(ie. prove to me that i exist, and other philosophical challenges)
When I was a teenager, I loved logic and debating. It probably started because I loved reading and learning things, and then playing with those ideas in my mind; stretching them out to their conclusion, and maybe even past their conclusion. I also loved challenging my Dad and other kids with logical arguments. After a few years of this I learned that you can argue pretty much anything. You can use ‘logic’ to ‘prove’ very illogical things. Here’s a funny example: search up the Kripkean Argument for Goatism.
Here’s a logic discussion that was probably my favourite from my teenage years as an example: Let’s imagine you and I are outside on a beautiful sunny day. We look up at a clear blue sky. “When you look at the sky, what colour do you see?” You answer that it’s blue, naturally. Naturally, I agree that it’s blue, but I’m still not sure what colour you see. I’d rather not know the name of the colour, instead, I’d like to know what colour you observe. What is it that you’re observing that, you were told, is the colour blue? We both agree that it’s blue because we were taught that from a young age. But, is there any way to know that the thing you experience as blue is the same as the thing I experience as blue?
When my wife and I were newly married I used to joke that the best thing we could do to keep our kids’ minds ‘free from bias’ was to teach them their colours in a different order. What I see as green, teach them it’s pink, etc. Then when they grow up and go to school and get ‘corrected’ teach them to ask “How can we know that the colour you observe as pink isn’t the same as what I observe as green?” Of course, my wonderful wife refused. My children are very happy that she did.
In reality this is a serious issue. I went on a journey for a couple years to learn some understanding of the great philosophers from Plato to modern day. There’s a strange pattern. As history progresses and we establish more philosophical ‘rules’ and ‘proofs’, the things we can be sure of decrease. In around 400 BC, Plato wrote his Allegory of the Cave where he tries to clearly illuminate the reality that politics has always been and will continue to be a shadowy theatrical performance that we’re forced to watch but can never determine the authenticity of. This observation seems to hold true about 2400 years later. Study the progression of philosophical thought afterwards. Philosophy becomes the study of reduction-ism. Challenge everything until you can ‘prove’ it. Over time philosophy challenges everything and eventually our own existence. The decline of what we can know from philosophical ‘proof’ reaches a famous point in history about 2000 years after Plato. Descartes, in 1637, publishes Discourse on Method with the famous challenge to doubt everything even his own existence, and the famous line “dubito, ergo sum, vel, quod idem est, cogito, ergo sum”, translated to English “I doubt, therefore I am — or what is the same — I think, therefore I am”.
Trace that lineage to contemporary “great” philosophers and you end up in the gibberish of Heidegger’s Being and Time. While hailed as the pinnacle of modern philosophy, it’s just another step in the reduction of what can be known. Does time exist? Do Beings even exist? How can we even know if being or Being can exist without knowing what is the “meaning of Being”?
Let’s trace out the end result of that pursuit. Let’s imagine that Heidegger’s Being and Time and the follow up Introduction to Metaphysics were not roughly 800 pages of gibberish. Let’s imagine that his life work was completely ‘proven’ in 1 page that could be understood by every person everywhere. He clearly and concisely ‘proves’ what being and Being and time are, and that you are a being, and that you experience time. What would that add to your daily life? How would that help you? Let’s be honest, you already knew that you exist and that you experience time without Heidegger’s gibberish ‘proof’.
You have a real life, with real needs, you are a real person. People have hurt you, and you have hurt others. You need help and others need your help. What we need is to know ‘how’ to live not ‘that’ you live. Thousands of years, and many lifetimes have been spent looking for ‘proof’. You and I will not find the answers we need to get through life in logical proofs. Be careful who you listen to in life. There are many people who have great-sounding arguments, and seem to be ‘reasonable’ and ‘rational’. But be careful you don’t let them give you impossible tasks like Sisyphus’ or Tantalus’ punishments.
If you don’t agree, and think that the reduction-ism of doubting everything in modern ‘proof’ is not destructive and pointless, but is instead a noble quest, then I have a challenge for you:
Prove to me that I, the writer, exist.
That simple statement is a minefield of modern philosophy. I might assert to you that I exist, but let’s question that assertion. We have the evidence that these words are before you, but let’s question that evidence. We have the thoughts behind these words suggesting there’s an author with a mind, but let’s question that suggestion. We’ve already questioned existence. Should we even question what proof is? Should we question how, even if proof exists, how can one possibly prove to another anything at all? What even is ‘another’? Can writing exist without thought? Can we prove that thought exists? Even if all these things are prove-able, how can we know that I didn’t borrow this question from an earlier source, and so the burden of proof is not I the specific writer of these words, but the burden of proving the existence of the original author? And how do we know that this original thought was ever ‘originally’ conceived at all and not a progression of thought, of which the ‘original’ author is just the one who summarizes, and therefore just a spokesperson of the collective, shifting the burden of proof to require demonstration that all who lived previously exist? You’d need to spend lifetimes, and write volumes of books, to address this question.
Please don’t waste your life doing this pointless challenge. And please don’t let certain Bible skeptics and critics give you this same quest. “The Bible is a collection of the collective thoughts of untold numbers of generations, refined and simplified beyond it’s ‘source texts’ to be one of the greatest concentrations of moral thoughts ever written by humanity.” or other pointless perspectives.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t reject philosophy or logic. Search for truth, and challenge lies. Test, and determine. But here’s the point: Don’t be satisfied with rubbish. Don’t be satisfied with ‘answers’ that are pointless, and don’t help, and leave you alone, lonely, lifeless, and tired. There is real truth that can be known. There are real answers to life’s tough questions. There’s a satisfying resolution to every ‘why’. I did not find it in my search for ‘proof’ and philosophy. I found it in Jesus, who said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Even though I rebelled against God and was a slave to sin, God didn’t assign to me Tantalus’ punishment of never being able to drink. He set me free from the trap and gave me new life. Jesus fulfilled the word of God through Isaiah the prophet when He stood up and said: “‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”
“Is anyone thirsty?
Isaiah 55:1-7 (New Living Translation)
Come and drink—
even if you have no money!
Come, take your choice of wine or milk—
it’s all free!
Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?
Why pay for food that does you no good?
Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the finest food.
“Come to me with your ears wide open.
Listen, and you will find life.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.
See how I used him to display my power among the peoples.
I made him a leader among the nations.
You also will command nations you do not know,
and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey,
because I, the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”
Seek the Lord while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.
Let the wicked change their ways
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.
The promise of God is this: When you believe in Him, repent, and obey His instructions, He will daily transform you and exchange your guilt for His innocence, your shame for His honour, your fear and weakness for His power and authority.