R.C. Sproul

You can quote Parmenides now to your friends.

You can say, the ancient philosopher Parmenides said,

Whatever is, comma, is...

I remember the first time I read that in an introductory course in philosophy when I was a college student.

I chuckled.

I thought, this guy's famous for a statement like this.

He stutters.

Whatever is, is.

You know, what's the great insight there?

Beloved, I don't think there's ever been a statement from a philosopher

that has gripped my mind so tightly and so deeply as that simple observation of the ancient philosopher Parmenides.

Whatever is, is.

He wasn't trying to be cute.

He wasn't trying to be mysterious.

What he was trying to say is,

is that for anything to exist, for anything to be real, and not just imaginary, not just mythological or fictional, but for something to be real, and you notice how I just said that, for something to be real, in some sense, somehow, it has to be.

We remember Hamlet musing the options when he was contemplating suicide in his famous soliloquy.

What did he say?

To be or not to be, that is the question.

That was the question that gripped his soul.