Thomyum2 wrote: ↑July 2nd, 2021, 3:01 pm
But if you’re saying it’s the nature of the things we observe that determine the semantics, then I wouldn’t agree.
I'm not saying it's the nature of the things that we observe. I'm saying it's the nature of Existence. If it is not the nature of Existence that determines what's meaningful and what's contradictory/meaningless, then what determines this?
Consider all that is meaningful and all that is meaningless/absurd/contradictory. That which is Omniscient, knows all that is meaningful and all that is meaningless/absurd/contradictory. So that which is Omniscient, knows if a 10th sense is meaningful or absurd (we don't; or at least I don't. I'm making an
educated guess about you when I say you probably don't know what a 10th sense is either).
Some beings are more knowledgeable than others. To non-Omniscient beings there are things that are meaningful (like a perfect triangle or the perfect being), things that are unknown (like a 10th sense), and things that are absurd (like a married-bachelor).
So on the first/foundational/primary layer, it is the nature of Existence that determines what's meaningful and what's absurd. On the second layer, it is the limitation on a non-Omniscient being that determines what's unknown to him and what's known to him.
As I see it, when words are given meaning it reveals the living person behind them - there is a 'spirit' in them and they are not simply inanimate objects. Your responses to me are invested with your thoughts and ideas and feelings, your values and your sense of what is important, all of which have grown out of your experiences and which are unique to you alone, and in being put here now are unique to this moment in time.
If they were unique to me alone, I would not be able to communicate/convey them to you.
To me, saying that we just 'become aware' of a semantic that already exists and don’t have a role in creating the meaning is like saying that Beethoven didn’t create his 5th symphony.
Now we could say in that Platonic sense that the 5th symphony already existed as a perfect ‘form’ that was just waiting for Beethoven to ‘become aware’ of it and show it to the world. If that’s going to be taken as the case, then I have to think this can only be understood as a roundabout way of saying the same thing.
I would say it existed as a hypothetical possibility, and that the nature of Existence made it a hypothetical possibility. I would say it was a hypothetical possibility that attained "reality" in relation to us (because the song was played to us and we heard it). An endless number of songs, worlds, dreams, or stories are hypothetically possible. Such is the nature of Existence.
I wouldn’t necessarily take this to me that we have no creative role in existence.
Part of what that means to me is that God as Creator has made us creators as well and we reflect His image in this sense too – that we are not made to be merely passive observers or recipients of creation, but that we are meant to participate in creation – that we have been given the capacity to bring truth, goodness and beauty into being and into the world, and that we find the fulfillment of our purpose in life by doing just this.
Take
triangle with a lower case
t to mean an
imperfect triangle, and take
Triangle with a capital
T to mean a
perfect triangle. With this in mind, interpret the following:
Only God is
Omnipotent and
Omniscient, thus, that we are
Free is an illusion. We are
free but only God Is
Free. If our
will or
existing increased in
resemblance to God's
Will and
Existing, then we would be
freer (we would be more like God; as in we would be better beings; as in we would be greater
in term of goodness (or
in light of reality/truth/goodness). Objectively speaking, we would be better subjects. We would enjoy existing more). We do not
Provide; God
Provides/
Feeds, and we
resemble this when we feed ourselves, our children, or the needy. God
Loves
Good (and God is the greatest good). The more ones loves Good (or a truly perfect existence), the better one is. And the better one is, the better off one is. None are as well off as God. None are as loveable as God.
Then God said, “Let
Us make adam/man in
Our image, after
Our likeness. (Genesis 1:26)
"...you will know the truth, and the truth will set you
free.” (John 8:32)