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Whether falsity exists in things?
It is necessary to find what is false so what is true can be recognized or identified. In things and objects, neither what is true or false can be found without relating it to the intellect of someone. What is artificial by way of accident (human freewill choices to do or create something), such as the art of a man who paints snowscapes and other depictions of nature, may fall short to previously accepted standards of artwork either in himself prior in time or other works of more renowned artists in comparison. We know what is false as compared to what is true, for the one who observes the man’s art knows what a false work ought to be. Now that same intellect also recognizes what are natural things in accordance with the Divine Intellect and artificial things which are the work of humans. For example, the alignment of the stars and the planets receiving their day and night cycles in unison with one another; example from the works of the Divine Intellect, which causes celestial bodies to come into order amidst a sea of chaos and explosions - tasks which are impossible for man or any created being because these kind of occurrences and happenings are dependent upon God alone, in whom there is nothing false that can be found. For what comparison do we have to what God creates, since He alone created it and is One, within His own order and self, giving everything else which exists cause and purpose through His knowledge and wisdom? There is no other. Therefore, He is the ultimate truth, because nothing else besides Him put such a work of creation in motion, for He is the First and Only Standard to which all works align and compare beneath His providence, but never surpassing it. Furthermore, creatures who possess the gift of freewill, such as angels and humans, possess the voluntary power of the intellect to pursue what is true - which is virtuous deeds and being obedient to the order of the Divine Intellect, for which they were made to carry out its purpose; also possessing the ability to pursue falseness which is the evil (deficiency) of sin (non-being). Lying (hating the truth) and vanity (inflated sense of self) are examples of what is false and opposed to the Divine Intellect, to which such creatures can freely accept or reject, either to their destruction or eternal life. Additionally, in relation to the intellect and natural things humans have the ability to recognize false and truthful things in the relative sense: one, by way of identifying the worthiness of a cause or belief according to their values or what they know by way of knowledge in accordance with those values. Two, a quantity or thing which is obviously lacking in something - for example, an icecream cone purchased at a snack stand lacking the ice cream, but only consisting of the cone. The customer could say, “I purchased an ice cream but only got this ice cream cone.” He would be correct in that his purchase and offer was false. Three, a person believes in harming others for sordid gain. To the person, this action seems profitable and feasible, and the deficiency of his moral being, which is false as compared to what is true, just, and good, allows him to commit such acts willingly and without remorse (until he is caught). Finally, the intellect knows what is to be true by recognizing what it should be. In the same way, the intellect shall know what is false by recognizing what it should not be. As evil and faithlessness increases and the operation of the demon becomes more widely accepted throughout social circles, media channels, and institutions, we shall see in many that the confused will grow more confused, and that what is true shall become false, and what is false shall become true, and what is good shall become evil, and what is evil shall become good to those who choose to reject the Divine Intellect, which is God, to follow the doctrines and teachings of damned angelic beings and their influence throughout the world by way of negativity and anything/everything opposed to God. Whether there is falsity in the senses? The senses, such as the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, and the sense of touch apprehend sensible things around them truly. For example, the nose can smell food that has gone foul, indicating that the meat is rotten and not fit for human consumption. Not that the nose knows truth or is truth, but that the nose signals to the human intellect a true apprehension of something in as much as the intellect of the person can perceive it - in this case, the smell of tainted meat indicates danger to one’s health, so by way of the intellect, the person decides to avoid the food for the sake of one’s health. Going further with this, it can be said that the likeness of a thing can exist in the senses in three ways: One, prime to its own nature; in other words, seeing the color blue as blue, or recognizing a triangle’s three points and identifying the triangle accurately for what it is - a triangle. Second, of its own nature alone and not prime, as in smell the likeness of similar things, or identifying many shapes and sizes common to many senses. Third, neither prime nor of its own nature, but accidentally, such as staring at a pile of garbage alongside the road through thermal imaging devices and seeing many objects present that do not exist in the area that is being perceived, even though the many shapes and contrasts made the appearance of such objects falsely. Taking these points into account, it can be concluded that sense has no false knowledge as it detects its objects properly, but by way of accident, the senses may receive improperly by way of distortion, confusing other colors, objects, tastes, and odors with things it recognizes elsewhere, or rendering a false judgment, such as when a person is sick and they cannot taste anything, even though what they may be eating may be full of abundant flavorful. In the same way, it can be said that not all things in reality are sensed or seen in the world around us. For the corporeal eye cannot see what is spirit by its normal action alone because it is in accordance with the material principle which is subject to time (beginning and end, life and death). As for the atheist, who relies upon sense alone and the material principle, he fails to realize that once his senses give out, and the materials that make up his fleshly body fail and die, the material principle for him shall be non-existent in his reality, and now he would find himself as a bodiless spirit; intellect alone, roaming about back and forth trying to make sense of it all - fully coming to the realization of “knowing” that he spent his earthly life rejecting his spirit which was made eternal, while putting all that time and effort into his body and worldly things, which are temporary and subject to death. At this point, there is no turning back, but to only go forward. Whether falsity is in the intellect? So as the sense of smell is to the nose, which truly apprehends many different smells and odors, so does the intellect truly apprehend the essence of something by way of knowledge that is proper to it. In the same way sense can be distorted or subjectively false, in that the nose may be stuffed up and unable to smell specific odors at the moment, so can the intellect experience falsity in its operation accidentally by way of improper knowledge, a poor spiritual/emotional disposition, or innate bias by way of sin which leads to lying and manipulation to satisfy vice, greed, and lower pleasures or desires. The intellect judges and dissects concepts and ideas reasonably and accurately through the essence of something so as to find a truthful disposition. For example, the process of a prosecutor, defense lawyer, judge, and jury. All of them dissect the case at hand, which are the actions of the defendant to find whether or not he is at fault truthfully in order for a just judgment to be rendered. Carving up timelines and events of the act in question by many different parties who shall scrutinize the facts and events, including testimony of witnesses, victims, and the accused - many intellects involved in the trial shall expose the essence of what is being scrutinized. Even in this, the essence of something could be corrupted by way of how the intellect apprehends it. For example, we see that bias is always meant to be rooted out when selecting a jury - such as radical affiliations, racism, and other warning signs of a compromised individual judging a case fairly and truthfully. These biases shall distort the correct judgment of the intellect upon the case at hand that is to be judged (the essence of the act in question). In conclusion, the intellect truthfully apprehends the essence of things, just as the senses truthfully apprehend objects of sense such as smell or hearing. However, both are subject to distortion and some level of falsity by way of accident (free will choices to distort or corrupt by way of sin, foreign influence or agent, innate bias, vice, etc.). Whether true and false are contraries? True and false are opposed to one another. Indeed, they are contrary to one another. What is true is not the same as affirmation, for affirmation simply is in agreement with something, or provides emotional encouragement. One can still be wrong and provide bad advice and false encouragement while calling it the “truth.” For what is false, is opposed to the truth and is its opposite. With negation, nothing is asserted, and in other words can be described as the absence of something. Contraries assert something specifically by way of their subjects. To reinforce this concept; they take firm positions regarding something while defending it from anything in opposition to it. For example; the woman says the ocean has water. This would be true. On the contrary, a man says there is no water in the ocean. This would be false. The truth says there is a proper apprehension of something as identified by the intellect (the soul) of a person or angel (which is pure spirit). Even in this, God is the first and only truth, and is the very standard of it in a much higher way than what the intellect of the human spirit or angel can apprehend. What is false is opposed to this, thus we see that what is opposed to God such as the evil spirits, the rebellious angels, and the human spirits who follow them, act in a manner contrary to what is Holy (set apart). For example, as we see in the Holy Mass of the Church which is carried out everyday around the world, there is also the black mass of the satanic church in contrary to it, with their own ministers and vestments acting in the opposite of what the Holy Mass offers so as to be in opposition of Christ’s Body - which is the Church. Additionally, we see this with satanic inversion (mockery of God) with the six color rainbow flag as opposed to the true seven colors of the rainbow, demonic hour where spirits are more active at 3:00 AM in opposition to when Lord Jesus Christ died at 3:00 PM on the cross, challenging the sanctity of marriage between men and women for the purpose of children and replacing it with same sex unions that are not capable of being recognized by God as a covenant, transgender mutilation from man to woman, and woman to man, and the many prayers of the Church that are used and replaced with salutation to the chief fallen angel by satanic and occultist groups opposed to God (these examples could be summed up as the ordinary actions of satan and evil working through others commonly/everyday in the world). Furthermore, it could be said that what is true is goodness, life, and from God alone, while what is false is not-being, sin, opposed to life - which is death, and is what could also be called evil. To go even further, what is true can be found in things, for a coconut is truly a coconut, but when the truth of that coconut is apprehended by the intellect (soul), it can also be said that this is the truth of the intellect where truth resides as prime. Since evil comes from the good (for God made all things good, but creatures chose to become evil), and evil was said to be sin or falsity (not quite adding up to what is supposed to be whole), falsity may reside in truth or goodness in this way as an absence of or lacking in something. As for God alone, there is nothing contrary in respect to His goodness, truth, and intellect where there is nothing false found, for as it was said earlier - He is of His own order as there is nothing like Him. However, there are apprehensions (false opinions or thoughts not reflecting reality) of Him that are opposed to Him by lower creatures such as humans who are opposed to Him and angels who choose to disobey and rebel against their own nature, thus inflicting self-hatred upon themselves because they never added up to what they were supposed to be. In addition to this, there are false idols that people worship that are also contrary to God by apprehension in the intellect of the worshiper who worships what is false; so even in this, the idol is false for it cannot stand on itself alone as a God, nor does it possess such power. As some have said, “my gods speak to me,” although their idols may speak, this is not proof of a god as they claim, but is either wishful thinking, mental illness, or evil spirits attaching themselves to their false idol so as to pose as gods in order to influence the idol worshiper to pursue the sin of idol worship like what was seen in pagan Rome and many parts of the world throughout history, thereby violating the second commandment - which is to have no other gods before Him and not to worship graven images. Finally, there is nothing which compares to God that He is not aware of, for if there were such a challenger, then He wouldn’t be God! So, God is truth, and what is opposed to God, is false, hence true and false are contrary to one another, for God is what we know as truth, and everything which came forth from Him in the likeness He ordained (with the exception of freewill accidents implemented by creatures).
I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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mr. scott lowry, op
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