Objective Truth
By zevi770 · January 22, 2012
Objective Truth
Is there such a thing as truth?
The more science we study from the Theory of Relativity to Quantum Physics – it is all relative, to our perception and our subjective view of things changes the reality!
In other words, how can there be objective truth if we who are highly biased towards our own ego and desires are altering the very reality we view.
Einstein’s theory of relativity is the first scientific theory to propose that what we thought was an objective physical reality is a subjective physical reality.
In other words, relatively states that based on the speed you travel, is how time is experienced, as Einstein famously replied when asked to explain the theory of relativity for a layperson (they say only a dozen people understand the meaning of the theory of relativity) “if you have a conversation with a pretty woman, an hour feels like a minute, but if you are sitting on a hot plate a minute feels like an hour.”
Now though this is true and of course according to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and Neil Boor which is an accepted fact, not only is our experience different but the matter of the universe is interacting with our experience, so not only do certain experiences feel different, but the very atoms we observe automatically change based on our feelings.
So is there an objective truth, when the subjective observer is altering reality?
A good example of this is a computer.
If I asked you what is a computer, what would you say – well every user uses the computer differently, so not only is our perception, reaction etc. of a computer different, but because we use it for different things, a business man might say “it is a place to make money,” a child might say “a place to play games,” Zevi might say “a place to blog” etc etc.
So is there an objective truth, or is everything simply a perception?
I had an argument with someone for a long time if this world exists or doesn’t exist – he seems to think it exists because we experience it – but I say based on science e=m (matter is really energy) and based on Chassidus that the energy in this world is really God, it doesn’t exist.
Well not wanting to rely on my intuition for intuition also is subjective, so to get objective truth one must study Chassidus where the Creator’s wisdom, the only truly objective truth is found, I asked Rabbi Wagner and he told me, that it says in a Mammer, I think of the Rebbe Maharash, that this world is a perception, while in truth it is all Godliness.
In other words, we exist in two planes simultaneously.
Like a child and a parent whom live in the same home, their realities are very different.
The child lives in a complete fantasy that their parent is like God – providing, protecting etc.
While the parent lives in constant fear that they may not have anything to provide etc.
Similarly what we experience is the final product God creates, so we live in a fantasy of truth – everything we perceive is no different from say Mario in Mario Brothers thinking that his computer generated screen is truth, permanent and independently existing for he is not aware of the energy making the matter, nor the computer code, changing that energy into the world he experiences.
At the same time there is an objective truth and that is God’s truth – namely the fact that God is real.
So on a practical difference how do we understand which part of reality is true and which part is merely fantasy of truth, as Einstein famously said “Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
A story of the Tzemach Tzedek will explain this best.
The Tzemack Tzedek related:
A wagon driver had in the back of his wagon a hidden Tzaddik (righteous saint) and passing through the woods he was attacked by bandits and though not knowing the saintliness of his passenger decided to save him and fought with all his might and repelled the bandits. Sustaining wounds, he died.
Coming to heaven the angels of mercy proclaimed that as he saved a hidden Tzaddik he deserves a big reward…
As heaven consists of Jews studying Chassidus / Jewish mysticism, wherein this man had neither the head nor the inclination; for they needed to reward him in a meaningful way for his intellect, passion and desire, hence the Tzemach Tzeddek continued… they put him into a fantasy world and to this very day he has the very best wagon ever produced, the finest horses ever bought, the smoothest road ever traveled and he merely goes about picking up passengers, feeling like the most important wagon driver in the best vehicle possible.
In other words, our reality is like in the matrix, completely illusions (the difference between an illusion and delusion as Freud explains, is if you want something, versus if you believe you have what you don’t) we see advertisements for Porsches, Lambergeneis; the media convinces us the prettiest woman is the best woman, the largest house is the best, and this sets up an illusion that these things truly are the best while for those of us who have experienced them know that it is all an illusion; nothing on the outside of man can make man happy on the inside – this is in fact why there are hundreds of millions of people particularly in the affluent western world who are seeking God for as they experienced that the dream is a fantasy hence they are searching for the real truth (this also explains why many children brought up in religious homes and even religious scholars still are caught in two worlds, for as they never experienced the illusionary illusions, hence they still think that the illusions are real and hence still crave them.)
A Chossid sitting at the table when the Tzemach Tzedek said this story asked “Does that mean this table, chair, fish etc. we see / are experiencing, is all a fantasy?”
“No” replied the Tzemach Tzedek, “for it were we would not be talking about G-d.”
In other words, there is an objective Creator to all of this, so though what we see and want is a fantasy, but the truth of the Creator and the Mitzvos / good deeds he asks from us to achieve, is not subjective rather the only objective truth.