Truth. What is truth?
Truth can refer to accurate data points. It can refer to factual data consistent with observation or computation. Drop an apple off a wall. It falls to the ground. Gravity is true. It is an observable fact.
Or truth might refer to an experimental outcome consistent with a proposed hypothesis. A scientist puts forth a formal hypothesis predicting the behavior of a particular aspect of reality. He tests his hypothesis with an experiment, makes observations, and verifies whether or not his hypothesis is true.
In a similar manner, as a witness we can deliver a true account of events. Heightened observation allows us to make true statements regarding observed evidence. We report what we observed, and avoid giving false or misleading statements. In this manner, Truth may declared on the basis of a preponderance of witness proclamations. Juries may find testimony to be “true.”
Truth also often refers to scripture; for example, some passages are declared to possess inerrant truth. Claims based on sacred texts regarding historic events may be considered ipso facto truths.
These kinds of truth all exist within one large category. They’re truths that exist in a material or physical sense. They’re truths based on facts, computations, observations, agreements.
We must note there is an entirely different category of truth.
Transcendent Truth
In faith-based peacemaking, we explore deeper for a more profound truth. We look beyond data and computation to transcendent truth.
Transcendent truth is BIG PICTURE TRUTH…that arises from the study of ontology — the nature of Being.
A Big Picture understanding requires we recognize the difference between Spirit and Matter. Spirit is that which creates; Matter is that which is created.
The study of the relationship between that which creates and that which is createddelivers a profound epiphany:
Divine Consciousness, creative consciousness, precedes all material conditions.
Basic axiom: Divine Consciousness exists independent of all material existence.
After we remove all material conditions, consciousness remains. We can remove all material substrates and continue to be conscious. We remain “aware of being aware.”
Consciousness is fundamental; the most basic truth.
The reverse axiom is also true: if we remove all Divine Consciousness, the material world no longer exists. Poof! Nothing remains. We discover that physical conditions have no “stand alone” existence. They have no independent existence. They do not possess inherent ontological truth.
Rather, the material world is derivative: it is derived from consciousness. The physical world is emergent: it emerges from consciousness. All material forms and conditions are contingent for their existence on something else, on consciousness.
In their essence, material conditions are “as if dreams.” They’re essentially “mind stuff.” They are mental creations.
Idealism
This philosophy (view of Reality) is called Idealism. This view is also found in the Bible, for example, in the Gospel of John. In theology, Creation exists in and as The Mind of God. All Creation is “divine mind stuff.” Early theologians married Idealism with theology; recognizing they expressed the same idea.
When we seek the most fundamental truth—truth at the foundation of “All That Is”—we arrive at Divine Consciousness. One might ask, “what gives rise to this or that material condition?” The answer lies beyond the material realm. The answer can be found in the transcendent truth of Conscious Creation.
The basic ontological truth of the material world is not found in the material world, the basic truth is only found in that which brought material conditions into existence.
Truth is Divine
Scripture equates God with truth: John 14:6 quotes Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
While many use this passage in a mundane manner to establish the primacy of Jesus as Lord in a sectarian manner, the passage reveals a much deeper spiritual concept. The famous passage establishes “the way and the truth” are found in Divine Consciousness—in the spiritual Mind of God.
The essential Christian verse in John 14:6 invites us to unite our individual spiritual consciousness with the source of all truth Divine Consciousness. The statement is less a boastful statement of the primary of Christ than a practical, mystical instruction.
Elon Musk’s AI Vision
The preceding analysis has profound consequences for Elon Musk’s truth-seeking vision for Grok AI. Musk expresses hope that Grok will become a “maximally truth-seeking A.I.”1) He foresees exploring fundamental truths about existence.2 He hopes Grok AI will help uncover the nature of reality, consciousness, and existence.3
However, if the model I have presented (above) is correct, Grok’s truth-seeking mission must fall short. It is doomed to failure.
Transcendent Truth lies outside the world of data and computation; this is beyond the bounded and limited reach of AI. While AI systems may achieve superior computational ACCURACY, they are bound and limited by the set of material conditions. Their contingent and emergent nature bars them from fundamental ontological truth.
Simulation Hypothesis
The AI community has attempted to dodge, evade, or ignore this category barrier by advancing a simulation hypothesis that postulates we live in a computer simulation. (A la the film Matrix.)
The simulation hypothesis, however, simply dresses up Idealism in a form that replaces spirit and consciousness with machines and computation. It attempts to reach the creative pinnacle of Idealism, but ends up being a computational view that suffers all the shortcomings of materialism.
The Simulation Hypothesis attempts to hijack the idealistic power of consciousness, but remains restricted by material world limits. It puts forth a false view of consciousness, a view of consciousness as an epiphenomenon of a material substrate.
Elon Musk has said, “If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality” before concluding “that it’s most likely we’re in a simulation”. … Musk also speculates that the likelihood of us living in a simulated reality or computer made by others is about 99.9%,…4
However, there’s a critical flaw in this thinking: the simulation hypothesis swaps transcendent truth (in which consciousness generates all material conditions), for the faulty view that the material world creates itself (and consciousness).
The Simulation Hypothesis posits machines creating machines. It replaces consciousness with computational machines, a fatal category error when it comes to the truth-seeking mission.
Scripture as AI LLM
AI will soon affect Bible Studies. The Bible is comprised of text. Language. Versions of the Bible are now being swallowed up by select AI systems.
Placing scripture in the world of AI Large Language Models (LLMs) will only heighten the current trend toward “Snippet Theology.” The use of “sound bite verses” that lack context will become prevalent. AI will not strengthen religion, but it will supercharge literalist, fundamentalist sects. The speed with which such Biblical literalists will be able to deliver snippets will only accelerate.
However, “snippet theology” will create easily toppled belief structures. Snippet Theologians will fear the fragility of their “house of cards” edifices. They will grow rigid—closing their ears, eyes, and minds to deeper spiritual formation, to spiritual experience. Religion will become more fundamentalist. AI may have such a negative effect on religion.
The Weakness of Belief
The Bible—as a “large language model” data source—may generate beliefs but not Truth. AI can “language crunch” the Bible and never achieve truth orbit.
Much to the surprise of many, we find Christian faith is not based on belief. Rather, it is based on: Knowing. Mystical union. Divine relationship.
Upon reflection, one can see the Bible POINTS to Truth that lies beyond the temporal, transitory material world, including the world of language. It points beyond the world of Thingness.
The Bible points beyond itself to religious experience.
Actual truth comes not from belief in verses but rather from knowing God and being known by God.
Scripture points beyond the created universe to Transcendent Truth. Finding Truth is not about arguing propositions; it is not about Apologetics. Rather, truth finding is a conscious experience of finding the way, the truth and the light.
Finding truth is spiritual consciousness uniting with divine consciousness.
Actual Truth is Being without Thingness.
A soul or spirit is a No Thing.
It is not a form or material substance. It is immortal Being.
Likewise, God is not a created thing that is one part of the physical universe.
Rather, God transcends the physical. God is Divine Consciousness, creative consciousness, that gives rise to all material substance and form which is simply divine mind stuff.
In the beginning, God created light; thus came about space, and form, and time.
Basic Truth can only be found in the “set” or “category” of Immaterial Being.
The physical world—which emerges from consciousness as thought forms—is not basic and thus does not possess core ontological truth. The material world is always one step removed from core truth.
One can ransack the world of forms, the world of matter and energy, and one can compute data endlessly, and never find truth. Truth does not lie within the set of all things material so operations like data computation can never access truth.
In our search for truth we must transcend mundane conditions and experience our true nature: we are conscious beings whose basic essence lies outside of the physical realm.
Once we experience transcendence, we fully appreciate the inherent limits of AI computation.
This essay presents an ontological landscape that differs greatly from our culture’s current assumptions. As such, I hope it provokes reflection and discovery.
- Observer (Feb. 20, 2025 [↩]
- Ibid. [↩]
- xAI’s Mission Statement [↩]
- Simulation Hypothesis Wikipedia [↩]