Mid-Michigan Objectivist Club

The Real Standard for the Existence of God

When asked the question: “is God real?” one is being asked to validate the state of the existence of the concept of God against the standard of existence for the concept of real. This implies both that a standard for the concept of real exists and that it is known. A different question would be: “is this thing to which I am pointing real?” This is asking to validate the state of existence of a real physical thing against that same standard used to evaluate the concept of God. But can this be done? Yes it can!

Humans; like all biological life forms, need to be aware of things that physically exist. Why? Because the survival of biological life forms depends upon their consumption of physical things! How do biological life forms become aware of physical things? They sense them! All biological life forms have a sensing mechanism by which they become aware of the physical needs of their survival and to which they respond in-order to acquire those needs. A need is defined as a condition of existence - determined by a things nature – that is required for its survival. A thing that satisfies a survival need is referred to as a value. A survival value; then, is identified by the beneficial effect it has on the life of a biological being. If no benefit arises no value obtains.

The aspects of a survival value that allow it to be sensed are the attributes of (or the facts) of its physical characteristics. Facts are identified either by their direct physical stimulation of the sense-organ extensions of a brain or by interrogating their effect on other physical facts. Facts are absolutes, meaning their identity is consistent with reality. Facts are what they are; they are not (cannot be) different from what they are. All facts (including their associated relationships) are referred to as being real things. A fact is a physical aspect of nature; its attribute is a mental existent resulting from abstraction. Attributes are the mental aspects of a things physical existence. An act of identification is the act of abstracting information from reality; its product is an attribute.

Abstraction is the mental focusing of a brain by its mind for the purpose of identifying the facts which its brain is observing. A fact represents a real (or a true) state of existence. When asked to evaluate the real state of existence of a thing (or of an idea) it is the facts of reality that become the final arbiter. Reality is not a place or a thing; it is a state of existence. If a thing satisfies the definition of the concept of fact it is a real physical existent; and the attribute abstracted from it is a true mental existent. Attributes are ones mental units representing the facts ones brain is interrogating (sensing). Asking the question “is God real” equates to asking “are there physical facts in nature that give rise to attributes supporting the idea that the concept of God is real and is therefore true.” Facts are physical in nature; their attributes are intellectual in mind. Meaning; that since facts are real then their abstractions are necessarily true. These are one and the same; you cannot have one in the absence of the other. Sensing a fact in nature is equivalent to being aware of what is true. Knowledge exists in nature as its facts and is possessed by a mind as these are formed into concepts. Concepts that represent what is true about reality are built from abstractions resulting from a brain’s observations of (i.e., its physical stimulations from) reality.

Life is evidenced as a brain observes (i.e., becomes physically aware of) the effects of life’s electro-chemical processes on and to other physical things in reality. A brain observes that the processes described by life first attract (or otherwise acquire) and then consume natural resources from nature and then converts these into new substances and returns them to nature. At the fundamental level of nature this process is self-sustaining and self-generated: it is what we call life. Life exists infinitely in the physical universe. However: by the pressures of evolution; the life possessed by biological beings has become dependent on those biological beings. Life depends on its biological host to obtain the natural resources from nature its electro-chemical process require for their continued functioning. If a human host fails to satisfy the natural resource needs of his life processes those processes will stop functioning and that human will die. This says that it is by identifying the natural resources required by the electro-chemical processes of ones own life that one becomes aware of what values are. Acting rationally; then, means to act in accordance with the requirements of your own life processes. Intellectually - this means to identify the physical values your life processes require: physically - this means to act guided only by that information in-order to acquire those physical values. The principles of “Proper Action” specify that one’s personal survival actions with regard to ones social needs must be ethical and that one’s personal survival actions with regard to ones physical needs must be moral if ones goal is survival; and by the laws of nature it is.

That which exists epistemologically is a concept; and concepts are dependent on that which exists physically. Mans concepts are created from the attributes he abstracts from reality. Concepts represent man’s ideas about what reality is. Concepts are mans intellectual concomitant of what exists physically; Epistemology resulted from mans need to know about that which exists metaphysically. Notice the structure of the following concepts. The fundamental concept of metaphysics is reality - its concomitant concept in epistemology (realities intellectual attribute; its mental idea) is the concept of true. The fundamental concept of reality is life - its concomitant concept in epistemology (life’s intellectual attribute; its mental idea) is the concept of value. Infinity measures the physical extent of life within reality - its concomitant measure of value in epistemology (infinity’s intellectual attribute; its mental idea) is the concept of God.

In other words: God measures the intellectual effect of value on epistemology as being equivalent to the physical impact of life to living things. This argument says that since life is the physical standard then the concept of value is its equivalent intellectual standard. This argument further states that to know life and what its survival requirements are is to possess knowledge about the fundamental (or supreme) value in the universe. Life’s identity determines what its own needs are. Life is its own greatest need. It is not proper to say that life is valuable - it is only proper to say that life is value; they are as one. Man must discover and acquire the values (the physical needs) his life demands if survival within reality is his primary goal (and it is).

Man’s identity determines the actions he is able to (and must) perform to acquire his life’s physical survival values. Whenever one begins to consider the concept of value it is life (as it exists naturally within the universe) that one must be thinking about. Life describes the naturally occurring eternally existing electro-chemical activity found only at the fundamental level of physical existence. Life is a specific naturally occurring electro-chemical relationship existing only within and between the fundamental substance of the universe singularly described by the concept of matter - and its energy.

Further; life is responsible for the existence of an electro-magnetic gravitational force that attracts the necessary natural resources from nature required by and for the continued functioning of its own electro-chemical processes. The concept of reality resulted from a human brain’s observation and identification of the causes of the physical stimulations of its own sense-organ extensions. Additionally: It is that brain’s awareness of these physical stimulations that gives rise to the concept of consciousness. Consciousness is described as being any brain’s awareness of the physical stimulations of its own sense-organ extensions. Consciousness is evidenced by -and is- a brain’s awareness of physical reality.

Everything in existence exists and is the source of all things that exist – everything caused to exist resulted from the functioning of a human mind and the associated actions performed by a human body. Reality is a physical concept it is a concept of metaphysics and has always existed. Mind is an intellectual concept – it describes the functioning of a human brain. Observation is a concept of consciousness and is an involuntary (or automatic) brain activity. Thinking is a volitional mental activity that (to the best of our knowledge) is undertaken only by a human brain. Cognition; is the focused purposeful act of thinking, it is an intellectual action performed by man’s mind and results in the production of ideas. Cognition requires that one know what is true about reality in-order that the ideas one creates are rational.

Creation; then, is a volitional intellectual action undertaken by man’s mind which guides his physical actions for the purpose of value production and therefore necessarily requires the product of man’s cognition; his ideas. Production (the physical concomitant of mental creation) is the action of man’s body directed by his mind that results in producing (or creating in reality) survival values. To produce survival values means to make ones ideas become real. It means to produce in reality what ones mind has created in its brain from the evidence of reality presented to it by its own sense-organ extensions. The primary purpose of man’s virtuous acts (the rational actions of his creative mind) is to provide for the physical production of his survival needs.

It is by first knowing that infinity measures the physical extent of life in reality that one is then eventually able to grasp that god represents the epistemic extent of its value in man’s consciousness. God is to value that infinity is to life. The real standard then is the fact of life as it exists naturally within the universe. Life stands as mans standard-of-value; its preservation being his purpose. The answer to the question “is God real?” is: Yes! God represents the value that is known as the fact of life’s physical existence.