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).