I have a love-hate
relationship with philosophy. Some of the concepts really fascinate me. I love
the freedom of thought, the wondering about life and the making sense of
things. To an extent, I admire philosophers for their strength of character in
a willingness to question and explore.
But then, I look at
all the philosophies that take us so far from God. Some are mere babble, and
are interesting because they can be laughed at. But others are so dangerously
close to the truth that for the person who is unsure of himself, his purpose and
his beliefs, it looks to BE the truth and the lie becomes indistinguishable.
These philosophies are tricky, tricky. Leading the unwary to fall into the same
pit that bore them. I think sometimes that God must abhor these types of
philosophies – leading children to a fall before they have even begun to walk.
I recently read a
piece of philosophy – where and what will remain unnamed – that stated that
there is no such thing as objective reality; only our subjective view on reality. Thus saying,
there is no person that knows the whole, objective truth. We all colour reality
through our experiences and bias. To an extent I do agree. We are so fallible
and so feeble. It takes only one person with superior reasoning skills or a
higher IQ who forms a persuasive argument to make us doubt ourselves and change
our point of view. What is that popular quote? – History is written by the
victors. The predominant theory of our time writes the history and gets
labelled as “truth”. The world’s truth changes every few decades or so...
Where
are we to stand then? How do you decide which philosophy to follow, which
theory to ascribe to?
For me,
it has become simple. I will follow the only absolute truth I know: the Word of
God. It will be a measure against which I measure all others. True, we as
humans cannot be objective. Only the Almighty can claim to be truly objective,
to truly see the matter as it is. We cannot possibly be able to comprehend all
the facets of every matter, both physical and spiritual. But He can. And so,
clinging to Him becomes the only option. When we wonder, when we doubt, we need
only ask. He knows the consequences of every single action and the motivation
behind every single thought. He is the only one who can see both sides of each
story, because He is the ultimate truth against which it will be weighed.
Accepting
this, we can be confident of our actions even when they don’t make sense to the
world at large. “What? Forgive my enemies? Bless those that curse me? How
absurd!”
“Give
away TEN percent of my money? You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Rest
one day out of seven? I don’t have time for that!”
It makes
no sense, but He can see the outcome of every action. The deeper impact that we
cannot hope to see with mere physical eyes. There is a real world behind this
one – our life, our reality is merely a shadow. How can we hope to know what
our actions do if we cannot see past this realm? There is only one way and that
is by following His Word. The ultimate guide to the universe, I’d say.
