Conversation Between a Philosopher and a Religious During Quarantine #1
Thoughts and reflections on tough times
— Hi.
— Hello.
— Are you alone?
— So it seems.
— It’s all desert, here.
— Yes, it is.
— No guards, right?
— I’m here since dawn. No one else around.
— I know it could be strange, or even dangerous.
— What?
— What I’m going to ask you.
— What are you going to ask me?
— May I seat here? With you?
— Sure.
— I swear, I’m negative.
— I trust you. I’m too.
— Oh, good. Uh, the surface is so cold!
— An entire night of cold makes everything cold. But we can search warm in other ways.
— Any idea on how to get warm in a morning like that?
— I use a simple method.
— And that is?
— I think.
— Oh, we got a deep thinker!
— I simply try to dive more in what sometimes appears aseptic.
— Am I aseptic?
— I don’t know.
— I mean, on the surface.
— I never stop at surface.
— Oh, sure, you live to dive.
— And this generates heat.
— Really?
— Yeah, the brain at work produces a lot of friction.
— Ah! And there’s a way to have a bit of that heat generated by your cogs?
— Sure, you can do the same.
— Thinking?
— Yes.
— Well, I already think too much the entire day.
— It’s only the beginning of this new day.
— You got an answer for everything.
— Not really.
— Well, that’s true.
— Oh, you changed your mind?
— It’s just reality.
— Right.
— I hope God will solve this situation.
— God?
— Yes.
— Oh.
— Religious?
— My religion is love.
— So romantic.
— Thanks.
— Love is good, but you can’t worship your own emotions.
— You don’t need to worship them. Religion means to connect, to unify.
— Right, I agree. But it also means to connect with what’s above us.
— There’s nothing above us, nor below us. Only our relationships as beings.
— But I believe God is above us. And to perfect love, that would be required. If this life is the only one, and we are not to be judged, then love makes away for competition for earthly resources.
— But believing is not knowing and knowing requires objective facts that everyone of us can know and see without any doubt.
— What do you demand to obtain that?
— May your God come right know and show himself in objective ways to every single human on this planet. That would be a good start.
— I don’t think knowing things through seeing is the only legit form of knowledge.
— May I ask you something, about this point of yours?
— Of course.
— Does COVID-19 exist?
— Yes.
— Have you seen it?
— No.
— And why scientists can?
— They use an electron microscope.
— An instrument, fruit of science and research.
— Yes.
— Is then COVID-19 an objective fact?
— It’s a fact, yes.
— Here’s the difference. Your God is not a fact, it’s a personal conviction. Show us your God as scientists know the Coronavirus exists. The objective condition, what really makes this entity a tangible one, is disease and death. A unifying factor for all humans, even if in the form of a tragedy. Let it be the same for your God and we’ll all solve the main problem in your subjective claim.
— But you’re assuming God is a scientific question, even though it isn’t. If I said to you show me your love or show me your mind, then scientists wouldn’t be able to help you either.
— If your God is the creator of this universe, it is a scientific entity, because science study and explains the mechanisms of everything that exists. About love and mind, those words represent the sum of psycho-physical processes, quantifiable via the study of our basic components.
— How?
— Emotions emerge due to hormones and neurotransmitters. Everything has a precise, scientific background. The same applies for your God, if it would be an objective fact. But until now, it’s not due to the lack of objective evidence.
— Science can’t investigate everything, though. We already know that. What would a scientific investigation into God look like? It’s an impossible feat. It’s one of the things beyond in-principle investigations. And it’s no use saying love and the mind are quantifiable if you can’t show them to me. I would need to see it, and that’s your standard.
— You see them not as love and mind, but as the sum of their fundamental parts. If your God is an impossible feat, then it’s none of our interest if it can’t be proven a priori. We are here for what has a direct relationship with us, in a definite way, as the inner reactions that make love and mind a direct experience coming from a language abstraction. Not something that can’t be. Also, if that’s your standard, you have no authority in claiming what is true.
— I believe in Him. For me, He’s true.
— What is truth, by the way?
— For me, is the Omega. The goal of all goals for us.
— Is it quantifiable?
— No, it goes beyond everything else, because it is the energy of God himself.
— But that’s still a subjective opinion?
— And what’s truth, for you?
— Truth is geometrically congruent to the facts of the world.
— What do you mean?
— Let’s say COVID-19 is true. We know it is true because it is a fact, and in order to identify it as such we have to perceive it as a tangible entity.
— But it isn't tangible. It is microscopic.
— It’s tangibility emerges through the symptoms and their consequences. That applies to any other existing entity.
— For example?
— Look, we are in front of the sea. Of what’s composed the sea?
— Of water?
— Yes, and what is water?
— Uh, H2O, right? Hydrogen and oxygen?
— Yes. And if there were no hydrogen or oxygen, there would be no water. But before it's composition, there’s the sensible experience. How do you say water exists, other than seeing it?
— I drink it. Well, maybe not the one of the ocean.
— Exact. There’s a need we feel, a need for rehydration. And the same happens for food and any other psycho-physical need in our lives.
— So, let me understand, for you God should be like water?
— Yes. It should be an objective fact that we need as water or food.
— But billions of people need Him all around the globe.
— But not like water. There are billions who believe in other deities or, like me, are atheist. And this happens because gods are not objective entities.
— But even if this would be the case, the fact billions believe in something, makes it true.
— Well, there’s an old saying, but I think it would be quite audatious.
— Oh, really? Are you telling me I’m too much sensible?
— Oh, no. But you know, many had a disgusted reaction.
— I’m not incline to that kind of behavior. Tell me.
— Ok, well, billions of flies find excrements tasty.
— Ok, ok, I know what you mean.
— So, returning to your point, do millions of subjective convictions make a fact?
— And what if those millions of beliefs are the true ones? What if one of those religions is the right one?
— Then, there would be no need to believe.
— Why?
— Because if something is true, it means it is objective, factual.
— Not if it goes beyond us.
— If it goes beyond us, why bothering?
— Because it gives a purpose to many. A form of relief.
— I know, it has always been used for that.
— And what if at some point all these people find out they always believed in something false? They would feel lost.
— I think there’s more in life.
— Like what, if for me and them God is the ultimate goal?
— Like enjoying every single moment of life and pave the way for future generations. Look at the people who are sacrificing themselves for the ill ones in this historical period. All of them are donating themselves for the others. Where’s your God?