The Purpose of Consciousness V

 But how can the idea of nothing be something if it is nothing? The only possible answer is that human consciousness has been given the power to recognize the idea of nothing to be a true and real and useful idea that makes human intelligence possible. The idea of nothing is an immaterial idea, and yet humans undoubtedly possess it. Human consciousness possesses other useful and real, immaterial ideas. Falsity itself is a real, immaterial idea because it always equals the real idea of nothing. Infinity is a real, immaterial idea because it is useful in mathematics.

What about self-consciousness? What about a system of ideas called "consciousness of consciousness"? Consciousness itself cannot be material because it is the awareness of all that is real including all immaterial ideas. Consciousness separates itself from reality as being the consciousness of reality. Consciousness can be conscious of nothing except that which is real. In order to be useful in that way, then consciousness itself has to be a real and immaterial idea. This means that the system called "consciousness of consciousness" can only be real.

Somehow, materialist philosophers consider consciousness to be less real, or not real at all, compared to material objects that possess only inert, non-consciousness. Actually, the fact that intelligent consciousness can formulate true or false systems that either expands or limits reality means that human consciousness happens to be far more real than inert, material objects that do nothing unless acted upon. Even the fact that intelligent consciousness can make mistakes such as misapprehensions, miscalculations, have hallucinations, invent lies, or experience optical illusions only proves that consciousness must be real because consciousness always uses only real and useful ideas and experiences to formulate such false systems and be able to recognize their falsity by its use of the idea of nothing. If a person disbelieves that wings and horses exist, he limits his reality because he disbelieves in objects that really exist. But he must use his idea of nothing in order to disbelieve. If, after he has been told that wings and horses exist, he imagines a winged horse, he expands his reality into a false direction because he has formulated a false system comprised of true and real objects. If he later learns that wings and horses do exist but winged horses do not exist, he uses his real idea of nothing to expand his reality in the right direction. Such is the history of the human race. Humans eliminate false systems by its use of the idea of nothing when it discovers or invents true systems, both of which always comprise true and real ideas and/or objects.

But how did humans acquire intelligence by its use of the immaterial idea of nothing? The only possible answer is that humans were given immaterial ideas by an Infinite Consciousness that pervades the entire universe. Genesis 1:1 (KJB)

The Purpose of Consciousness IIII

 Human reality consists of true ideas, useless ideas, and systems of investigation to discover true ideas and systems of true ideas that expand human knowledge and reality. This expanded reality must be able to distinguish useless ideas that fail to expand reality by its use of the real idea of nothing. But useless ideas are nevertheless real because human consciousness can usefully discard them from its expanded reality by its useful idea of nothing. Human consciousness can experience nothing except that which is real because it can and does use the real idea of nothing to make it all real. This condition means that even if a person makes up nonsense words in his mind, those words become real as soon as he experiences them because they automatically become equal to the useful and real idea of nothing.

When any idea becomes the object of human consciousness, it immediately becomes real either as meaning nothing or it will have a meaning assigned to it by consciousness. Human consciousness cannot avoid making all of its experiences real. When Democritus thought about atoms, he immediately assigned that word to his thought, and it became real. When scientists discovered that aether does not exist, then that real idea became useful as the real idea of nothing. But the scientists had to discover that the idea of aether equals the real idea of nothing.

Human consciousness can experience only reality because all that it experiences becomes useful to expand reality or to limit the expansion of reality by its use of the idea of nothing. Human intelligence depends on this ability. Even useless ideas become useful and real to consciousness because intelligent consciousness must be able to distinguish between an expanded reality and a limited reality.

But if everything that appears to consciousness must be true and real, then where does falsity appear? The only possible answer is that falsity never appears to human consciousness except as the real idea of nothing that indirectly indicates falsity. Humans can formulate all true and useful ideas, feelings, and sense objects into true and useful systems that expand human reality. Humans can also formulate all true and useful ideas, feelings, and sense objects into false systems that usefully limit the expansion of human reality. So where is the falsity in false systems? That falsity never directly appears to humans, but the idea of nothing can indirectly indicate its presence so that that falsity can be usefully discarded from any expansion of human knowledge and reality. Mathematics reveals this universal fact. If a person makes a mistake in arithmetic and adds 2+3=6, then that person has formulated true and real numbers and signs into a false system that limits human reality because this false system really equals the true and useful idea of nothing. This example indicates that falsity and unreality never directly appear to consciousness, but consciousness can use its real idea of nothing to exclude its falsity from an expanded reality. In order to possess an intelligent consciousness, humans must be able to distinguish the difference between a real something and a real nothing.

The Purpose of Consciousness III

 The person who lives in a place that does not have birds and horses may not believe that wings or horses exist even if he is told about them. He could have no ideas about wings and horses until he is told about them. But even though he may disbelieve in them, he nevertheless acquires wings and horses as real ideas when he is told about them. He uses his real idea of nothing to exclude wings and horses from his ignorant reality, but he can still imagine a winged horse. His ideas of wings and horses becomes real to him even if he does not believe that they exist because he can use those ideas to imagine a winged horse. Later, when he has been taken to a place where birds and horses exist, and he learns that wings and horses are real sense objects, then his consciousness and his reality becomes expanded. But when he also learns that winged horses do not exist, he actually learns that real wings and horses do not exist in combination with each other. But he never acquires any idea of the non-existence of winged horses. He only uses his real idea of nothing to obtain the idea that real wings and real horses cannot be combined in reality, which is something quite different.

Mistaken combinations of real ideas are never unreal outside reality. They are always mistaken combinations within reality. Consciousness has to be real whether it happens to be conscious of reality or illusions because illusions always comprise real ideas or sense objects. It makes no sense that a real consciousness could ever directly experience any illusion except as it uses its real idea of nothing to indirectly reveal that illusions always comprise real ideas or sense objects. All mistakes, misapprehensions, miscalculations, lies, hallucinations, or optical illusions, when analyzed, will always be shown to comprise real ideas and/or sense objects. A real consciousness can only be conscious of reality. It would not be able to be directly conscious of anything that is unreal.

When Democritus proposed his idea of atoms, that idea became real as an idea to all persons who heard about atoms. Some believed that atoms existed, and others did not. But atoms became a real idea in either case. If atoms were later found to not exist, they would still be equal to the real idea of nothing. Much later, when scientists discovered that atoms are real objects, then the consciousness and the reality of the entire human race became expanded. But Democritus also had real ideas about the shapes and functions of atoms that they do not possess. That part of his theory was a false combination of real ideas. Scientists used the real idea of nothing to discard these real ideas from the true mathematical combination that are atoms. When scientists discarded these real ideas in false combination from atoms, then human consciousness and reality became further expanded.

When scientists proposed that "aether" has to exist in space to propagate light through space, then ''aether' became a real, subjective idea in their minds. But when scientists discovered that aether does not exist as a material object, then they used their real and useful idea of nothing to discard that real, subjective idea from an expanded reality. They did not obtain any idea of the non-existence of aether. They still retained this idea. They only equated this idea with the real idea of nothing. The very purpose of consciousness is to establish reality.

Human intelligence depends on its ability to tell the difference between a real something and a real nothing. Human consciousness can use speculation, observation, experimentation, logic, and mathematics to expand its reality. But humans must also use the real and useful idea of nothing to exclude from its expanded reality any real, subjective idea that equals nothing within that expanded reality. In order to expand reality, humans have to know every real idea that must be excluded from an expanded reality. There are no nonexistent ideas, only false combinations of real ideas. Any useless, subjective idea nevertheless becomes useful and real because it will always equal the real idea of nothing. 

The Purpose of Consciousness II

 When Democritus postulated the theory of atoms, then atoms became a real idea about how matter might be constituted. When atoms were discovered to be a real, objective substance, then the scientific definition of atoms expanded the reality of the human race, but all of Democritus' wrong ideas about how atoms are constructed were usefully discarded from the broadened reality as being equal to the idea of nothing. The idea of nothing is a useful idea and is therefore real. This means that Democritus' true idea about the possible existence of atoms, and his false ideas about atoms were both useful and therefore real. His true idea about atoms expanded human reality, and his false ideas were usefully discarded from the expansion of human reality. This fact makes all ideas real because consciousness makes all of its ideas useful. When scientists discovered that aether in space does not exist, they judged that this idea that is true only as an idea became equal to the idea of nothing so that it could be usefully discarded from a broadened human reality as an objective substance. Yet, the true idea that aether now equals the idea of nothing remains in human consciousness as a reality. When the idea of aether was in its speculative form it was real as a possible substance, but even its possibility was real as an idea.

If humans are to be intelligent and make progress in its expansion of reality, then humans must learn the difference between real ideas that mean nothing and can be usefully discarded, and real ideas that humans can use to expand reality and use to invent systems that broaden human knowledge and benefit humanity. All of this put together means that any idea or feeling or sense object that comes into human consciousness has to be real because they all must either be useful for the expansion of reality, or they must be useful in that they can be discarded from an expansion of reality as being equal to nothing. One may object that humans can think of nonsense words that are not real. But all nonsense words only equal the real idea of nothing which is a useful and real idea that can enhance the expansion of reality.

Everything that humans can experience happens to be useful to humans. Useful sense objects and thought objects can be formulated into useful systems. Humans can also use the real idea of nothing to exclude from an expanded reality all sense objects and thought objects that prove to be useless and therefore equal to the idea of nothing. In order to be intelligent and to be able to use that intelligence to expand human reality, humans have to know the difference between ideas and sense objects that are useful for the formulation of useful systems and ideas and sense objects that are useless and equal to the real and useful idea of nothing. But even useless ideas and sense objects must be real because humans can know, or discover, that they can be usefully discarded from an expansion of human reality. It is quite impossible for any human to experience or imagine any idea, feeling, or sense object that is not real.

Some contend that everything could be an illusion. But even if everything were an illusion, there can still be no doubt that consciousness would be that which is conscious of this illusion. Therefore consciousness would have to be the only real entity. If everything were an illusion, then the brain itself would be an illusion. If so, then consciousness would have to be something entirely separate from the brain. But such a condition would also mean that if everything were real, then it could only be consciousness that makes it all real. This condition also means that everything of which consciousness can be conscious must either be an illusion or be real. There can be no mixture of reality with unreality. 

The Purpose of Consciousness I

 No person can be conscious of, and therefore say anything about, anything that they have never experienced. A person cannot image a winged horse unless he has seen them or has been told about them. A person can know that Paris is the capitol of France if he has been taught by reliable teachers who have themselves been taught by books that they have read written by reliable historians. A person can also assume a something is real by his use of a logical deduction which is a type of experience. Democritus logically calculated that atoms had to be real. He was wrong about how atoms are constructed and how they operate, but modern scientists have discovered that his basic idea happens to be true. The point of this is that any thought object or sense object that enters the consciousness of humans has been experienced whether real or not real.

A person can disbelieve that wings and horses are real if he has never seen them, and even if he distrusts his teachers who told him they are real. Nevertheless, he can still imagine a winged horse because his teachers have made him experience wings and horses as ideas. A person can also disbelieve that Paris is the capitol of France if he does not trust his teachers. Yet, he will always know about Paris and France because he has experienced them as ideas. A person can also experience a logical miscalculation that results in a judgment that something exists which in fact does not exist. At one time, certain scientists deducted that light has to have some medium to be propagated through space, and they called that medium "aether." But later other scientists discovered by experiment that aether does not exist. Yet, aether still remains as an idea in the human mind even though now it means nothing. Any idea that enters human consciousness has to be real even if it means nothing.

A person who disbelieves that wings and horses exist has nevertheless experienced them if he has been told about them. A person who disbelieves that Paris is the capitol of France nevertheless has experienced that fact as an idea. The theory that atoms exist was at first just a real idea of a possible substance, but when atoms were discovered to be real, they became real as a material substance. Yet, atoms happen to be real in either case. If atoms had never been discovered to be real, the idea of them would still be real as meaning nothing. Aether was considered to be a possible substance in space, but when scientists discovered that aether does not exist, it became a real idea of nothing. Aether was considered to be a real possible substance, but it became a real nothing. The point to be made is that whatever enters human consciousness happens to be made real by that consciousness as an idea, a material object, or as the real and useful idea of nothing. Ideas are just as real as are material objects for the same reason that a picture taken by a camera is just as real as are the camera and its film. The very purpose of consciousness is to make everything it experiences real, even the real and useful idea of nothing.

Every idea, every feeling, and every sense object is made real by consciousness. Everything that becomes subject to consciousness is experienced by consciousness. Everything experienced by consciousness, whether believed or disbelieved, becomes real to consciousness because consciousness puts it all to some useful purpose. A person might disbelieve that wings and horses exist even if he were shown pictures of them. He would consider his real ideas of wings and horses to be equal to nothing within his ignorant reality. But if he imagines a winged horse, he would be right that it does not exist even though his reality is ignorant. If a person who disbelieves that Paris is the capitol of France were taken to Paris and shown that Paris is indeed the capitol of France, and he accepted that fact as true, then his consciousness would expand his reality.

Commentary on Selected Psalms

                               Psalm 9:17 (KJB)

This verse happens to be about how God will destroy only the wicked. God will never destroy anything that is good because He created all goodness, and He loves His creations. Psalm 111:7-8 (KJB)

God created humans in His image to be good. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31 (KJB). God will never allow anything He has ever created to be permanently destroyed. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB). In God's final judgment in the end of the world, He will burn up and dissolve His entire creation, but He will recreate it all to be wholly righteous. He will burn it and dissolve it to purge it of all wickedness including the wickedness of His good and living humans. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:5 (KJB). All of the Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized this purge. Genesis 8:20-21; Leviticus 5:10 (KJB).

"All the nations that forget God" will be turned into an everlasting Hell. This phrase refers to all dead people who turn to atheism which is wholly evil.

All of this can only mean that every human has within them a spiritual life created by God and a spiritual death injected into them by the Devil. God gives free will to all humans. Every human can choose to adhere to their good natures and try to live good lives, or they can choose to adhere to their evil natures and lead wicked lives. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:17 (KJB). But even the worst and most wicked human who ever lived has done some good in their lives if only to their families, and that fact proves that they have not lost that good image of God that He put into them. Even Judas Iscariot expressed remorse for betraying Jesus, and remorse can only come from a good nature. Matthew 27:3-5 (KJB). Even the maniac of Gadara who was filled with hundreds of demons displayed his hidden good nature when he ran to Jesus to be healed. Luke 8:26-33 (KJB). It is the good nature of humans that causes them to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus to be saved by His grace. Acts 10:1-2; Acts 10:44-45 (KJB). If any human ever became totally evil and devoid of all goodness, then that person could never do anything except that which is evil and demonic. No human has ever been known to be like that. When the Bible teaches that "there is none that doeth good, no not one," it means that no human can ever make himself good enough to be acceptable to God. Romans 3:9-20 (KJB). Only Christ can purge the sins and evil from the lives of humans.

In the end of the world in God's final judgment, He will cast only dead and evil humans into the eternal lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB). In order to do this, God must dissolve all living humans confined to the regions of death in order to separate and save their living natures for Him to recreate, and He will purge their evil natures. II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3 (KJB). Christ will cause all of His living humans on the earth and under the earth to repent of their own free will and accept Him as the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). Christ will resurrect all of His repentant, living humans, and He will recreate them all to live forever on His new earth. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5; Revelation 22:11-12 (KJB). The fact that God will give rewards to every living human proves that He will save them all.

Commentary on Selected Psalms

                                Psalm 16:8-11

Although king David was saved by grace, he did not understand that. God gave king David a prophecy about a suffering Messiah when king David wrote Psalm 22, but in all of king David's writings, he provides no clear understanding of what that meant. Thus king David assumed that when he died, he would go to Hell like everyone else who died. All through the Bible, Hell happens to be just a generic name for three different places where unbelievers go when they die. Revelation 20:13 clearly teaches that there happens to be three different places for the dead which are the Sea, Death, which is the same as the bottomless pit, and a burning Hell that God created only for the Devil and his angels, not for living humans that God creates and loves. Matthew 25:41 (KJB).

Unknown to king David, he would not go to Hell when he died, but he would go to a place called Paradise located under the earth next to Hell where he would not suffer but be comforted. He would wait there, with all the other Old Testament saints saved by grace, for the Spirit of Christ to come and preach the gospel to them and cause them to fully understand the mission of the suffering Messiah. I Peter 3:18-19 (KJB). When Christ rose from the dead, He effected a Rapture of all His Old Testament saints when He bodily raised them all and carried them all, with Paradise itself, to Heaven. Matthew 27:51-52; II Corinthians 12:4; Ephesians 4:8-10 (KJB). This means that although king David was mistaken as to where he would go when he died, he was not mistaken in the fact that God would raise him from the dead to an everlasting life. Psalm 16:9-11 (KJB).

But contained within God's promise to king David, God gave king David a prophecy that God would not allow His "Holy One to see corruption." Psalm 16:10 (KJB). This prophecy can only refer to the descent of the Spirit of Christ into Hell after Jesus died on the cross to leave behind there all of the sins and evil of all living humans who do not become saved by grace. When Jesus suffered on the cross, He shed His blood and water for the salvation of all living humans who would become saved by His grace because His shed blood and water would wash away all of their sins and evil. Revelation 1:5; I John 1:9 (KJB). But since Jesus bore the sins and evil of the entire human race on His cross, then He had to have had a way to cleanse Himself of all that sin and evil so that He could rise immaculate from the dead. I John 2:2 (KJB). When Jesus died on the cross, He committed that task to His Spirit. Jesus knew that His Father would give His power to His Spirit to descend into Hell and leave behind there all of the sins and evil of all His living humans who do not become saved by His grace. Luke 23:46 (KJB). All of the Old Testament burnt offerings symbolized this form of salvation. Genesis 8:20-21; Leviticus 5:10 (KJB). The Holy Spirit ascended immaculate from the regions of death to reanimate the perfect body of Jesus and raise Him from the dead victorious over all sin, evil, spiritual death, and the Devil. Revelation 1:17-18 (KJB). Since Jesus has "the keys of Hell and of death," then He certainly has the power to open Hell and death to liberate all of His living humans who are confined there.

Jesus actually suffered and died on the cross to purge His entire creation of all sin, evil, and the Devil and save all of His living humans that He created in His image, some by His grace and all others by the descent of His Spirit into Hell. John 12:31-32; John 12:47; John 16:11 (KJB). Christ will eventually cause all of His living humans to return to faith in Him. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). When the Holy Spirit inspired John the Baptist to say, "Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," he meant exactly that which he said. John 1:29 (KJB). When Jesus appears to all of His living humans confined to the regions of death, He will cause them all to return of their own free will to faith in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). When the Apostle John wrote that the same propitiation of God that saves sinners by grace also saves the whole world, he meant exactly that which he wrote. I John 2:2 (KJB). God can never lose anything He has ever created, and His Love can never fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8 (KJB).

Commentary on Selected Psalms

                                Psalm 7:8-10 (KJB)

Christian writers seem to believe that the Old Testament writers knew a lot about salvation by grace and a coming, suffering Messiah. While God did reveal to king David and Isaiah that the Messiah would suffer for humanity's salvation, probably they did not understand much about what they had written. Psalm 22; Isaiah 53 (KJB). The Jews looked for a conquering Messiah, and they were right to do so because at the end of the Tribulation period Jesus will return to earth with His armies from Heaven to destroy the evil armies that will come against Jerusalem, and He will save Israel from destruction. Revelation 19:11-21 (KJB). Even to this day, most Jews ignore the doctrine of the suffering Messiah in the Old Testament because they cannot believe that God would deign to become a human or that He would allow mere humans to humiliate Him. The Old Testament doctrine is that God created humans in His image, that God chose the Israelites to be His special people chosen by Him to bring knowledge of Him to the rest of the world, and that God will enact a general resurrection in the end of the world where He will judge all people, and He will save the just and condemn the ungodly. Genesis 1:27; Deuteronomy 26:17-19; Isaiah 66:22-24; Daniel 12:2-3 (KJB). Jesus affirmed His belief in a general resurrection when He spoke about Daniel 12:2 in His own words. John 5:28-29 (KJB). All of the Old Testament writers believed in the Old Testament doctrine, but some of them had but a vague understanding of a suffering Messiah who would bring salvation by grace. All of the Old Testament doctrines are true doctrines, but God would reserve His full revelation of a suffering Messiah for the New Testament.

These facts can only mean that most of what king David and the Old Testament writers wrote must be interpreted in light of the Old Testament doctrines. This means that when the Holy Spirit inspired king David to prophesy that "the Lord shall judge the people," God had to have meant His judgment of all of humanity in the end of the world. Psalm 7:8 (KJB). King David, not realizing that he had already been saved by grace, prayed that God would judge him "according to my righteousness" and his "integrity that is in me." King David could only have written about God's created righteousness that God had given to him when He created him. That created righteousness was a gift from God that He separated from Himself so that king David could rightly call it his own. God gives this gift of created righteousness to every human that He creates in His image. Psalm 7:8; John 3:21; Genesis 1:27 (KJB). God does give the righteousness of Christ to believers saved by grace so that He can accept them into Heaven to live with Him there forever, but they cannot own that righteousness because it belongs solely to the Lord Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:21 (KJB). Jesus' given righteousness happens to be a kind of borrowed righteousness.

King David continued to pray that God would put an end to all wickedness and that He would "establish the just." King David further prayed that he knew that God would judge the "hearts" and "reins" of all humans in His final judgment. The hearts and reins are inside of every person, and therefore, the wicked and the just are inside of every person. King David actually prayed that in God's final judgment, He will separate the wickedness inside of every human from the image of God in every human. Psalm 7:9 (KJB). Jesus Himself taught a Pharisee, who certainly could not have been saved by grace, that he should do good works because he would be rewarded "at the resurrection of the just." Jesus could only have meant that the image of God in this Pharisee would be resurrected back to life from the regions of the dead. Luke 14:12-15; Revelation 22:11-12; John  5:28-29 (KJB). The Apostle Paul affirmed his belief in a general resurrection "both of the just and the unjust." Acts 24:14-15 (KJB).

All of this put together comports exactly with God's description of His general resurrection and final judgment in the end of the world. Christ will appear to all living humans on the earth and confined to the regions of death, and He will cause them all to repent and return to faith in Him as the Lamb of God their Savior. Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God will then use His fiery wrath against evil to dissolve; that is, to melt down every living human on the earth and under the earth in order to separate His repentant, living humans from their dead natures for Him to recreate so that He can cast their dead natures into the eternal lake of fire. II Peter 3:9-13; Psalm 75:3; Revelation 20:11-15 (KJB). Christ will raise all of His repentant, living humans back to eternal life. Revelation 20:5 (KJB). Christ will recreate all of His living humans with new bodies to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 21:1-5 (KJB). Christ will reward His resurrected, living humans according to the good works that they did while on the former earth. Revelation 22:11-12; John 5:28-29; Matthew 10:42 (KJB). This fact can only mean that Christ's promise and prophecy that, "Behold, I make all things new" cannot fail. Revelation 21:5 (KJB).

King David's defense of himself before God happens to be certainly true when he prophesied that God "saveth the upright in heart." These upright can only be all living humans that God creates in His image. Psalm 7:10 (KJB).

Certainly, "the just shall live by his faith." Habakkuk 2:4 (KJB). But of equal certainty is the fact that a God who has an Infinite Intellect can devise a plan to save all of His living humans either by His grace or by returning them to faith in Him in the end of the world. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). God's Will cannot fail. When God had the Apostle Peter to write "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," He had to have meant exactly that which He said. When God had the Apostle Paul to write that God "is the Savior of all men," He had to have meant exactly that which He said. Mere feeble human will was not added to that verse. God cannot lose anything He has ever created, and His Almighty Love cannot fail. Ecclesiastes 3:14; I Corinthians 13:8; I Timothy 4:10; II Peter 3:9 (KJB).