What does “creation” create: fact or fiction? This question is not altogether vacuous, and the answer, or at least an attempt of the mental process presupposing an answer as its objective, may not be without merit. I am addressing the question of the truth of fiction again, but under a slightly different angle.
Generally speaking, fact is defined by respectable dictionaries (Webster’s Dictionary) as “a thing that has actually happened or is true,” but also as “something declared to have happened or to have existed,” which, of course, presupposes the existence of false facts. Assuming, however, that "true facts" belong to “reality” (something that has actually happened), and the so-called "false facts," as commonly believed, belong to the fanciful domain of “fiction” (something declared to have happened, or to have existed), the big difference between fact and fiction has been ostensibly established, leading us exactly... nowhere.
Following the famous quip of George Bernard Shaw about “real history” always being spurious, whereas a work of fiction is something that you can actually believe, I am pushing this stroke of Shaw’s genius even further, suggesting that only the worlds of fiction can be actually true, while the deceptive facts of the real world, if the history of humanity teaches us something, tend to be predominantly false.
It is in this sense, perhaps, that God’s Kingdom is not of this world. When Nietzsche declares “Fiat Veritas, Pereat Vita,” is it not safe to say that the conflict between life and reality is irresolvable in the “real” terms, and only through our creative fiction can we aspire to the Absolute Truth, hoping that if we are sincere, our creative effort will be recognized by our fellow Creator, and His door will thus be thrust open to our pleas of recognition and admission?
Now, compare "Fiat Veritas, Pereat Vita" to Voltaire’s “Happiness is but a dream and sorrow is real,” and to Nietzsche’s assertion that “hope is a lie that sustains life.” Now, the truth in all these three cases acts as a destroyer of life, and thus it is inimical to creation. Compare this to my comment elsewhere that the Sin of Adam and Eve, which introduced death and suffering into their life, was the result of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. That was how “fact” was introduced: not by creation, but by deception.
When we say that God is Truth, aren’t we saying that Creative Truth is not of “this world“? That the truth which is of this world, is a destructive truth, that is, death. What we call “a fact” is not a universal truth, but a limited hypothesis within the mortal world of pain and death. Thus, Voltaire’s happiness, or Nietzsche’s hope are our means to renounce the “truth” of this world, building a bridge of fiction to the Truth of God.
Generally speaking, fact is defined by respectable dictionaries (Webster’s Dictionary) as “a thing that has actually happened or is true,” but also as “something declared to have happened or to have existed,” which, of course, presupposes the existence of false facts. Assuming, however, that "true facts" belong to “reality” (something that has actually happened), and the so-called "false facts," as commonly believed, belong to the fanciful domain of “fiction” (something declared to have happened, or to have existed), the big difference between fact and fiction has been ostensibly established, leading us exactly... nowhere.
Following the famous quip of George Bernard Shaw about “real history” always being spurious, whereas a work of fiction is something that you can actually believe, I am pushing this stroke of Shaw’s genius even further, suggesting that only the worlds of fiction can be actually true, while the deceptive facts of the real world, if the history of humanity teaches us something, tend to be predominantly false.
It is in this sense, perhaps, that God’s Kingdom is not of this world. When Nietzsche declares “Fiat Veritas, Pereat Vita,” is it not safe to say that the conflict between life and reality is irresolvable in the “real” terms, and only through our creative fiction can we aspire to the Absolute Truth, hoping that if we are sincere, our creative effort will be recognized by our fellow Creator, and His door will thus be thrust open to our pleas of recognition and admission?
Now, compare "Fiat Veritas, Pereat Vita" to Voltaire’s “Happiness is but a dream and sorrow is real,” and to Nietzsche’s assertion that “hope is a lie that sustains life.” Now, the truth in all these three cases acts as a destroyer of life, and thus it is inimical to creation. Compare this to my comment elsewhere that the Sin of Adam and Eve, which introduced death and suffering into their life, was the result of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. That was how “fact” was introduced: not by creation, but by deception.
When we say that God is Truth, aren’t we saying that Creative Truth is not of “this world“? That the truth which is of this world, is a destructive truth, that is, death. What we call “a fact” is not a universal truth, but a limited hypothesis within the mortal world of pain and death. Thus, Voltaire’s happiness, or Nietzsche’s hope are our means to renounce the “truth” of this world, building a bridge of fiction to the Truth of God.
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