Who’s Reality, Which Reality?

It’s a question of Reality.  What is real, true, good, right, and/or just?

Facts are facts.  It’s been said that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not to their own facts.  So true.

But facts must be interpreted and are done so according to context, perspective, and more importantly, Worldview.  In other words, individual facts make no sense to us, unless or until they are connected in a meaningful way, like putting together pieces of a puzzle to make a picture or connecting the dots to form a meaningful shape or image.

As you know, it is much easier to put the pieces of a puzzle together if you have the picture in front of you, especially if there are a large number of pieces to the puzzle, like 500 or more.

What the individual pieces of a puzzle are, to its picture; facts are to a Worldview.

A Worldview is a comprehensive conception of the world.  It is an understanding of how the world operates.  Thus, a Worldview serves as the interpretive mechanism for one’s Truth, fitting information into an understood picture of Reality.  So, a Worldview makes sense and provides meaning to any given set of facts—objects, subjects, events, actions, etcetera—in one’s world.

For example, as a matter of fact, a man dies only a few hours after eating a chicken dinner.  In one culture’s Worldview it may be a case of salmonella poisoning; the chicken was bad.  In another culture’s Worldview, the man died because a witchdoctor may have placed a curse on the man for failing to honor a pledge.  And yet, in another culture’s Worldview, the man died because the god’s were angry with him for breaking a ritual taboo.  That is, this one fact, a man dies after eating a chicken dinner, now has three different interpreted meanings to it, according to three different Worldviews as to how the world operates or how Reality is defined.

As Westerners, we laugh.  We think, “Of course it was salmonella poisoning.  Talk of witchdoctors and angry gods; that’s all nonsense.”  And we are so sure.  We know that we are right.  For, we have the better knowledge of Reality and Truth in this matter.  We assume.

Yet, that is exactly where we seem to be as a nation, with respect to our political debates when addressing our government’s economic or social policies.  We are now a nation of conflicting Worldviews.  For example, Worldview 1: Global warming is a real threat and we humans are culpable.  We are responsible and must change the way we use, handle, and consume carbon deposits.  Worldview 2: Global warming is a hoax.  We are neither responsible nor culpable.  Let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing!  So, who is right and how do we know?

Or, Worldview 1: There are no gods and there is no God.  Thus, we humans are on our own.  That is, we are our own gods.  We make the laws; we set the standards of conduct, define justice, and rule the day as we determine.  Worldview 2: God created the universe and all that is within it, including humanity.  God is righteous, just, and true.  God sets the standards and defines goodness for us.  We must obey God’s laws.  Who is right, and how do we know?

This is a significant reason as to why our national politics is more like a contact sport, more of a battle for complete control where winner takes all—a naked power struggle.  We are fighting over conflicting variations of defined Truth and Reality itself.  Trump’s constant tweeting about fake news, for example, accentuates what it feels like to live in a world where one’s very sense of Reality is constantly called into question.

Is it possible for our nation to have a unified Worldview?  Can our Constitution adequately serve as that larger picture of Reality?

If a society cannot agree on the facts, that’s a huge problem in itself.  But if a society cannot even agree on the larger Truth or greater Reality, within which those facts are to be given meaning; that is a far greater problem indeed.