The Philosophy Of Objective Truth

How do we truly love God above and beyond everything else? What does it mean to love God? What kind of love? And how do we feel that love?

Even the most religious people go through life never understanding what does it really mean to love God, despite them saying it all the time.

But if you’re honest like me, you would have wondered at least once in your life, how does one love God, when we don’t feel it?

And this problem manifest itself in many ways today, that’s the reason see so much evil today although there are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. This is because many claim to believe in God, but not knowing what it really means to believe and love God over all things.

So what is God? How do we love Him? One of the best ways is to understand objective truth and beauty. And this presentation will explain that.

Is there a right way to live?

Let me begin with the question “is there a right way to live?”

The answer should be an obvious “yes” and there is only one right way to live our lives. All other ways are wrong. For more justification on this, click here.

For example, it is always wrong to cut someone’s limbs. Every sane person will agree that that is a wrong way to live your life.

And if there is a wrong way to live, there must be a right way to live your life.

If you disagree, then you must accept that it is okay to go around and chopping people’s hands off.

How do we know what is the right way to live?

Once we have established that there is a right way to live, how do we determine what it is? Can humans decide themselves? Is it through God?

The right way to live cannot be determined by humans themselves. If that is true, then a maniac can justify it is morally correct to go around and chop people’s hands off for no reasons because he has decided that’s the right way to live.

The right way to live also cannot be determined by a majority of humans. Because if the majority of humans belief that taking people’s money without their consent is okay, it becomes okay (read: taxation).

Is the right way to live then determined by God? This question is hard to answer with a yes or no because it is a loaded question (read: Euthyphro dilemma). If I say God determines what is the right way to live, that means it is arbitrarily decided by God. But God is not an arbitrary entity who creates and destroys things for fun.

Does the right way to live then exist independent of God? If yes, then you’re saying that this “right way to live” ideal created itself. That’s not possible because only God can exist without a contingent. Otherwise, you have to admit that this “right way to live” is God.

So what’s the real answer?

Let’s explore this from a different angle.

If you created a pen, the only right use of the pen is for writing/drawing on a piece of paper. All other uses are wrong. Right? The next natural question is: How do you know that the pen is used for writing on a piece of paper only.

Well, from the presence of an ink storage and it’s tip, you would know that its purpose is to write. It is not for stabbing someone, because it is not sharp. It is not for picking your nose, because of the presence of the ink.

From the shape of its tip, you know it is not for writing on a wall, because the roughness of the wall will damage the tip.

So from all these features and attributes of the pen, you come to know the real way to use a pen.

We can extend this analogy for human’s right way to live and act.

We can know the real way to live and act from the total set of facts about us (our biological makeup, our soul, our psychological makeup, our tendencies, our nature, our social nature, our sexual nature, etc) and facts about our environment (the universe, the weather, physics, mathematics, gravity, etc).

The totality of all these facts will tell us what’s the right way to live and act.

In other words, our whole existence is one giant equation. We need to precisely fit our place in the equation, if not, chaos and darkness ensues.

How do we figure out this one giant equation?

It’s not possible. However, we have God’s revealed knowledge (like Qur’an) and human acquired knowledge (science, history, biology, psychology). When we combine all these, and the more we know, we can get closer to the giant equation and figure out the right way to live.

So what is the right way to live?

Now we know how to determine what is the right way to live, we can now answer what is that right way to live.

Looking at today – does the right way to live practiced today?

God created humans in a way that we learn better from our mistakes rather than getting it right from the first time. This is because mistakes and failures provide us the perspective that first-time successes won’t. This is also God’s wisdom behind Adam and Eve’s mistake in the Garden of Eden.

So let’s look at today’s world and try to see does the right way of living exist today and if not, why?

To understand what something really is it is necessary to strip it down to its basic building blocks.

The basic building blocks of the modern age are but not limited to:

The modern age is a sequent of the middle ages
We live in nation-states
Humans are primarily motivated by material wealth
Governments are elected
Most governments function as welfare services provider
Because of that, taxation is allowed
God plays no role in legislation
Most people are religious
Economies are built on debt
Education is provided by government
Healthcare is provided by government
Government has the given right to do anything it wants through legislation

When we try to understand all of these building blocks individually, their origins and how it ties into the system we will come to this conclusion:

To sum it all up, the modern era is a shift from the middle ages (known as the renaissance). Where the middle ages were controlled mainly by religious authorities, the modern age is the opposite and tired of religion because of the corruption made by religious authorities. The modern age doesn’t want that and makes sure that God and religion are separated from public affairs. With that, identity is built through, not religion or faith anymore, but through nations (blood) and are bonded by those. Each country is bonded by the same race, language and culture – and hence the rise of nation states. Nations then no longer compete to be the best in the eyes of God, but to get as much wealth and taunt the other nations. Since law is no longer decided by religion or God, man now makes the law, and man can make the law as how as it wants. Wanting to triumph their own nations and show off, along with their ability to make any laws they want, they make it mandatory for everyone to pay tax so that the economy grows. But tax is not enough, so they legalize the printing of money to further supercharge the economy (usury and riba). Nations compete against one another by printing more money and getting more tax. But the printing of money essentially means debt, and the only reason why someone would give debt on a mass scale is because they can get interest. So banks provide loans to governments in return for interest payments. To smooth everything out, governments legalize the printing of money so that banks can give out more loans to governments. The banking industry is essentially and euphemism for the debt industry. In order for governments to be competitive, there’s another element that must be met which is happy slaves, I mean, citizen. After all you take tax from them. So remember, humans are no longer driven by divine values but by material wealth. So the more wealth and services the government can provide, the happier the citizens are and the more they want to work the economy. So the government provide free education, healthcare, subsidies, really anything under the sun, so that people are happy, and that they won’t revolt. Education and healthcare are also given so that the citizens become efficient to work the economy of the nation. Because of all this, governments need to take more loans in order to sustain all these services. As a result, the banking (debt) industry grows so large and powerful it literally controls the economy. The people who control banks also have significant shares in all major countries in the world (yes, it’s true). That means they have a say on how the economies are run. When they have a say on how economies are run, governments are also further tied to the bank because they want their economies to be powerful. That’s how now 1% of the world population controls 50% of money.

Obviously, from just look at the basic building blocks, we see how all of these are wrong in so many levels. But even the basic-building blocks are wrong like taxation and welfare services. Why are they wrong?

Again we need to look at the basic building blocks of each.

The basic building blocks of taxation is:

Government take money from humans
Does not need the consent of humans
Government can do anything it wants with the taxpayer’s money

From these basic building blocks we can pinpoint where something is wrong. It is wrong where it does not need the consent of its citizens. From revealed knowledge, we know that God prohibit trade where there is no mutual consent. From acquired knowledge we know that where taking other people’s money without their consent is a form of communism and communism failed spectacularly in the greatest litmus test of the 20th century (United States of America vs The Soviet Union). Also, from acquired knowledge, through tradition and common law taking other people’s money without their consent is either theft or robbery. Primitive societies punished those who take other’s people money without consent. So how come governments are allowed to take people’s money without consent?

Next, about welfare services:

It is built on taxpayer’s money, debt, or both
It is mainly for people who can’t afford the particular service from private providers.
Government provides it for free or for a very very low price to its citizens.

From these basic building blocks, obviously, the first point is already wrong since it is a built on taxpayer’s money, and taxation is theft. What if it is built on debt alone? We know from revealed knowledge God prohibits usury. We also know from acquired knowledge that industrialization of debt runs on fiat money, which is not money in the first place. Money needs to have value. So industrialization of debt (riba) is definitely wrong, and we know this through both revealed and acquired knowledge.

So now we see here that if a basic building block is wrong or built on a wrong, it makes the whole system inevitably wrong. That’s why we are seeing so much suffering today.

Requirements of the basic building blocks of the right way to live

However, it is not enough that the “right way to live” is free from wrong and falsehood, it must also be immune to failure and external threats.

If the system we propose cannot stand when attacked, it is as good as useless. To be good, one must also be mighty, for God is both good and mighty.

Therefore, the “giant equation” dictates that (as far as my knowledge goes) the right way to live must:

Be free from wrong and falsehood

Strong and competitive

We’ve seen examples where the building block of a system is wrong or based on a wrong, making the whole system wrong.

Now let’s look at an example of a system where it is not necessarily wrong, but weak and doomed to fail: women empowerment.

What are the basic building blocks of women empowerment?

Women to have authority over their bodies and their decisions
A woman is a creature significantly different to a man in terms of biology and psychology
Women are always physically weaker than men
Opposes patriarchy (a social structure where men are the authorities)

Women empowerment is a nuanced subject, and not wrong per se, and you can obey God at the same time where women are empowered. However, it is doomed to fail.

Take for example in a household where the woman has a busy and ambitious career. What happens is

The natural role of the woman as a mother is neglected or at best degraded
The woman lose respect for the husband (hypergamy)
Women are not built for immense stress, and when the workplace gives immense stress, the natural instinct of a woman to feel safe and protected are not met. This causes the husband and wife unable to connect deeply on an emotional level.
All of these lead to the strife and disintegration of the family unit
Which will lead to kids social problems like bullying, and lost of direction in life.
Also leads to husbands looking to satisfy their sexual desires outside of marriage > more bastards > more unregulated kids > more social problems.

A woman having a career is not wrong per se, but a society where this is the norm, is doomed to fail or remain uncompetitive and will be easily defeated in war. Besides that we also know from revealed knowledge that the man has to be in charge of the women, not the woman on the man.

This confirms our acquired knowledge that it is not ideal for a woman to be ambitious and career-driven. When a woman chooses to embrace her feminine and nurturing nature, there will be a synergetic relationship between women and men, making it a competitive family.

Solution: The Right Way of Life Built Upon The Right Building Blocks and Remain Competitive

We’ve explored that the right way of life is comprised of basic building blocks. And those building blocks must

Be free from wrong and falsehood
Remain competitive against threats

So what is that right way to live? Does it exist?

Yes, it does exist, as we know from revealed knowledge that good is meant to win and evil is meant to lose. So there must be a right way to live that will make good win.

So far from my studies and observation, I have found out that the right way to live is built on governing principle of organic growth towards objective truth.

Organic growth is not free from wrong and falsehood, and remains competitive even when faced by the opponents with the most unfair advantage.

Before I explain further about the philosophy of organic growth, let’s first view from the revealed and acquired sources of how the right way of life should be:

Revealed Knowledge

Based on the belief in God
No compulsion in belief
Based on values of justice and truth

Acquired Knowledge

Evolution of humans, survival of the fittest: Strong tribes survive and continue to propagate, weak ones die out
Humans started as tribes. The head acts as the leader.
How the tribe leader became the leader? He owned his role by being brave in battle and being the strongest. People naturally look towards him for guidance and safety.
At this stage politics are voluntary. The tribe leader loves the status and respect he gets from his tribe members and the tribe members love the protection and guidance of the tribe leader. Political roles are earned through merit, not voting.
Trade happens within the tribe members to meet each others needs.
Where disputes arose, humans seek the help of the tribe leader because whatever he says has influence. The tribe leader not only leads battles, he is the judge. Here we also understand that the main function of a leader is to be a judge.
At this stage, there is no such thing as “legislation.” People naturally understood the conduct of dealing with each other.
The tribe leader or judge does not “make the law.” The law already exists in the tribe as a customary law. A just tribe leader only judges based on the existing customary law, not make new ones. A tribe leader that goes against customary law would also lose the respect of its tribe members and chaos would inevitably ensue.
Over time, the tribes that have tribes leaders that has most respect for the law and respect for fellow humans survive and the ones that didn’t either disintegrate into many tribes, or die out.
From here there are two types of tribes: Tribes that earns its living honestly through farming, hunting and fishing, and tribes that pillage other tribes, capture their resources, and enslave the tribe members. The second type of tribe lacks does not live the right way to live because they do immoral things like killing, robbing, coercing and raping. The first type of tribe also does not live the right way to live because it lacks competitiveness. The clash of these two types of tribes created what is known as kingdoms, where the ruling tribe (second type) rules over the subservient tribes (first type).
In kingdoms (feudal era), the relationship between king and citizens is nothing more than a master-slave relationship. Therefore, the king imposes taxation on its citizens in exchange for protection from external attacks of other kingdoms.
Kingdoms were able to amass wealth and resources very quickly because of taxes and slaves, unlike normal agrarian tribes that has its produce from the soil. Therefore kingdoms became the dominant force.
To keep up, all tribes need to collect tax and conquer other tribes to win.
However, there were exceptions in history where honest tribes won against kingdoms and empires

Analysis

So we know from the above that evolution (strong tribes thrive and weak ones perished) is the main governing law of nature, and nothing can escape it. We also see that the wrongful tribes that pillage and enslave other tribes tend to have dominion over the ones that chose to live morally through honest means.

However, this is what we got from acquired knowledge, it must be confirmed with revealed knowledge. Revealed knowledge teaches that humans should rule based on justice and truth. But there seems to be a mismatch.

If you become a warring tribe, enslave people and tax them, you amass resources faster and gain a dominant position. However, you go against ethics, morals, justice and truth.
If you become an honest tribe producing tilth from land and animals, you are bound to lose.
If you become defeatist and let kingdoms rule over you (like monasticism), you have lost too and good will never prevail.

So how does a tribe become 1) morally upright and just and 2) strong at the same time? It must be possible because revealed knowledge tells us so.

There’s actually a third type of tribe, which are the tribes that rose from defeat and won against all odds without going against truth, morals and justice. Examples include:

when the tribes of Germania united to defeat the then-mighty Roman Empire
when the children of Israel had their own kingdom after the exodus.

However, the best example is….

when the people of Muhammad (pbuh) won against the Quraisy of Makkah, the Roman Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empire

You are the best community ever raised for humanity—you enforce customs, forbid wrongness, and believe in God. Had the People of the Book believed, it would have been better for them. Some of them are faithful, but most are rebellious.
Quran, Ali Imran, 3:110

The victory of the people of Muhammad (pbuh) against three powerful forces that had unfair advantages show that it is possible and it has been done. This is why the people of Muhammad (pbuh) is a blessing for all worlds. But what made them successful and what made them fell too?

Here are the characteristics of this tribe (people):

A. The Mental Model

Belief in God and the Hereafter:
- Belief in God and the hereafter does not only mean belief in its existence but also trust and faith in God- that the names of God (attributes of God) are the best ideal we should all chase after like The Loving, The Knowing, The Mighty. This makes one in love with God and desire to seek the face of God – which essentially means tasting the beauty of love, strength, power, wisdom, truth.
Desire to ascend above worldly comforts and desire to be the best one can be
- Related to above, where one sees the meaning and beauty of Reality (God), he would desire to be the best he can be. This translates into superior ethics and etiquettes, and competing (not just doing) towards goodness.
Principles over expedience:
- Principles always take place over what is easy. This is because anything that does not follow truth, does not follow what is right is ugly and the opposite of beauty. Those who believe in God chase after beauty and beauty is always consistent. Principles take priority over expedience every time.

B. Actions

Racing towards goodness
- God has created man with the desire to compete. The desire is to be channeled by doing good and becoming better every day. This is done through charity, feeding the poor, freeing the slaves.
Follow the instructions of God
- God knows best the way of life humans should live

C. Social System

Male-Female dynamic not to be subverted
- This means appreciating the difference between man and woman as a powerful synergy against evil, like the ying and yang. They complete one another. Unlike today, men and women are regarded as the same, this is a lie and a form of subversion (sabotage).
Strong family unit
- Family is the most basic unit of society (that is more than one person) and it is important to get this right. Success in this area can follow success in other areas.
- Family also comprises of the male figure, female figure, and child figure which is like 90% towards mastering human-human relations
- Each husband and wife play out their gender roles. Husbands go out to find resources and wives be the homemaker and nurturer.
Strong tribe united by ideology
- The head of family joins other head of families (brotherhood) into a band of families. They help each other out. This is essentially a tribe. A tribe can be tied by blood (big extended family, race) or by ideology. A tribe united by ideology is far superior. In this case, the belief in God and the hereafter.

D. Political System

The leading tribe/persons
- The leading tribe becomes the leading tribe naturally. Earned through honor and bravery. Other tribes will be willing to follow the leading tribe because they can trust their judgement and guidance.
Decentralized tribe networks
- A tribe must be able to allowed to stop following the leadership of another tribe if it chooses to.
- This will help to check and balance against tyranny, corruption and oppression.
- Also helps reduce wars, conflicts and they can unite when the need arises.
- This also means that tribes under a leadership of another tribe must be independent, and their resources are not dependent on the leadership of the leading tribe.
The only function of government is enforcement of justice and customs, and the forbidding of what is unacceptable
- Government is in no business of doing business
- Government is in no business of welfare
- Government is in no business of public thought
- Government is in no business of social engineering
Abide by the law
- Law here means law, and not made-up law (aka legislation)
- This means the revealed law and the customary law

E. Economic System

Based on the law
- Law here means law, and not made-up law (aka legislation)
- This means the revealed law and the customary law
Based on Free Markets and No Coercion
- Promotes innovation and growth
- Destroys monopoly
- Long-lasting wealth
Based on real money
- Money has intrinsic value
- Money completely decentralised, not controlled ever by tribe leader
- Cannot be printed
- Cannot be controlled by a single entity.
Organic Growth based on Real Wealth, Not Credit
- Economy is built on real wealth, not on credit or debt.
- Slaves are freed through charity, and not a government intervention
- The poor are fed through charity, and not government intervention
- Retirement is supported through children, and not government intervention
- Education is provided through trade and/or charity, not government intervention
- Healthcare is provided through private trade and/or charity, not government intervention
- Internal security is provided through private trade and/or charity and/or spoils of war, not government intervention
- External security is provided through private trade and/or charity and/or spoils of war, not government intervention
Public Resources
- Land, Water, Air, Fire, Energy cannot be hoarded.
- Government does not own these resources.

F. Judiciary

Government is only concerned with justice and its delivery
- Must be fast, swift and accessible
Authoritative
- Judge is recognized as a true authority (probably the tribe leader) and the law are real laws not legislations.

Tying it all up: The Encompassing Principles

From all the above here are three main principles

Decentralization and Reintegration

Evolution is an unescapable part of nature and we must work with it, not against it. Those who live more in tuned with nature wins and those who do not will perish.

Decentralization is the only way where the evolution of tribes can take place peacefully without destroying each other.

Decentralization also promotes brotherhood instead of discouraging it. This is because tribe leaders can still disagree yet work together in face of external attacks. This is called reintegration.

So tribes united by ideology should be able to decentralize when needed, and reintegrate when the need arises.

2. Organic sustainable growth

Tribes and systems that do not follow the right way of life depend on resorting to immoral and unjust means to build their material strength. However, like an economy built on credit, this is not sustainable.

That is why God enriches charity and destroys riba (usury).

3. Most important: Divine truth, purpose and beauty

It is only when man believes in God, understands the truth, knows his purpose, and chase after beauty can he be motivated to push mountains and be the best version of himself.

Without this, everything else is meaningless.

When man goes through suffering and pain, only then he can truly appreciate love. And to know love is to know God, for God is Most Loving and Radiant in His Love.

This is the answer to the question in the beginning of this article.

Conclusion: What can we do now?

Now that we understand these three important governing principles we go and attack it. First, we need to continuously be learning and thinking about the creation of the heavens and the earth. Study biology. Study ourselves. This will make us appreciate and see the beauty of God. Understand our role in this world.

Next, we need to improve ourselves in every sphere. If you’re a man, make money, be physically strong, develop etiquettes.

Then, start to build the community you dream of. If you can band with other men who have the same principles and worldview as you, do that. But regardless, you’re still the king of your own world. Find a girl, get married, have kids and be the king of the household.

If you can successfully navigate married life, you can start to make the world a better place by building a tribe.

Ideally, you’d want a community where we have all our needs met in there. There are people who work the land, there are people who work trade, there are people who work the buildings, etc. The more diverse the economic activity within the community you build, that’s better.

If you made it here, congratulations, you have successfully left the system.

Next, start to invite more people to leave the system and reintegrate with you, especially those who share the same values and ideals with you, and are ready to die for that cause.

This is the way.