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.