In a letter to Schrodinger in 1935, Albert Einstein wrote: The real difficulty lies in the fact that physics is a kind of metaphysics: physics describes “reality.” But we do not know what “reality” is, we know it only by means of the physical description. Jonathan Edwards wrote: To find out the reason of things in natural philosophy is only to find out the proportion of God’s acting. (Walter Schultz – Philosophia Christi. Vol. 11, No. 2 2009) We like to believe that we are on solid ground for belief and action when we have the feeling of assurance that we are dealing with reality, but we may not have enough information to determine reality in the larger context of things. I come upon a situation in which a man is standing trying to staunch a bloody nose, and dizzy from the blow he received from a man that is nearby, a man occupied by his tearful young son frightened by the scene’s recent event. The wounded man is angry, and stern about the abusive man who just struck him. Several persons on the street stopped to gawk or assist in some way. Some rush by not wanting to be involved. All have some idea about the reality of the scene, and there is considerable disagreement. A policeman rushes up, talks to both men, even gains some information from witnesses, settles matters down, and determines the wounded man does not want immediate medical treatment, but does want his assailant to be arrested. Carefully analyzing the facts, the policeman does not arrest the accused, but does inform him that the injured man has threatened to sue. The event on the street is not closed. In the later court case it was verified that the accused assailant tripped on his way out of the store, and flailing his arms for balance, hit the innocent man causing a broken nose that did require medical treatment. Both men were solid citizens, caught in an accident of life, both ending up with apologies for the event, and the medical expenses of the wounded man carried by the man with uncertain balance. The reality, after the court case, was found different than the street appearance The evidence was the same.
Life is complex, difficult, mysterious, contradictory/paradoxical, humorous, and depressed – the list lengthens. What is the reality of it? Can we interpret it in reality? Finding some reality, especially in rather simple contexts of our lives, we expect to find it in all aspects. We do not. If Einstein was right in his statement above about physics we can only be real about the facts we can gather, but they mean reality in one context and another reality in a different context. We may not know all the facts of a context, but must act and get on with life. We do the best we can, take responsibility for our acts, make amends when we miss the mark, learn by the experience, find healthy humility in consideration of others, and press on. The Christian answer to it all is to accept, in faith context, what comes to us in the course of our lives, to be affirmative (victorious) in any circumstance, to resist temptation so to avoid ill results and guilt for wrong-doing, find comfort and the assurance of affirmation in prayer. Proof of the application is found in a problem solving attitude, an acknowledgment of the faulty context of mankind, and a belief that though error may occur there is healing from God and a way out of problems large and small. We seek to be a part of solutions more than victims of problems. Problem-solving is an act of faith. God works. So does mankind. Reality is found in what we believe and do. If I do nothing, the reality is that I am reduced to a cipher, perhaps less than a cipher in the maintenance of my physical self. In God’s reality I may always contribute, even if it is only in prayer, possible to my last breath and loss of natural consciousness.
The pedestrian world often interprets the person of faith as taken up with metaphysics to be separated from the reality of a world in the sensory mechanism that picks up the evidence of nature as reality of experience. The person of faith, if that faith is grounded in Scripture, witnessed in conscience as true, and proved in experience that is perceived as affirmative to life, self and God – we can believe we have more of reality that is beyond nature, beyond ignorance, beyond even human tragedy including death. All this takes some doing, and overcoming the fear that all that is outside nature is faith-work. Affirmation is the faith that whatever God there be, he is holy, fair, loving, and creative in the affirmations of his attributes that we can rest ourselves in faith as affirmed by Jesus Christ – so leaving outcomes, good or ill, to him. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020