I think it a good exercise to examine myself every once in a while and make sure I’ve not slid off into some delusion. Delusion may be defined as having a fixed certainty about a readily falsifiable fact or idea.
We must take the subjective into account as well as the objective. For example, I have a fixed certainty; I perceive the color of the sky to be blue during the day when not covered by clouds. However, someone who is color-blind will not be able to distinguish whether or not my subjective perception agrees with the objective truth. To them, there is no objective truth called color. Their subjective experience denies my subjective experience. I believe my subjective experience to be true, however, because it is verifiable with the properties of light and molecules. A repeatable effect occurs when conditions are right and I can call that effect blue, or cyan, or aquamarine. Sometimes, I wonder if atheists are God-blind.
Now, when it comes to God and joy, my two main philosophical musings, I have verifiable effects and facts. I use those verifiable effects and facts to construct a hypothesis which best fits that information. I take into account my personal subjective experience because that personal experience agrees with experiences that other individuals have had and that the effect of joy is repeatable.
Constructing a hypothesis is not creating a fixed certainty. It is creating an idea which can be tested to see if it is a true repeatable effect.
So my hypothesis is that the universe itself has a consciousness. This would be a monist consciousness, not a dualist consciousness, therefore it is natural, not supernatural. It is an emergent property of the electro-magnetic field generated and sustained by the universe. It is one with the universe. It is not a singular subjective consciousness like ours, it is universal and eternal as is the universe itself. A universal consciousness would be the only truly objective consciousness, being all information and perceiving all information from a universal objective perspective.
We have a singular consciousness that allows us to have the survival mechanism of intelligence. An eternal consciousness has no need for intelligence. It has no need to evaluate information to benefit its own survival. Consider it more like an aspen colony, growing and expanding as the universe itself grows and expands, distributed and localized, but all one entity that we are a small part of. It functions according to its own nature and it in turn controls our nature. It is in fact, nature.
I have a motorcycle with an engine. If I tune that engine in accordance with the laws of physics, it functions properly. Likewise I propose that tuning my consciousness to be objective rather than subjective produces an effect in me that I recognize as joy. If I step outside of my own subjective perspective and make an effort to encompass the perspective of my fellow human beings, it produces an effect I call compassion. Joy and compassion are not effects directly connected to the consciousness of the universe, they are effects produced by my own biology that occur when my consciousness is tuned in harmony with the rules of consciousness in a similar fashion to my motorcycle’s engine being tuned in harmony to the rules governing thermodynamics.
When the universe reproduces it produces a living awareness. Life begets life. A universal consciousness begets a subjective consciousness. The universe is vast beyond measurement or comprehension but it produces seeds. Our consciousness is singular and limited to a very small perception. We perceive only the smallest part of the universe. Yet, that small perception is our whole universe. We in effect become our own singular, subjective universe. The purpose of the universe is that we grow from a subjective awareness into an objective awareness.
The goal is to expand our perception beyond our own subjectivity and encompass a larger awareness. An awareness that mirrors and reflects the greater awareness. An awareness from not a singular perspective, but a universal perspective. It is as simple as walking a mile in someone else’s shoes.
My theory answers why religion works, we perceive a presence we call God. It answers why science works. It answers why morality works. Everything, including religious joy, proceeds from an unbiased reasoning and an unbiased living awareness. Unbiased reason produces unbiased awareness. Which is coincidentally what is what I propose is at the core of the universe itself. God needs no reason because God is already unbiased awareness.
So, nothing in my hypothesis is based on readily falsifiable facts. I don’t deny that the age of the earth is billions of years. I don’t deny that there is a natural process called evolution that has created the diversity of life. I have a hypothesis that encompasses all known facts and effects, including the subjective ones that I have experienced. There is no fixed certainty, no faith, it is unnecessary when regarding issues of God’s nature. I can conclude that lacking a fixed certainty in readily falsifiable facts that I am not deluded.
I do have faith, a fixed certainty, in the necessity of unbiased reason and action toward my fellow human beings. I know from my life’s experience and the study of human history, that every human being needs to be regarded as having the same rights as every other human being. I believe in this faith firmly and strongly. This is a faith worth living, and if necessary, a faith worth dying for, a faith that I hope to spread.
