“What is truth?”

“Oh boy, is that the topic?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“I mean, like are we still in college or what? Cmon, what is truth, you got to be kidding.”

“OK, wise guy, can you answer the question?”

“Sure. Truth is whatever I say it is.”

“Ha ha. I mean, seriously, gimme an answer.”

“OK. Truth. True things are things that really are, you know like this chair, like me, like the fact that I just said that stuff.”

“Oh, but wait a minute. What chair? Who are you? You didn’t say anything, you are not real, you are a character in Sy’s mind, and no one is saying anything. Sy is just typing words, so no that isn’t truth at all, is it?”

“OK, the truth has a real and tangible effect on the world that can be measured.”

“Is fiction true?”

“No, by definition.”

“Is fiction false?”

“Um….yeah.”

“So, you, for example, don’t exist.”

“Right.”

“And yet here you are, a fictional character, saying things, making me and maybe a few others think about things. This means you are having an effect on the world even though you are not verifiable, and admittedly not real.”

“Wait a minute, are you going to say that this shows that God is real because the belief in God has had very real effects? I mean, pulease, that is so old.”

“No, but I am saying that while fiction is not real, it is also not unreal. In other words, it has a strong and tangible effect on reality.”

“Maybe you are right, maybe the products of  imagination are actually real in some sense.”

“Wow, we agree. Clearly this is a fictitious conversation.”

How important is human imagination in the general universal scheme of things? We create worlds, we make up stories. Why? How does imagination fit into the truth of the universe? I don’t know the answer, but I do have some thoughts on the matter. To be shared another time.