- Feb 5, 2002
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You may have heard of the idea that “we are all God” or “God is you, me, the tree, the rock, and all existence” or that “all is one.” This view that all reality is one, that the distinctions between things are mere illusions, is sometimes called “monism.” In the East, the Hindu philosopher Shankararepresents this view. In the West, the Greek philosopher Parmenides holds that reality is one unchanging Being. If “all is one,” multiplicity is a deceptive appearance. Should we accept this idea that all reality is really just one?
If our senses are even minimally accurate, it is clear that all reality is not one. When the lion eats the lamb, the lion gets nourished and the lamb gets destroyed. When your hand gets burned by the stove, two different realities interact. So, one of the costs of monism is the rejection of all the information that we gather from our senses.
Virtually no one consistently rejects all the information that comes from the senses. In eating, we distinguish the fresh-off-the-grill cheeseburger from the shards of broken glass found in a dirty dumpster. When we walk, we avoid heading into traffic or off steep cliffs. So, adopting monism produces a fundamental inconsistency between theory and practice. Monism drives a Mack truck between one’s philosophy of life and one’s living of life. Anyone who lives as if “all reality is one” does not live long.
Another cost of the belief that all reality is one is the denial of change. Let’s say you get out of a chair and walk across the room to get a glass of water. That change in bodily location is only possible if there is in fact a difference between your current location and your future location. But if all reality is really one, then this difference in location is just an illusion, so you cannot change location. This is hard to believe.
Continued below.
www.wordonfire.org
If our senses are even minimally accurate, it is clear that all reality is not one. When the lion eats the lamb, the lion gets nourished and the lamb gets destroyed. When your hand gets burned by the stove, two different realities interact. So, one of the costs of monism is the rejection of all the information that we gather from our senses.
Virtually no one consistently rejects all the information that comes from the senses. In eating, we distinguish the fresh-off-the-grill cheeseburger from the shards of broken glass found in a dirty dumpster. When we walk, we avoid heading into traffic or off steep cliffs. So, adopting monism produces a fundamental inconsistency between theory and practice. Monism drives a Mack truck between one’s philosophy of life and one’s living of life. Anyone who lives as if “all reality is one” does not live long.
Another cost of the belief that all reality is one is the denial of change. Let’s say you get out of a chair and walk across the room to get a glass of water. That change in bodily location is only possible if there is in fact a difference between your current location and your future location. But if all reality is really one, then this difference in location is just an illusion, so you cannot change location. This is hard to believe.
Continued below.
Is God All Things? Are All Things Really One? - Word on Fire
Monism is the view that all reality is one, that the distinctions between things are mere illusions. Should we accept this idea?
www.wordonfire.org
