Join Angie Austin as she hosts an engaging conversation with William Truex, an author with a unique blend of interests in music, physics, and philosophy. In this episode, they dive into the intriguing realms of Reality 2.0, Truex’s revolutionary book that challenges conventional materialism and uncovers a new perspective on spirituality, consciousness, and the universe. Discover how William’s multicultural upbringing has influenced his worldview and informed his philosophical insights.
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hello there, friend. Andy Austin here with the good news. Well, the good news is we have an author joining us, and he and I already have carried on quite a conversation before the show even started. His name is William Truex, and William has quite an educational background. He graduated with honors in music, with minors in physics and philosophy, which I found to be a very interesting combination to combine philosophy music with physics and philosophy. None of those easy, but physics certainly isn’t often combined, you know, as a student with music. And he is an author. And today we are going to be discussing his book, Reality 2.0, a revolutionary new look at the universe and life by William Truex. Welcome, William.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thanks very much, Angie. I’m glad to be here.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, your background in education is very interesting, but also your background in life is interesting as well. Tell us a little bit about you before we get into your book.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay. Well, something I say in the book is that I grew up with one foot in Native American culture and one foot in European culture. And it gives me a somewhat different ability, if you will, to look at life and how life is put together, which is really what the book is about. We start off with taking a look at science and the data that comes from science as it currently exists, and then using rational methods to figure out, gee, what does it really mean? When I started down that particular road, I was actually very surprised to see where the road led, because not only did it lead to an explanation of what’s going on in this universe and what matters and how it matters, etc. But it also opened the door to how to live a better life, a happier life, more fulfilling life and a life which makes more sense. And I was kind of stunned to find those things out.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, in terms of your upbringing, you mentioned that you grew up partially on a reservation. Tell us a little bit about your background. I find that fascinating. And I see your picture. I see you’re wearing a turquoise bolo. So that kind of fits maybe with your background.
SPEAKER 01 :
It does. I come from a little reserve called Aguasazne, which is about 40 miles southwest or upstream from Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. It’s a Mohawk reserve. And Depending on how you want to look at the international boundaries, part of it sits in Canada and part of it sits in the United States.
SPEAKER 03 :
Ah, so a little chilly. All right. And then when you went to school, how did you decide on such a multidisciplinary background, your education and your work? I mean, that’s a pretty unique major and minor, music, physics and philosophy.
SPEAKER 01 :
In some ways, I suppose you could look at it that way. I didn’t at the time. I was… one of those annoying children growing up who always had another why loaded up and ready to roll.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, my goodness. You must have driven your mother crazy.
SPEAKER 01 :
I pretty much did, yes, as a matter of fact. It’s like, oh, why is the light green? Well, that shows that people can go. Well, okay, why did they choose the color green? Well, they just chose it. Well, why? And so on and so on. And so I got very, very interested in tracing these chains of causation. Why is this this way? Why is that that way? Back as far as I could. And these were the subjects. Well, music was something I was just interested in. Physics and philosophy were ways of tracing the answers to these why questions back through the physical universe and also through consciousness, if you will.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, you remind me a lot of my dad and my brother, and they’re very different. My brother, I told you before we even started the show, is like genius, top of 1% of his class at West Point Military Academy in engineering and just very scientifically minded. And then my dad was very much into researching all kinds of different religions, reading lots of books on all kinds of religions. And as a Christian, he would always try to get me to branch out, explore more, reach out. But I think from my, William, from my broken background, I grew up in a very rough manner. One of my brothers was murdered. One is homeless. I don’t even know where he is. And then my dad was estranged from us for 35 years. So I gravitated towards that foundation where I felt kind of like a peace in my heart that worked for me. So when he would push that on me, I would kind of get irritated because I would be like, I wouldn’t have, maybe I wouldn’t have needed to find this piece had I had a better childhood, right? But since he wasn’t there for a lot of my childhood, I was very defensive of my faith and didn’t want him pushing things on me. So, but I admired his mind. He had his PhD and he was a professor. I admired his mind in that he was always researching, always learning, always doing new things, learning new things, learning to fly, you know, learning Tai Chi, becoming a high degree judo red belt above black belt. So you remind me a little bit of them in your curiosity about life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it’s interesting. One of the points I make in the book, in fact, probably the central point, is that the materialist point of view that man is essentially risen up from mud he’s an educated animal is pretty demonstrably not defensible it’s not true and there’s been a lot of others who have come excuse me a lot of other authors who have come before me who have made this point i’m probably the last in a long line to come and stick a fork into materialism but the conclusion that we come to and i think i come to it better than most is that this world is primarily a world of spiritual reality that you and i and all of us are actually spiritual beings who have minds and we have bodies and we operate in this universe and it’s interesting because thinking about the world in a materialistic sort of way is very, very unfulfilling, and so it leaves people with a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of ways of dealing with life which aren’t really, really successful, and you end up with people who have holes in their heart, holes in their life, etc. One of the points I make is that there’s different fields of study, if you will, such as science, which studies the physical, philosophy, which studies the interrelationship between the spiritual and the physical, and then religion, which studies the spiritual. And one of the points is that people have tended to define religion in the past as being the belief in something which is essentially unprovable. And I would prefer to refine that definition to make it such that it’s a body of knowledge that engages the spirit or has to do with spiritual realities. And as such, because we are spiritual beings, we need to know about ourselves. We need to know about how we work. We need to know how we work in relation to this universe. One of my strongest points is that I think everybody needs to take up some sort of a religious or spiritual practice. It needs to be something that’s real to them and that works for them. And when I say work, I mean… it actually helps them live a better life. They feel better about themselves as opposed to maybe feeling worse about themselves.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, William, thank you so much for I love that acknowledgement because you’re obviously a very intelligent person. I mean, I don’t even strive to reach your level and like my brother’s level. I always joke with him, you know, like I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s to him sometimes, right? And he’ll always say, well, you know, you’ve had a better career than I have financially. And I’m like, yeah, but I don’t even like come close to your level of intelligence. So sometimes I’m like, could you just break that down for me, especially when it comes to anything math or physics, right? Okay. So with that said, thank you so much for as a scientifically mind person for understanding people who do understand seek out like I sought out Christianity. And when you say that hole in your heart, like that, you know, whatever our society does to us, I needed to fill that. And my Christian faith did give me that, like, I don’t know, that feeling of love in my heart and like completeness or like a foundation since I didn’t have a family and I was on my own so young and lived in foster care and blah, blah, blah. It gave me a foundation of like how to love thy neighbor, how to honor your parents, how to be truthful, how to be. So it was almost to me like a guidebook on how, as you put it, to live a better life. But thank you for being scientifically minded and like accepting that. Because I have run into people who are extremely intelligent like you who are like, oh, it’s all a bunch of bunk. It’s not science. It’s not blah, blah, blah. So I love it that as smart as you are, that you get it, that it does help people to find whatever their faith is that works for them if it helps them live a better life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Indeed. And not hurt others. Yes. Well, it’s interesting that you mentioned science and people who are into science. Science, as it’s currently constructed, has some pretty severe holes in it. The one, the rabbit hole that I disappeared down in this particular book is the one of what’s called quantum mechanics or atomic physics or whatever. And there’s all sorts of really strange things that happen there. to matter and energy when you get down to a very small particle level. And these things don’t make any sense, and the way the scientists view this is they basically say, well, it’s a mystery, it’s a paradox, we’ll figure it out someday. And then there’s a number of different explanations which have been advanced, but none of them really cover the bases. None of them are really fulfilling and actually handle the situation. That’s just one of many places. I mean, you look at the society as a whole and you say, okay, Well, if we had the answers to life, we would know how to live. We would know how to treat each other. We would know how to run a government. We would know how to do sociology. We would know how to do political science. There’s all sorts of bodies of knowledge that we have that are functionally incomplete. We kind of stumble along and do the best we can with them. But they’re still incomplete bodies of knowledge. And so this really stems back to this essential basic assumption that that materialism explains it all and the problem with that assumption is that materialism doesn’t explain it all it leaves an enormous hole at the bottom of the universe which the scientists won’t fill we’re gonna have to take a break in a minute william but you’ve got about a minute and a half explain um materialism the way you see it to me to us certainly um Probably the most relevant way of explaining it would be to say that it’s the belief that life has arisen. through a fortuitous or lucky combination of breaks. There was a sea of amino acids and the lightning struck the amino acids and they formed up into proteins and the proteins formed up into cells and the cells formed up into plants and the plants formed up into animals and the plants evolved into some sort of awareness, which became consciousness, which became self-awareness. And this all happened more or less by accident or by chance.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you say that doesn’t explain it all, that that does not work.
SPEAKER 01 :
No, it doesn’t.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, I’d love to have you with me when I’m trying to explain my faith to others, like even very close to me when they’re like, oh, it was a big bang and it just happened. And I’m like, I don’t know how to put it into words why I believe so strongly. And sometimes I can’t even defend my stance. Right. But I would agree with you that it does definitely for me does not explain it all. Certainly. All right. So we have to take a break. And when we come back, let’s continue our conversation. I find you very interesting. William Truaxi is an author. Reality 2.0, the book. We’ll be right back on The Good News with Angie Austin.
SPEAKER 02 :
Arc Thrift loves your gently used clothing, furniture, and household items. But did you know they also accept non-perishable food donations year-round? Arc Thrift partners with Volunteers of America to help supply more than 70 food pantries across Colorado, from Pueblo to Northern Colorado and all the way to Grand Junction. So when you head to the store, be intentional. Grab a few high-protein items like peanut butter, canned beans, tuna, chicken, soups, or pasta, and bring them with you when you donate or shop. Instead of cleaning out your closet, clean out your pantry. When shopping at or donating to Arc Thrift, you’ll be helping families in need, supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and keeping good items out of landfills. Find locations, donation centers, and details at arcthrift.com. Arc Thrift, giving items a second life and giving people real hope.
SPEAKER 05 :
Strasburg, you’re listening to the mighty 670 KLTT.
SPEAKER 03 :
hey it’s the good news with angie austin we are continuing our conversation with author william truex reality 2.0 and we were just uh discussing um my christian faith his take on life his education which is very extensive in music philosophy and physics and he graduated with honors so let’s get into the book more and you know why you wrote it is this your first book is this something that you’ve been just dying to write for many years how did it all come about william
SPEAKER 01 :
It is indeed my first book. I probably worked on it for about 12 or 13 years in one way, shape, or form before I finally got it into a form that was publishable. It’s not because I don’t know how to write. It was because I wanted to make sure I had all the bases covered.
SPEAKER 03 :
Perfectionist. A bit of one.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, I’m advancing a solution into the world, which is a new thing. And I wanted to make sure that it would hold water, if you will. And so I had to look at it from a number of different viewpoints. It’s a new theory, or it’s actually, if you want to be all technical about it, it’s actually a hypothesis. But most people would understand it as a theory about how to view reality. And I got started in it because I was curious about a number of things. I kind of, as I mentioned before, went down the rabbit hole with quantum mechanics and started looking at that and realized there was no good explanation for why stuff was doing the stuff that it did. And over a period of time, I kind of thought about it and thought about it and thought about it and thought about it and finally realized one day, oh, it’s because of this. And I looked around and found out that nobody else had had, for some reason, had ever had that idea. So I thought, all right, I owe it to myself and to mankind to write this up and put it out there and see how well it flies. And so that’s what we’re doing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I know that you use the word life with a capital L throughout your book. What does that mean when you use life capitalized?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, it’s… The book deals a lot with philosophy, which is a topic that a lot of people would probably prefer not to get into. But philosophy is actually really important because you’re dealing with what are the foundational truths that you believe to be true or that you can see are true. And so part of the history of philosophy is a lot of it has tended to be done in Latin, or at least they use Latin words or words which come from Latin. And it makes it really impenetrable to try to listen to and communicate it. So I honor that tradition by calling… I’ve essentially assigned the physical principle, the physical side of life, matter, energy, space, time. And I’ve called that materia, which is the Latin word. Or I’ve also used a plain English word for it, which is stuff. Stuff. Yeah, just matter, energy, space, and time. Stuff, you know, the stuff that you see around you. And then there’s also… its opposite number which is a non-physical consciousness a non-physical creative and deciding and thinking force which i have called essentia that’s the latin term but the plain english term for it is life with a capital l and essentially what that is is uh you could liken it to the idea of a spirit a soul uh one a prior philosopher called it ilan vital um you know vital life force essentially it’s that non-physical capability of which we are each individual manifestations, which has that ability to look, to create, to decide and to know.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, it’s interesting because I did really well in school, but philosophy was one of the more difficult classes for me because I had difficulty thinking in that manner. And I thought maybe it was just the professor, but then really maybe it’s the way that my mind works and, I’d be curious as someone who’s run into many science minded people and even people close to me. My kids are all Christians and but then we have a lot of other people in our family and extended family and family reunions who are very science minded and challenge us, you know, like on our beliefs. Right. And I told you my dad did. Now, you being science minded, if you were with me and someone did challenge my faith, which some science minded people are like Christianity and that’s, you know, it was the Big Bang or whatever. How would you defend my faith to someone who is saying that my faith couldn’t be real or it doesn’t make sense when it comes to, you know, scientific knowledge? How would you help me defend that, that it works for me or that it’s real for me? Even if it wasn’t for you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, the concept that materialism explains it all, the idea that consciousness emerges from physical processes, the brain, if you will, has had some well-documented explanatory failures. One of these is what’s called the quantum measurement problem. And when you’re dealing with really, really tiny particles of matter or energy, say an electron or a photon or something like that, um these things don’t exist as little marbles they exist as potentials and they exist as potentials until such time as they either are observed by a living being or they interact with something else that has been or is being observed by a living being at which point they become a thing so you’ve got a wave if you will of potential which then becomes an electron at least for the moment So that’s called the quantum measurement problem. Why does that occur? And the materialist school of philosophy has no answer for that. Another issue is what’s called the hard problem of consciousness, which is how does a physical brain have a subjective experience? Neurology can explain a lot about brain waves and electrical patterns and brain chemicals and stuff like that, but they can’t express why, for example, if I pinch you, you feel pain. the idea of consciousness really is not solvable by simple mechanics alone. Another one is what’s called the grounding problem, which is why do we have these physical laws and not some others? Another problem is called the rationality problem, which is if your thought processes is made up of brain particles which are randomly acting, how can you be sure you’re thinking rationally? So there’s all sorts of different problems that come up that materialism is inadequate to explain not the least of which another one is that um if you take what’s going on in this universe you can trace for example the cosmic radiation background uh back you can trace a lot of things back to what’s called the big bang which was roughly 13.8 billion years ago and you say okay you trace all this stuff back and it all comes down to a single point which had infinite density and mass at that point in time And it’s like, great, so you can trace it all back to that, and that explains everything, right? No. No, which is, where did that particle of infinite density and mass come from? What caused that? Right. That’s been a problem, I mean, it’s been well known in Western tradition, certainly since Aristotle. The question is like, okay, well, where did this stuff come from? Why is it the way it is, and how does it really work? Materialism is great for explaining how Matter and energy relates to each other and how processes emerge from this. What it doesn’t explain is the human experience. It comes up really short on that. And like I say, which is very much evidenced by the fact that our civilization, our sociological civilization. institutions our educational institutions are having so much trouble because i’ll pick on education for a moment if we really knew how people worked we would be able to educate them without too much trouble however we seem to be failing at this fairly straightforward activity um you know and you look at people who are unhappy or feeling unfulfilled well that’s because they don’t know what you know what are you supposed to be doing in life i don’t know video games and porn Unfortunately, if all you’re doing is video games and porn, you eventually get to a point where you want to take some drugs to make yourself feel better, and those particular drugs do lead to things like suicidal ideation, etc.
SPEAKER 03 :
And so you’re saying that something like I lean on is beneficial and explainable, that the big bang theory doesn’t explain it, but that what I’ve turned to, my Christian faith, that could explain it for me how to live a fulfilled life.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. Every being on this planet, every living being is at heart and at foundation a spiritual being. You need to have a spiritual approach to a spiritual being. Otherwise, you’re out in the weeds someplace. And that spiritual approach is going to be done through religion. Now, there’s a lot of religions out there. And if you take a look at them in terms of like, how do they how well do they function in terms of making a person feel better, have a better life, be more productive, feel more fulfilled, be happier? And not all religions are created equal, but different things work differently for different people.
SPEAKER 03 :
And, you know, I have to say, I do want to just throw in there as an addition of the people in my family were split down the middle. Three of us are Christian. Three weren’t really into it, shall we say. And I’m not saying this is the absolute reason why this happened, but that my brother that I talk about, the genius that went to West Point, he and I graduated from college, did extremely well in our careers. And our other two siblings, one was murdered, the other is homeless. I looked at my phone the other day. I haven’t heard from him in two years, so I don’t know if he’s still alive. I can’t find him. And then my dad was a lifelong alcoholic prior to the end of his life. We had a good eight years. And then my mom is a Christian, and she didn’t have drinking or drug issues. I’m not saying that’s exactly why because of my faith, but I’m saying that my faith filled something that they felt they needed drugs and alcohol and other vices to fill. This is a simple explanation that I’m using for my own family.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, and I think that’s very valid. I don’t have any disagreement with that at all. If you look at sociological statistics, I don’t mean to politicize this, but people who have religious beliefs by surveyed are noticeably happier than people who don’t.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s interesting you say that, too, because I’ve been really talking a lot about the Harvard Happiness Study, which, again, is simplified, but it started like 80 years ago. And they’ve been following families generation after generation and interviewing them at regular intervals throughout their lives, and what they’ve determined is – The greatest, the best indicator of happiness is connections, friendships, family, not money, not necessarily your religion, not necessarily. But, you know, for me, it kind of interweaves in there for me. But with that said, it’s not the things that a lot of our society thinks would bring us happiness. I just find you very interesting. I was going to do a 10-minute interview with you, and I’ve basically taken up the whole show talking to you. If you are interested in reaching William, do you have an email or a website that people can go to, William Truax, the book Reality 2.0?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. Now, I have to do the sales pitch part now because we do have to sell books, which is available on Amazon. The website is reality20book.com. So that’s R-E-A-L-I-T-Y-2-0-B-O-O-K.com. We have various updates to the book and philosophical updates and articles that I write and things like that that are also posted to the website. You can get, for lack of a better way of saying it, free samples of what’s in the book on the website. And so that’s where we want people to go to have a look and see what they think and go from there.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I really appreciate with your, you know, intelligence and scientific mind, how open minded you are and how well you explain things and defend my faith, because, you know, I’ve run into people of your similar level of background and intelligence that aren’t as open minded. So I really appreciate you. And I really enjoyed our interview today, William.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thanks. I really appreciated it and enjoyed it as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Well, good luck with the book again, William Turek. This is The Good News with Angie Austin. Thanks so much for listening to our conversation today.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
