Universal Possibilities …

Estudia: It’s been a while, Phi. But do you remember what you told me about denying the metaphysically given as absolute?

Philo: Absolutemente.

Estudia: Well, I’ve been thinking about this and I realized that if I do accept the absolutism of the given, then I’ve got a responsibility to conform to the universe, right?

Philo: Of course, it can’t be that the universe should conform to your wishes. That’s what a conflict with reality is and many people think that this is the human condition. These kinds of people are at war with the external world. They feel that their wishes and desires should be the way things work, but that darn reality is intractable. Existence just isn’t good enough so they wind up feeling that life is impossible or at least not fair.

Estudia: I hear that a lot. “It’s not fair; I studied hard and still got a D on the test.” I think I’ll be better off if I accept reality along with my limitations and my strengths and just use reality for my own purposes if I can.

Philo: Oh, you can. Stick with reason and, although success is not guaranteed, you’ll have a shot at success for sure.

Estudia: How did this fallacy of rewriting reality get started anyway? Was it the cavemen who understood so little and had so much to fear that came up with the idea?

Philo: In a sense, yes. Religion evolved to explain existence and the idea of a supernatural all-powerful god was born. And, of course this god could have created things differently and can change them at any time by performing miracles. The idea expressed by the philosopher Leibnitz, “All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” concretizes the idea that ours is just one of many possible universes. It’s a mistake to spend your time dreaming of how things might be instead of dealing with things the way they are. Physicists are spending a lot of time on conjuring up “real” parallel universes these days. If they don’t find them, I’m sure they will be ready to blame existence for their failure. “After all, it was good in theory, just bad in practice,” will be the wine I’m sure. No, you are right to honor reality, but remember that you are not infallible or omnipotent, so even if you do not evade the facts you are not guaranteed success.

Estudia: At least I won’t hold a grudge against existence if I do fail or if I have to deal with adversity. Feeling sorry for myself won’t move me toward anything except one of those non-existent parallel universes six feet under the ground.

Philo: Now you’re getting morbid. Next time I’ll tell you a sad tale first attributed to Plato, my favorite philosopher (not) next to the one my kids liked, Play Dough.

Estudia: Wait, before you go, how does Christianity view existence.

Philo: Like Islam and Judaism, they all invite you to wish for a different reality. “You’ve got to have Hope, Love, and Charity. That’s all you’ll ever need.” Or, how ‘bout “Let’s all pray for Brother John and Sister Mary, so they can save the farm” or what ever. Not trying to be too facetious there but it’s true. Only the man-made is possible to control, if it conforms to the laws of physics of course. Anything else is not possible, it is the actual. You can’t have it both ways. Omnipotence is not logical and it is incompatible with the law of identity. A is A, and that’s it. Hope and prayer are useless except as a physiological prop at times. The introspective aspect of praying, opening yourself to the subconscious mind, can help you find answers to real problems in reality, but prayer is not going to change reality for you. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. See you later.