens to be impossible for humans to do. But all sense objects and thought objects could have already been proven to be true and real by an infinite test applied by an Infinite Consciousness. But admittedly, that infinite test of reality would require faith and not direct knowledge.

On Truth and Falsity

                                 A Proof of Reality

The skeptics base some of their arguments on the fallacy of circular reasoning. Circular reasoning means that a person assumes something to be true, and then they try to prove that truth by the same assumption. The skeptics argue that sense objects cannot prove that thought objects are real, and thought objects cannot prove that sense objects are real because both themselves have not been proven to be real. They contend that in order to be true and real both sense objects and thought objects must be tested to infinity to prove that they are true and real. Since that test happens to be impossible for humans to do, then every person should suspend all judgment as to the truth of reality itself. pb. OP ps.63-67. Circular reasoning is always false because it happens to be always useless. But in the broad sense, circular reasoning can be valid because all that humans discover to be true can only be described in terms of that which is already known. When scientists discovered atoms to be real, they could only describe them in mathematical and geometric terms already known.

The skeptics contend that one must suspend all judgment as to what is true and real because all of reality could be just an illusion. But reality cannot be an illusion because all illusions prove themselves to be useless except when humans attach real ideas to them in order to make them useful. Fiction writers and magicians regularly attach the idea of "entertainment" to their illusions in order to create useful systems. The police regularly lie to criminals holding hostages because the police attach the idea of "rescue" to that illusion in order to make it into a useful system in their attempt to rescue the hostages from possible harm. All sense objects and all thought objects prove themselves to be true and real because humans can use them all to invent useful systems that benefit humanity. Reality is always creative. Illusions are usually useless. All useful systems always comprise true and real sense objects and/or thought objects, but illusions also always comprise true and real sense objects and/or thought objects.

Humans observe sense objects and thought objects in a stream of consciousness. But intelligence happens because humans can be conscious of their stream of consciousness and can therefore manipulate their objects in order to invent systems that prove to be useful and real or useless and false. But since no one can say anything of which one is not conscious, then one must realize that in order to be conscious of one's stream of consciousness then one needs a consciousness of one's consciousness of one's stream of consciousness. But this process requires still another consciousness which proceeds toward infinity. This procession of consciousness toward infinity could be called the spirit of the human being. The skeptics applied the infinity test for the establishment of reality to the sense and thought objects, but the infinity test that establishes reality should be applied to human consciousness. However, human consciousness happens to be far to weak and limited to be able to carry this process to infinity.

In order for time and space to exist, at least limited consciousness must exist, which being always in the present divides the universe into the past, present, and future. If a consciousless universe existed prior to the advent of human consciousness, then that universe could only perpetually be a singularity, completely devoid of space and time. Consciousness has to exist in order for space and time to exist. This fact can only mean that an Infinite Consciousness has to exist who expanded a singularity to create a universe with space and time. This Infinite Consciousness would have to possess an Infinite Existence and an Infinite Presence. This Infinite Consciousness created humans in His image which means He gave humans intelligence, a conscience, and a direct connection of the limited spirit of humans to His Infinite Consciousness. Genesis 1:27 (KJB). This can only mean that God calibrated human consciousness to be conscious of the reality of all of its sense objects and thought objects.

On Truth and Falsity

                       On Systems of Morals and Ethics

The skeptics contend, even to this day, that because different ethnic groups and races practice different systems of morals and customs, then all customs and morals must be equal, and therefore, no one can judge the truth about what is good and what is evil. They ridicule the dogmatists for even attempting to speculate about what could be good morals and what could be bad morals. Because they believe that goodness and evil are equal to each other, and therefore, do not exist, they ridiculed Democritus for his theory of atoms as also being something that they thought cannot exist. But Democritus only sought to enlarge human knowledge about hidden things which would also have the effect of helping humans to discover the truth about hidden morals. Democritus had the last laugh on the skeptics when science discovered that atoms do exist. The difference between good and bad morals can also be hidden within human consciousness. But the good dogmatists attempt to discover and reveal the truth that good morals and bad morals actually exists. pb. OP ps.59-63.

The Bible (KJB) informs that when God created humans He gave them a conscience in their consciousness so that when evil came into their existence, they would be able to discover the difference between good morals acts and evil acts. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:17 (KJB). But evil proved to have such a powerful influence on the human conscience that many people began to practice immoral acts as if no difference existed between good and evil. Romans 19-32 (KJB). But God also exerted His influence in human history to keep alive among some people the knowledge of Him and His goodness that He puts into humans when He creates them. At the time of the worldwide flood, God had only one man, Noah, and his family who retained their knowledge that a decided difference exists between good systems and evil systems.

The entire history of the human race demonstrates that God has used His influence on the goodness that He puts into the inner beings of every human to cause certain humans to search the consciousness of humanity to try to discover the difference between good and evil. God gave Israel His prophets for that purpose. God caused the influence of His written Word and Christianity on Western civilization that elevated it to a much higher degree of the knowledge of the difference between good and evil. Many leaders and groups of people have practiced very cruel and evil acts, but among the general population, the knowledge of the difference between good and evil has been much better than that among the other peoples of the world. Western civilization has caused progress in the entire world toward better systems of morality over immorality. Such evils as slavery, human sacrifice, and ignorance have been eliminated from much of the world through the influence of Western civilization. Western civilization has established many good systems such as hospitals, better systems of education, and better systems of justice. Sadly though, war has not been eliminated from Western civilization. Western civilization has even progressed to the establishment of free societies where every individual has equal value and can be free in his conscience to think and express whatever he believes, and can do whatever he pleases as long as he obeys the law. But within the last 200 years, certain atheistic philosophers have influenced the world to return to such evil systems as cruelty, tyranny, and control of the human mind.

Even before God called the Apostle Paul to bring the gospel to Western civilization, God had raised up certain dogmatic philosophers to search the human conscience to try to find the difference between goodness and evil. Acts 16:6-11 (KJB). The ancient Greeks and Romans had a natural inclination toward systems of curiosity and wonder as the Apostle Paul discovered when he visited Athens. Acts 17:18-34 (KJB). Socrates, by his use of his dialectical method, sought to elicit truth and eliminate falsity from the human conscience. By the use of his method, Socrates arrived at the conclusion that certain persons had a talent for being virtuous whereas most people did not. In other words, Socrates realized that certain persons were better at listening to their conscience which told them the difference between morality and immorality. Many of the ancient philosophers seemed to have that same talent. Western civilization seemed to already be able to make some progress toward better societies even before Christianity arrived.

The skeptics unwittingly admitted that the Greek and Roman civilizations had attained a higher degree of moral conscience when they wrote that they had proscribed such evils as incest, adultery, and human sacrifice that was openly practiced by other ethnic groups. Perhaps, because of their higher moral standards, God sent His gospel to Western civilization because those people were far more likely to receive its faith and its excellent moral standards than other peoples of the world. The fact that God has used Western civilization to progress the world toward better systems of morality provides evidence that a difference between moral systems and immoral systems actually exists.

On Truth and Falsity

                            The Skeptics' Mistakes

The skeptics contend that because sense objects and thought objects can change according to quantity and quality, then no one can tell what their true natures really can be. pb. OP ps. 54-56. But they overlook the fact that systems constantly change, but not the true and real basic elements of those systems. A system always changes because true and real elements are added or subtracted from that system. The color of objects can change when they become "scattered" and "loose," but when they become "combined" into large quantities, then color can change again. In order for this to happen, the true and real sense objects called "scattered" and "loose" must be subtracted from the first system, and the true and real sense object called "combined" must be added to the second system. Also, the colors change from one true and real color to another. Systems where the true and real idea of "moderation" is used can be quite different from a system where "excess" is used. Reality never changes. Only true and real sense objects and thought objects can be added or subtracted from systems that change within reality. In many systems, such as in medicine, the measurements of the true and real elements combined into the medicine must be exact in order for the system to be beneficial for the patient. In science and technology, often the systems invented must have exact, mathematical combinations of elements in order to work properly. Systems of sense objects and thought objects can constantly change in their formulations, but the basic, true and real elements of those systems never change.

The skeptics assert that since all systems of objects are relative to each other, then no one can tell what the true and real nature of objects can be. But they give their own game away when they use the word "combination." pb. OP ps.56-57. All systems combine individual, basic elements which cannot be reduced in nature and that always prove to be useful in the formulation of systems that benefit humanity. These true and real elements cannot be false because they all happen to be useful to consciousness and because falsity only appears to consciousness in false combinations of these true and real elements. Even the real idea of nothing happens to be a basic element of reality because it has proven to be useful to consciousness to exclude ideas not needed in the formulation of particular systems, and it identifies the falsity in false combinations so that those systems can be usefully discarded. Some systems will appear quite similar to others, but nevertheless, they will always contain some differences. For example, a German shepherd dog appears quite similar to a wolf. But the system of the German shepherd will contain the basic element called "tame" or "gentle" whereas the system of the wolf will be "ferocious." Both are useful systems in their own right. Every relative system always contains different basic elements whether those systems happen to be true or false. The usefulness of all basic elements prove them all to be true and  real which also proves that they cannot be false.

The skeptics make the same mistakes regarding systems which are rare or frequent. pb. OP ps. 58-59. Naturally, rare systems will cause amazement, or be more valuable, simply because they contain the basic element called "rarity." Frequent systems are taken for granted simply because they contain the basic idea called "frequency." Systems of sense objects and thought objects will change in the human stream of consciousness, but every system will always contain different real and true elements, with their spectrums, which forms that broad spectrum called "reality."

Falsity in systems can also be called "illusion." Illusion always appears useless to human consciousness except in certain special circumstances. Fiction writers and magicians use illusion to form useful systems called "entertainment." But they must add "entertainment" to their systems of illusions in order to make them useful. Fire can be a destructive system or a useful system depending on how it is used. Firefighters sometimes use fire to fight fire. But they must add the idea of "fight" to their system in order to make it useful. Lies are usually useless, and even destructive, systems, but if the idea of "rescue" of an innocent person is added to a lie, then that would be a very useful system. Intelligent humans possess the ability to add or subtract ideas from false and illusory systems in order to change them to useful systems.

On Truth and Falsity

                              The Reality of Consciousness

The skeptics contend that because the mind can cause misapprehensions, then that too means that no one can tell that which is true from that which is false in apprehension. pb. OP p. 54. But one would think that if there really were no differences in truth and falsity in experience, then every apprehension would make no sense, and intelligence would be impossible. But the mind can discern order in experience, and the mind has the power to abstract meaning from experience, put that meaning into words and ideas, and formulate true and useful systems that increase knowledge and with that the well being of fellow humans. One would think that if there were really no difference between truth and falsity in experience, then order in nature would be impossible. Everything would be disordered. Humans know from experience that order never emerges from disorder except in very minor and accidental ways. If the human mind can abstract order from disorder, how did it acquire that power? Since the human mind can observe order in nature, and can abstract meaning from that order, put that meaning into words and ideas, and formulate ordered systems from those ideas and words for the benefit of their fellow humans, then it would seem that order would be the same as truth. But order cannot happen without an intelligent mind. This fact can only mean that before humans came into the universe, there had to be a ubiquitous Intelligent Mind who created all of the order in the universe, including life itself.

In addition, the mind cannot work without consciousness. Human consciousness has the power to be conscious of its stream of consciousness and can manipulate its abstracted words and ideas to form creative systems. But the human mind also has the power to be conscious of consciousness itself without the stream of consciousness. This consciousness of consciousness itself cannot be an illusion. God has calibrated the human mind to be able to be conscious of true and real experiences only. All false systems, such as illusions, always comprise true and real sense experiences and/or thought experiences. All sense objects and thought objects are useful to the human mind in its creation of beneficial systems, including the useful and real idea of nothing. If consciousness of consciousness were an illusion, it would have to be a useless false system, but it cannot be a false system. Falsity only occurs in false systems comprised of true and real sense objects and thought objects that prove their reality because they all happen to be useful for the formation of both true and false systems. The basic idea called "red" forms the spectrum of all shades of red. The basic idea called "honesty" forms the spectrum of all systems that practice honesty. The basic idea of "justice" forms the spectrum of all systems that attempt to be just. Heraclitus actually wrote that one can step into the same river twice, but with each step one experiences a constantly changing river. He meant that although the river changes with its flow, the whole river remains the same. The same happens to be true of reality. Even when a person experiences false systems, such as lies or a ghost, they always comprise true and real experiences that can also be used to formulate true and useful systems. For example, a "ghost" always comprises such experiences as "white," "mist" in "human" "shape," all of which happen to also be useful in the formation of true and useful systems. Falsity only occurs in false systems, but all of the basic and irreducible ideas can only be true and real. Therefore, consciousness of consciousness can only be true and real because "consciousness" itself can only be the basic and irreducible idea that forms the entire spectrum of everything of which consciousness can be conscious, including consciousness itself.

On Truth and Falsity

                           Reality Never Changes

The skeptics seem to believe that if there were a true reality, then every appearance should be exact and unchanging. They present "admixtures" as their evidence that because appearances can constantly change, then no one can tell what the true nature of reality could be. They do not realize that every changing condition simply means a change of systems of reality with each system comprised of true and real appearances. For example, they contend that the human complexion changes when one is in warm air than when one is in cold air. Supposedly, being white people, they meant that one's face would be red in warm air and pale in cold air, and because of that, no one can tell what the true complexion of a white person could be. But they fail to realize that the true and real appearance called "warm" occurs in the first system, and the true and real appearance called "cold" occurs in the second system. Reality itself did not change, only different systems of reality changed. Systems of the reality of sense objects constantly changes, especially if one is watching television, and the stream of consciousness in every human also constantly changes, but only from one real system to another because every individual appearance in all sense objects and thought objects always displays a basic reality that does not change. The skeptics present as evidence for their claims other examples of changing appearances, but only from one real system to another. pb. OP ps. 52-54

The true system of reality covers the entire spectrum of sense and thought appearances. The truth that systems of reality can change, but the basic idea of reality itself never changes can be illustrated by the following analogy. An FM radio station emits a carrier wave of a certain frequency. But the music and voices that one hears when one plays his radio happens to be carried by a modulation of the frequency of the carrier wave by the constantly changing frequencies in the music and the voices. The systems of the music and voices constantly changes, but the carrier wave itself never changes. In a similar way, systems of reality constantly change, but the basic idea of reality itself; that is, of being itself, never changes. The same happens to be true of all the basic realities. The color red can change to different shades of red, but the basic, irreducible idea of "red" never changes. Circles can come in many different sizes, but the basic, irreducible idea of a "circle" never changes. The same can be said of systems of beauty. Even if one judges something to be ugly, one must still possess the basic idea of "beauty" in order to make that judgment. The same can be said of all of the other basic, irreducible ideas in reality such as "truth," "justice," and "love."

Basic realities that never change can only be eternal. God gave these basic realities to humans when He created them. Genesis 1:27. God calibrated the minds of humans to be able to experience only that which is true and real even when systems of reality change. God gave humans intelligence which means that humans can formulate many different true systems that increase human knowledge, which in turn, increases the well being of humans. Humans can also formulate false systems, such as lies, or humans can also formulate systems of speculation and opinion which requires investigation, or the trial and error method, to determine if they are true or false systems. But no matter what systems humans formulate, they all always comprise true and real basic realities. Humans can only experience true, basic realities that never change. Humans can formulate or observe false systems, but every false system always comprises true and basic realities. When false systems become identified as being false, humans use the real and useful idea of nothing to identify them as being false. False systems never increase human knowledge, and therefore, should always be usefully discarded. Since humans can only experience true and real basic sense objects and thought objects, then unreality can never appear to human consciousness.

On Truth and Falsity

                            The "Ad Infinitum" Test

The skeptics resort to an "ad infinitum" argument to try to demonstrate that no one can know the true nature of any experience. They declare that if anyone claims that a sense object or thought object can be true and real, then that person must provide a test to prove that that object is true and real. This argument is similar to saying that a foot ruler may not be exactly a foot long, and so one needs an exact foot ruler to measure it. But the exact foot ruler may not be exactly a foot long which means that a person would need another exact foot ruler and so on until a person realizes that no true foot ruler exists. In a similar way, people should realize that no true sense object or thought object exists. The skeptics claim that no one can know if a sense object or thought object is true or real unless they have a true test of the reality of that object. But every test of an object would require another test of the test itself and so on to infinity because every test may not be real. pb. OP p. 52

The skeptics then judge that since any such test to infinity can only be impossible, then no one can know if a sense object or thought object can ever be true and real. But when the skeptics concede that a test to infinity would be a true and real test that would prove the reality of sense and thought objects, they evidently admit that the idea of infinity can only be a true and real idea. They also admit that a system of impossibility must also be true and real since they use this idea to make a real judgment that no one can ever have a true and real experience. The skeptics evidently believe that the ideas of "impossibility" and "infinity" must be true and real even though both are solely thought objects that the skeptics consider to be even less real than sense objects.

But if an infinite test of all sense objects and thought objects is needed to prove that reality exists, such an infinite test actually happens to be possible. The skeptic, David Hume, when he looked into his own mind, he said that he saw only his own stream of consciousness. He desired to refute the idea of self-consciousness. But since no one can say anything about something of which one is not aware, then how did Hume become aware of his stream of consciousness? He could only have seen his stream of consciousness because he became conscious of it. Hume had to have had a real consciousness of his stream of consciousness, because otherwise, he could have said nothing about it. If Hume had had a stream of consciousness only, then he would have been an animal who has a stream of consciousness but no consciousness of it. Hume had to have had a real consciousness of his stream of consciousness. This has to be self-consciousness. But in order for a person to know that they have self-consciousness, they would have to be conscious of their consciousness of their self-consciousness, and in order to be conscious of that, they would need still another consciousness and so forth toward infinity. This procession of consciousness toward infinity could be called the spirit of the human being. But the limited mind of humans prevents them from carrying this process to infinity.

But if an Infinite Consciousness exists, then He could connect the spirit of humans to infinity. An Infinite Consciousness would possess an Infinite Consciousness of Himself and an Infinite Consciousness of His infinite set of thought objects that would be One with His Being. He would also possess the ability to create an infinite set of sense objects based on His thought objects. Since He is Infinite, He would also be everywhere that it is possible for anything to be. His Infinite Consciousness would provide a reliable test for the reality of every sense object and thought object that He gives to humans. This Infinite Consciousness could only be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. John 1:1; I John 5:7 (KJB). God also created humans to be conscious of nothing except that which is true and real, and even their consciousness of the useful idea of nothing is true and real. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31 (KJB).

On Truth and Falsity

                          Different Systems, Same Reality

The skeptics apparently expect reality to be the same in every system of appearances. They contend that no one can tell what the true light of a lamp could be since it appears dim in sunlight and bright in the dark. They do not consider that the sunlight simply overpowers the lamp light and causes it to appear dim. They ignore the fact that the appearances, denoted by words, can only be real in both systems. "Sunlight" is real, and so is "dim," and so is "dark." The forms of reality can change with every different system, but reality itself never changes. The skeptics seem to think that if a lamp is truly bright, then it should have the same brightness in any system in which it appears.

They contend that if an oar appears bent in water, then no one can tell if an oar is really bent or straight. But all they had to do was to look at an oar right after someone had made it, and they would know that the normal system for an oar is that it is straight. The oar appears "bent" in water because of the way light is reflected from the water. But that fact can only be learned from a scientific investigation. The mind simply substitutes the "bent" appearance for the reflection of the light. Even though the "bent" appearance happens to be just a thought object, the mind has learned that "bent" is a real appearance in past experience.

The skeptics confuse many other systems with each other to reach their conclusion that no one can tell the difference between truth and falsity. But every word in every sentence, which are systems, has meaning derived from experience which makes them useful and real. Even nonsense words have meaning. The real idea of nothing informs the human mind that they mean nothing. That can only be useful information to the human mind. Humans can form false systems composed of true and useful sense objects and thought objects, and humans can form true and useful systems also composed of true and useful sense objects and thought objects. All thought objects are useful and real even though they all are in the mind because they have been given to the mind to be experienced, or they have been derived from sense experiences. False systems are illusions which are always useless except to fiction writers and magicians, but they always comprise true and real sense objects and/or thought objects. Reality adheres to every true or false system. The true idea of nothing informs humans when they observe or discover that a system is false. That which humans never experience is unreality.

An egg is soft inside a fowl because it is in a system of development, and hard in the air to protect it from the elements. "Hard" and "soft" are both real. A jacinth is fluid inside a lynx because it is subject to the dissolving effects of the fluids in the lynx, and it becomes hard in the air because the air dries it out. Two true but different systems in which every word happens to be useful and true. Sounds are naturally different when played through an instrument or are blowing in the wind, but "sound" itself is real and never changes. Because "sound" itself is useful and real, then every change in sound is also useful and real. All of these examples display different systems of reality, but "reality" itself never changes. Whatever never changes can only be real. pb. OP p.51. 

On Truth and Falsity

                      The Reality that Never Changes

The skeptics always confuse different systems with each other when they make their judgments that no one can tell the difference between truth and falsity. They contend that because a ship in the distance appears to be small and stationary, and it appears large and in motion when close at hand, then no one can tell if it is really large or small, in motion or stationary. But a system that has "distance" in it can only be different from a system that has "closeness" in it. The appearance of reality in different systems can change, but reality itself never changes. "Distance" is real, and "close" is real. Both are useful ideas. As far as the true reality of a ship is concerned, those who designed the ship and built it to be large and move over the water to supply a useful system to humans of carrying people and cargo to distant places know better than anyone what the true reality of the ship happens to be. pb. OP p.51.

Distance is the same as space and space is the same as time. Whenever one sees something in the distance, one sees it in the past. The stars at night look fixed in space, but they are actually moving at a high velocity. The past tends to fix events and objects into a stationary form. No matter how many times one replays a movie or a video, the events displayed happen the same way every time. That happens because the events displayed happened in the distant past. When a plane flies overhead, it appears to move slower as it approaches the horizon. The past tends to fix reality into stationary forms.

When objects and events are close to a conscious human, reality becomes changeable. Close at hand, the tendency of the past to fix events and objects in stationary form becomes negligible. Intelligent consciousness overrides the past. Human consciousness exists in the present, and events and objects that are close at hand move into the present and become subject to conscious control. Events and objects in the distant past move beyond conscious control. Thought objects are also always in the present. Yet, there always exists a very small distance between sense objects and thought objects and consciousness itself which allows consciousness to fix its objects in a very close past. Close at hand, humans can manipulate reality in sense and thought objects that it can use in creative or destructive ways according to choices made. Objects look small in the distance because the past tends to remove objects from human consciousness.

The future appears as a myriad of possibilities, but only to an intelligent consciousness. Without human consciousness, the future is also fixed by physical laws and the mathematical formulas that describe them. But no chemical process has been discovered that leads inevitably to the formation of life. Only an intelligent consciousness can manipulate chemicals to form creative or destructive systems. Life is far too complicated to have ever been formed by accident. The fact that humans can choose those possibilities that they can use to form personal systems that can be beneficial or destructive to themselves, or that can be beneficial or destructive to others, proves that humans possess free will.

All of this put together demonstrates that there can be no past, present, or future without consciousness. Consciousness is the same thing as the present. Even the physical laws and the mathematics that govern those laws had to have been created by an Intelligent Consciousness in order for the universe to have a past, present, and future. Without a past, present, and future, absolutely nothing happens. Only prophets sent by God and mathematics can predict the future, and mathematics only in very limited ways. Each individual makes choices and creates systems which, when blended with all other choices and systems, creates the history of the human race. But like individual humans, humanity as a whole tends to invent systems that move toward self-destruction. But God intervenes into human history to correct that process. Eventually, God will save the whole human race. Revelation 21:5 (KJB).

Reality can take many forms as systems, but reality itself never changes because the sense objects and thought objects revealed to consciousness are always useful and real in any true or false systems that humans observe or invent.

On Truth and Falsity

                       The Constant Systems of Reality

The skeptics contend that since humans can perceive different systems of experience under many different circumstances, then no one can tell truth from falsity or reality from unreality. They provide examples of what they mean. A porch viewed from a corner appears shorter, but when viewed from the middle appears symmetrical. But they ignore the fact that their examples simply display different systems of perception which always contain the same constant experiences arranged in different ways. The porch appears short from the corner, but "short" happens to be a constant appearance whenever a person views anything that is truly short. When viewed from the corner, the porch appears as an optical illusion where the mind substitutes the real appearance called "short" which causes a false system. Yet, every appearance in this false system is real. Falsity never appears in the constant appearances that always forms true and false systems. Every appearance in every system is constant, and therefore, real. Falsity only appears in false combinations of constant, true appearances, and then only as the real idea of nothing which indirectly indicates unreality. Those who designed and built the porch built it to be symmetrical, and therefore, the true system of perception would be that the porch is truly symmetrical. pb. OP ps.43-51.

False systems of constant appearances in sense objects and thought objects can occur because of misapprehension, hallucination, optical illusions, or simply because of mistakes that humans are prone to make such as mistakes in arithmetic. But all false systems that humans can make or perceive always comprise constant sense and thought appearances that never change. The color red can appear in many different shades, but the constant idea of "red" itself never changes. Circles can appear in many different sizes, but the idea of "circle" itself never changes. Short can be relative to whatever something is shorter than, but the idea of "short" never changes. One can judge a work of art to be beautiful or ugly, but one must possess the constant idea of "beauty" in order to be able to make such a judgment. Humans can formulate many true and false systems of justice, but the ideal of "justice" itself never changes. One would think that if humans really lived in a world where one could not tell the difference between truth and falsity, and between reality and unreality, then everything would be in a constant state of change, would fade in and out of existence, similar to impressionistic works of art. One may object that systems can deteriorate. But such systems continuously change in constant appearances such as in color and breakdown. The system called "constant appearances" means that they are constant in the mind, not that they constantly appear. Deterioration in systems simply entails another constant called "entropy." Even when systems deteriorate, they dissolve into other constants such as gases and the elements of matter.

The constants in the mind can only be possible because of another constant system called "remembrance." Remembrance occurs because an intelligent mind retains all of its constant appearances that it learned from experience, and all impressions on a mind are experienced. Remembrance in the mind causes another constant system to be possible called "knowledge." Knowledge is the ability of the mind to use its constant appearances to formulate true or false systems in perception. This means constants must be real because true systems prove to be useful to advance human knowledge whereas false systems which are illusions always prove to be useless except to fiction writers and magicians. Knowledge also makes possible the formulation of appearances into words that have meaning so that humans can communicate with each other to formulate true or false systems. Whether humans formulate true or false systems, they must possess the constant system of "knowledge" in order to do so. Whether one observes a sense object or thinks of an idea, both can only be the objects of consciousness, and therefore, both have been experienced, and both prove useful in the formulation of true and false systems. The constant system called "wisdom" occurs when a person becomes very good at formulating true systems instead of false ones.

One would think that if humans did not possess the constant true systems of "intelligence" and "knowledge," then human consciousness could only be equal to that of the animals. The animals seem to possess some remembrance, but they do not possess knowledge by means of which they can formulate true or false systems. But humans can formulate useful, true systems, and with the same constant appearances can formulate false systems that humans can identify by the use of the idea of nothing, but humans never observe unreality itself. Since humans never observe unreality itself, then every sense object and thought object can only be real. Humans can also formulate systems of speculation and opinion which takes time and investigation, or even a system of trial and error, to discover whether or not they are true or false systems. In any case, humans always experience reality whether they form true or false systems, or systems of speculation and opinion, by their use of the constant system of knowledge.