On Strangeness

It might seem strange to some that the core, intrinsic, all-encompassing nature of reality is logical axioms and the other immaterial, abstract truths that follow from them, underpinning all things and revealing knowledge of necessity to willing beings.  However, this could not have been any other way, as the laws of logic are inherently true.  It might seem strange that of all the logicallly possible sights, for consistency with logical axioms is the prerequisite to possibility, scientific phenomena like the aurora borealis, bioluminescence, or the regeneration of reptile limbs can be observed in the natural world.  Though all of this is only perceived through the senses and might not even be there outside of the nonphysical consciousness perceiving it, it is not what many people might expect.  It might also seem strange that someone cannot know from past or current events what will happen in the future.

Why does it take as long as it does for baby humans to develop or for a given kind of plant to die?  Though these are due to the uncaused cause and laws of nature, they could have been shorter or longer.  There is a strangeness to them on one level.  Furthermore, it is in a sense strange that, while there is an external material world that is very difficult to prove [1], all of the sights and sounds of the cosmos we see might be illusions implanted by a technological simulation or a manipulative spirit.  Many people who are not rationalists will specifically be confused, terrified, or dismissive of the various logically possible ways that most sensory perceptions could be illusions, and this is precisely because these irrational people find them strange!

I have even had non-rationalists tell me of particular concepts they personally perceived to be bizarre.  Someone once told me that the Biblical doctrine of God resurrecting the wicked only for them to die the "second death" in hell (Revelation 20:11-15)--to cease to exist as a consciousness--is strange.  Then there are all the things supposedly taught in the Bible or even the Quran that many people would be shocked to discover are either not taught or directly, wholly denied by the actual words of the respective book, the notion of hell more popular than the aforementioned second death in the Bible being among them.  Moreover, if extraterrestrial life of any kind was/is to exist, some people would perceive it to be odd, while others would perceive it to be more bizarre if there is no extraterrestrial life.

These are all just some of the examples of concepts that some people find strange, perhaps sometimes just because they are not used to confronting them.  Strangeness is of course not a necessary part of truth or falsity.  Perceived strictly through subjectivity on the level of perception, the kind of strangeness that deters many people from contemplating and embracing rationalism and Christianity is not something that grounds, proves, or disproves any philosophical stance.  There is only objective strangeness in the sense that one thing could be majorly unlike another and subjective perceptions of strangeness that have nothing to do with the nature of reality beyond those perceptions.

The perception of strangeness does not keep anyone from discovering or focusing on a given philosophical truth: that is their own fault if they do not look past feelings and perceptions to logical necessities.  Yes, the kind of strangeness (either of the objective metaphysical kind or the subjectively perceived kind) I am focusing on goes far beyond the randomness of different mealtime customs around the world or minor habits that might differ from person to person.  It is possible all the same for people to not be held back by a fear or fixation on that which is or seems "weird" and to then voluntarily align with all knowable philosophical truths.  What strikes someone as odd might be an arbitrary, involuntary thing, but core truths, as precise, complex, or subjectively unexpected as they can be, are unaffected.

[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/dreams-and-consciousness.html