- The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? -
We’ve already discussed this idea at the beginning of Chapter 5. Too many words spoken is a problem. Fools hide in many words.
That’s how you know I’m an idiot.
Right, I made the argument then, and now, that there are certain ideas which take many words to explain.
The true mark of “more words” in my mind is to speak more words than necessary.
But who knows; I may think that because of my own foolishness.
Today, I don’t want to talk about any of that. I want to discuss with you a tangential idea regarding our perceptions, truth, and reality.
Do this. Stare at something, preferably a small object or one that at least appears small.
Got it? Memorized it? Okay. Close your eyes (safely) and imagine it.
Why are we doing this exercise? Well, you just saw the same object in two different ways. One through your physical sight and one through your memory or imagination.
In which instance did you see it? Many of us would say it was our sight that perceived the object, but isn’t our site a physical processing of light that occurs in our minds?
What’s the difference between that and the image conjured in our minds? Are they both magic tricks?
Your grasp on reality is through a medium. That medium is your body. That body is a “gift”, and it didn’t come with an owner’s manual.
You don’t know how you see. You don’t know how you digest food. You don’t know how DNA unzips itself and then uses its weird feet to pull itself along to duplicate itself.
The idea is this: your perceptions are limited.
Well, that’s annoying and why in the world does it matter? When I look at an apple, everyone agrees it’s an apple and everyone agrees its red!
Our sight works good enough for survival.
To be honest, that was my thoughts on this line of questioning for a while. I think that’s a good reaction to have if someone uses this reasoning to imply we can’t affirm reality.
But consider the Truth. I capitalized it for a reason.
Is my mother the material she is? The lungs in her body? The blood in her veins?
Yes, but also no. She is more than that. She is my memory. She is my imagination of motherhood. She is my connection to the ideal of motherhood.
Which part of that I just described is the Truth?
Sometimes, our culture makes us feel that it’s just the animal we interact with, the material we get to know for a brief time.
Isn’t everything more than that? Are not moralities based on more than just good and bad? Are they not stories and experiences of being?
What does this have to do with our verses today? In Paradise Lost, Satan makes a claim, that his mind can make a hell into heaven, and a heaven of hell.
Later on, he explains to the reader that hell is wherever he is.
What’s the lesson? The mind cannot create whatever it desires. Intelligence has its limits.
You may have plenty of words about Jesus, science, or anything else in the world.
All meaningless unless you know the Word.
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