Logistics of Truth

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GREG
If I may ask Dick: What is the truth, and what is truth?
 
DICK
I have answered this several times in the past
few days if you had been paying attention. Truth
is reality.
 
GREG
Ignoring the sarcasm; How do you define what is reality and what is
not?

DICK
You do know the meaning of the word 'define'?
All word definitions are arbitrary. However,
reality is existence, matter and energy, the
subject matter of the science of physics.
What is not reality is what does not exist.

GREG
So truth is reality, which is everything that exists. 
Therefore everything that does not exist, is not reality.
Is it that simple?

DICK
That's it. Do you have a point?

GREG
I have lots of points. But first I will just ask questions so that I can
better understand your position.
Is Aquinas' reality any different from yours our mine? Is it possible for
something to exist in his reality yet not exist in mine or yours?

DICK
No, with the understanding that the world today is not the same world as the
one in which Aquinas lived. President Clinton and Monica are part of our
reality but not that of Aquinas. The universe and reality change from
instant to instant. But there is only one objective reality -- all that
matter and energy out there.

GREG
I agree totally. Now how about we discuss beliefs and how they relate to
reality. Is monotheism apart of reality, even before Moses? Is atheism apart
of reality?

DICK
Perhaps you should define beliefs since you seem to imagine they are somehow
unreal, and I see no way to discuss unreal things logically.

However, certainly monotheism is part of reality even before Moses and
atheism is part of reality. Many lies and falsehoods are parts of reality.
But these are not
lies or falsehoods. 

Monotheism is only a manmade concept, an idea. All ideas are real in that
they have electrochemical existence in the brain. The concept of monotheism
as far as recorded history goes is Egyptian from Pharaoh Amenhotep IV who
took the name Akhenaten and forced monotheism upon Egypt, the worship of the
one God, Aten. Since Moses was the adopted son of the Pharaoh's daughter and
well educated, no doubt he knew this.

Atheism is an even older concept and like all concepts, it is quite real.
Atheism and monotheism exist as tiny electrochemical reactions in the brains
of human beings and the higher mammals. These reactions can be detected and
measured by scientific instruments to a limited degree. But you're getting
back into word games.

GREG
I see beliefs as real as our conversation. However, what one believes is
reality often times is not necessarily so. 

You are unwilling to discuss unreal things logically, all accept that. But
can one determine whether things are real by first determining if they are
logical? Is that acceptable?

Is there a logical method of determining what is truth, and what is it?

Thanks.

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