Time to Get Real - Mirage Or Real Reality?

Quite a challenge isn't it, when an annoying issue stares at us point blank, and someone tells us to get real! But there it is; we do not enjoy facing certain things. Whatever they are, we would rather not confront them. Often they are quite small - even trivial, but we just don't want to know about them!

But then, what about the big picture; the really big one? Well, that is something else! Taking a deep breath, look let's have a shot at it - nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say.

So, let's give ourselves a little reality check, a pinch, and face it - the universe is here, and we're a part of it! And as we spin around in this awesome vastness of swirling galaxies and impenetrable mysteries we are generally on the lookout for answers. We seem to like solving puzzles and are keen to make sense of whatever teases our curiosity. Perhaps this helps us feel at home in the vastness.

Have you noticed it's a bit like trying to read? Remember, when you stared into a book - go on; you do! - and someone told you the shapes meant something, that they would, sort of, talk to you? But surely the universe isn't like reading a book! Maybe it's not that simple, but when you think of it, why ask questions, if it doesn't mean anything? If it's all gobbledegook, that's it, end of story - forget it. Or the story doesn't even begin.

But here's a startling observation - we have minds that seem to take it as given that there are real answers out there. We often start with this idea that the 'whole show' has some kind of meaning. After all, if it didn't, where would that leave us: with utter absurdity? And do you know what? Our human reason still processes that as an answer! That if there were no meaningful answers, 'no meaningful answers' itself becomes a very important answer! Strange isn't it?

One of the most amazing things in the universe is the existence of personal, rational minds! Are they here as a result of the gradual, chance organisation of matter that took place after an alleged Big Bang? Personally, I doubt it. I might just as well believe in impossibilities. Explosions do not produce particles that slowly drift, haphazardly towards meaningful organisation.

That our minds are able to get true insights into the nature of physical reality, assumes somehow we can line up our thinking with a meaning possessed by reality. But then, where does this 'out there' meaning come from, as it seems to create a big dilemma?

Either I am projecting my mental chemistry on what I think is out there, and projected the meaning as well (wasn't that clever of me!), or there really is discoverable information, concealed but inherent, in the natural realm. And that somehow I have a key to it - wow!

So is there really an understandable 'out there' universe of which we are a very significant part? Absolutely, and what often causes quite a shake-up is to see that the commonplace view of biblical Christianity being only a jump in the dark is nothing but a caricature, and that, in fact, its 'understandable reality' worldview continues to underpin the scientific enterprise. This is the view that yields evidence-based research, and gives a repeatable structure for verifiable proof.

This position believes we have the ability to discover and know what is truly 'there.' And that this part of our make-up, amongst other things, gives the basis for scientific research, but not support for the idea of intelligent information falling by chance out of a meaningless universe. So, what's it to be; understandable or meaningless? Many people are seriously trying to live with both world views when they are completely at loggerheads.

So, if this Christian world view is now a minority one, how come these axioms of science are so widespread among the scientific community? These assumptions flowed from a biblical world view of a universe that made sense and were widely held in the era of early modern science, around 400 years ago. They gave rise to genuine, evidence-based research, and have filtered into society as a whole, becoming core values of the scientific method.

Atheistic evolutionary belief wants it both ways: rational minds able to discover the physical universe; able to extract real data - and the descent of man from an accidental origin on a blind journey in a meaningless universe without a goal.

So, why get real? If everything is a cosmic dream of no consequence, then I'm nothing more than an enigma inside a riddle, washed up on the shores of a dream ocean. Hold on - it's not that bleak!

Spare a thought for the idea that the more we deny a meaningful reality and ourselves as significant - our Western heritage, still widely taken for granted in our secular societies - the more we will slide into chaos and phantom-like personal unreality.

Well - time to get real?