Have you ever wondered, “Is that for real?” Maybe a magic trick or an illusion caused you to question what you saw. But have you ever thought of that question on a grand scale? Is anything real? What is ultimate reality? How do we know that everything we experience is not a dream? Philosophers and religious thinkers have searched for ultimate reality for millennia. Here are a few of their answers.
Eastern Religions
Hinduism teaches that ultimate reality is one. All physical things, and even immaterial concepts such as good and evil, are ultimately one. Individual distinctions are an illusion. The name for this oneness is Brahman. Brahman is the impersonal source and essence of everything. The human self is called Atman and the deep insight of Hinduism is that Atman is Brahman.
Siddhartha Gautama, known as Buddha (c. 563–483 BC), taught that because everything is constantly changing, including our consciousness through everyday experiences, ultimately there is no self or I—there is no essence. The goal is to reach nirvana, which is the permanent state of no self. Nirvana literally means blowing out or extinction.
So Hinduism and Buddhism have a completely different answer to the question, “What is real?” Either universal oneness, which resides within, or nothing because there is no essence.
Western Thinkers
Thales of Miletus (c. 624–546 BC) is known as the father of Western philosophy. Noticing that everything contains moisture in some way (e.g. condensation), he concluded that “the first principle and basic nature of all things is water.”
Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610–546 BC) was impressed with pairs of opposites in the world: light and dark, wet and dry, hot and cold. Anaximander concluded that in order to escape from the reality of opposites, ultimate reality must transcend space and time. He called ultimate reality, the apeiron which means “the Unlimited” (or “the Unbounded”). “The Unlimited” is a special kind of material substance that can take on all qualities and, therefore, has no characteristics of its own.
Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 585–528 BC) was impressed with the contrast between living and nonliving things. Observing that breath was a common element in all living things, he believed the fundamental principle of everything is air. Why are some objects more dense than other objects? According to Anaximenes, the density of air in an object determines the visibility and hardness of an object. And that means we can place the following items on an air-density spectrum: wind, cloud, water, earth, stone.
Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535–475 BC) believed that the world was in a constant state of change. Plato quoted him as saying “No man ever steps in the same river twice.” Looking for a substance that was constantly changing, he concluded that fire was the chief principle of the universe.
Plato (427–347 BC) proposed that there are two worlds: a world of matter that is constantly changing, and a world of Ideas or Forms where the perfect forms of material objects exist and, therefore, don’t change. For example, apples in the world of matter change by decaying. But a perfect and unchanging apple exists in the world of Ideas and that apple is the source of all apples in the world of matter.
Aristotle (384–323 BC) studied in Plato’s Academy for 20 years where he excelled as Plato’s star student. But he rejected Plato’s two-world solution. He asserted that Forms only exists in matter. There is no world of Ideas. He identified the initial cause of all movement as the unmoved mover.
So to summarize the answers to ultimate reality we have water, the Unlimited, air, fire, world of Ideas, an unmoved mover.
Monotheistic Religions
In monotheistic religions, such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism, God is the ultimate reality. All assert that this ultimate reality started life on planet Earth and continues to sustain and interact with life on this planet. While each affirms that God has been involved in human history through prophets, holy books, and historical events, Christianity is unique in asserting that ultimate reality became a human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who died and rose from the dead.
So what’s real? Based on the answers given above, here are the choices:
- Universal oneness (Brahman),
- nothingness,
- water,
- a special material substance that can take on all qualities known as the Unlimited,
- air,
- fire,
- a world of Ideas,
- an unmoved mover, and,
- God.
Synthesis
What strikes me is that the no-essence idea can make sense even to monotheists. In ourselves, we are actually nothing. We do not possess the principle of life and permanency. We are here and then we are gone. And according to modern-day scientists, the basic particles of matter, called quarks, are in a constant state of flux. There’s nothing solid at the most fundamental level. There’s no essence.
So if we look at ourselves independently from any other force or principle or being, we’re nothing. But if we think of God who sustains us then we can see ultimate reality holding us together. Paul affirmatively quotes an ancient philosopher who said, “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). And he writes, “He [Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). John writes, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1:4). And the author of Hebrews says that Jesus is “sustaining all things by his powerful word” (1:3). Ultimate reality is holding us together. Without it, we fall apart into nothingness.
The universal-oneness idea can also make sense to monotheists. If God is residing within us, then, ultimate reality resides within. But again, this kind of life is not inherent to our nature. As Paul writes, “one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6). But notice that ultimate reality, which resides within, is also transcendent—”who is over all.”
While we are not ultimately real, ultimate reality holds us together and resides within.
After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I served as a high school Bible teacher in Asia. I enjoy traveling, writing, and playing the drums. For a deep dive into church history and the character of God, see my book Surprised by Hell.