{"id":2277,"date":"2023-01-11T10:24:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2277"},"modified":"2023-01-11T10:24:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T15:24:18","slug":"metaphysics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/11\/metaphysics\/","title":{"rendered":"Metaphysics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
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\u201cMetaphysics\u201d is such a cool word.\u00a0
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It connotes a journey into life\u2019s most interesting and important questions:\u00a0 What is the nature of reality, and why is there anything here at all?
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When we consider the origin of the word, however, it\u2019s hard not to laugh.\u00a0 Literary editors who were trying to organize the texts of the philosopher and scientist Aristotle a few centuries after his death knew that the bulk of his writings came under the heading Ta Physika<\/em> (\u201cthe things of nature\u201d).\u00a0 Those would include Aristotle\u2019s observations on birds, fish, plants, and the like.\u00a0
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After his nature texts came a collection of discourses on \u201ctranscendent\u201d subjects \u2013 Aristotle\u2019s opinions on theology, wisdom, and philosophical principles.\u00a0 The editors labeled these Meta ta Physika<\/em>.\u00a0 Since the Greek word meta<\/em> in this context means \u201cafter,\u201d we may loosely translate \u201cmetaphysics\u201d as \u201cThe Stuff that Comes after the Nature Stuff.\u201d\u00a0
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Even though the term is little more than the accidental invention of a librarian, metaphysics has become the lifelong pursuit of some of the brightest people in history.
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You don\u2019t have to be one of those ultra-brilliant thinkers, however, to dabble in metaphysics.\u00a0 While very few people are Philosophers with a capital \u201cp,\u201d every person turns out to be a philosopher with a lower-case \u201cp.\u201d\u00a0 Every software designer, nurse, landscaper, schoolchild, and DoorDash driver has to wrestle with the meaning of their own existence \u2013 if only how to make it through another day.
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Those who think long and hard about metaphysical matters rarely agree on every issue.\u00a0
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But everyone agrees on this: There are only four basic possibilities to explain Reality.\u00a0 They are mutually exclusive.\u00a0 If one of them is true (and one of them simply has to be true), then the other three are automatically rendered false.
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Let\u2019s use cars as an illustration.\u00a0
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If you own a car, there are only four explanations concerning its existence.\u00a0 First<\/em>, your car is an illusion<\/strong>. \u00a0It\u2019s not really there.\u00a0 Right now you might be thinking, \u201cMy car is so unreliable it might as well not be there.\u201d\u00a0 Second<\/em>, your car created itself<\/strong>.\u00a0 The parts came together in a process that even Elon Musk would find incredible.\u00a0 Third<\/em>, your car has always existed<\/strong>.\u00a0 There has never been a time in which your car, in one form or another, has not been part of the world.\u00a0 Fourth<\/em>, something or someone else<\/strong> that has always been here initiated a creative process that ultimately led to the assembly of your car.\u00a0
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When presented like that, the choices seem pretty straightforward.\u00a0 The first three options make no sense.\u00a0
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But now we need to substitute the universe for your car.\u00a0 How do we explain the existence of the cosmos?\u00a0
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Here again are the four possibilities: (1) The universe doesn\u2019t really exist.\u00a0 (2) The universe created itself.\u00a0 (3) The universe has always been here.\u00a0 (4) Something transcendent \u2013 something that is not itself a part of the universe \u2013 brought it into existence.\u00a0
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This is where the metaphysical rubber meets the road.\u00a0
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At any given moment, there are thoughtful people earnestly embracing each of the four options. \u00a0Let\u2019s give them a closer look.\u00a0
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The first one is a tough sell.\u00a0 It\u2019s notoriously difficult to believe that the universe is an illusion.<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s because if the universe isn\u2019t really there, then you aren\u2019t really there, either.\u00a0
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A student in Philosophy 101 asked the professor, \u201cHow can I know if I actually exist?\u201d\u00a0 The prof replied, \u201cAnd whom shall I say is inquiring?\u201d \u00a0The simple truth is that I can\u2019t escape the fact that if I\u2019m asking questions, I\u2019m thinking.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m thinking, I exist. \u00a0And that\u2019s no illusion.\u00a0
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Next comes self-creation<\/strong>.\u00a0 This has become the \u201cgo-to\u201d option for many contemporary scientists.\u00a0 This is evident in statements like, \u201cThe universe appears to have popped into existence, out of nothing, at some time in the distant past.\u201d\u00a0
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With all due respect, this is absurd.\u00a0 It violates one of the oldest of all philosophical dictums: ex nihilo nihil fit<\/em> (\u201cout of nothing, nothing comes\u201d).\u00a0 An effect cannot be its own cause.\u00a0 For self-creation to be true, the universe would have to exist and not exist at the same time.\u00a0 Self-creation, as a proposition, is analytically false.\u00a0 That is, it\u2019s false by definition.\u00a0
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Some exceedingly smart people will reply, \u201cYou simply don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 The universe emerged from quantum fluctuations.\u00a0 Or it\u2019s just one of an infinite number of universes that bubbled up from the Multiverse.\u201d \u00a0Even if we grant the existence of quantum fluctuations or the Multiverse (there\u2019s certainly no proof at this time of the latter), such realities add up to something<\/em>.\u00a0 They are not nothing<\/em>.\u00a0 Although it\u2019s popular to say that the cosmos jumped into existence from Nothing at All, that statement can never be true either scientifically or philosophically.\u00a0
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No wonder numerous thinkers have settled on the third option:\u00a0 The universe has always been here<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u00a0
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Bertrand Russell, the celebrated 20th<\/sup> century British atheist, was more than content to tell his believing friends that he had no need for the God Hypothesis to explain reality.\u00a0 Has something always been here?\u00a0 Of course.\u00a0 For Russell, it was matter.\u00a0
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But let\u2019s press things a bit.\u00a0 What do we mean when we say that matter is eternal?\u00a0
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Do we mean stars, cosmic dust, electrons, quarks?\u00a0 Is there some form of matter that precedes every other form?\u00a0 Secular materialists who advocate this third option acknowledge that there must be some kind of primitive, basic building block of all of reality \u2013 something that has the power of being in itself, something capable of leading to everything else.\u00a0 What is this self-existent something?\u00a0
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The late author R.C. Sproul, in his brief book Defending Your Faith<\/em>, makes this telling statement:
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\u201cIf the materialist retreats to some unknown, invisible, immeasurable, pulsating point or core within the boundaries of the universe that is self-existent and eternal, from which everything else is generated, ultimately he is saying that there is something that transcends everything else in the universe \u2013 something that transcends all those things that are dependent, derived, and contingent.\u00a0 Now we are just arguing over its name, over whether the name of this transcendent thing is X or Yahweh.\u00a0 No matter how we slice it, we are forced back to a self-existent, eternal being from whose being and from whose power all things come into existence.\u201d
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And that, of course, takes us to the fourth option: that a transcendent Creative Force or Creator<\/strong> who exists beyond the universe is why there is a universe in the first place.\u00a0
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And that brings us to the God we meet on the pages of the Old and New Testaments.\u00a0
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Moses, quavering in fear before the burning bush, asks, \u201cLord, who are you?\u201d\u00a0 God answers in Exodus 3:14 that his name is Yahweh<\/em>.\u00a0 It is a name shrouded in metaphysical mystery.\u00a0 Yahweh<\/em> has been variously translated, \u201cI am who I am,\u201d or \u201cI am who am,\u201d or \u201cI will be who I will be.\u201d\u00a0
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God simply IS<\/em>.\u00a0 He has the power of existence in himself.\u00a0
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God transcends space and time \u2013 past, present, and future.
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And he\u2019s vast enough and amazing enough to quench all of our deepest metaphysical thirsts.\u00a0 \u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0\u201cMetaphysics\u201d is such a cool word.\u00a0\u00a0It connotes a journey into life\u2019s most interesting and important questions:\u00a0 What is the nature of reality, and why is there anything here at all?\u00a0When we consider the origin of the word, however, it\u2019s hard not to laugh.\u00a0 Literary editors who were trying to organize the texts… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[546,545,547,548,549],"class_list":["post-2277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-illusion","tag-metaphysics","tag-self-creation","tag-transcendence","tag-yahweh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2279,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2277\/revisions\/2279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}