Saturday, February 26, 2011

Dorm Room Speculations

I should be drunk to have this kind of conversation. Isn't that what we used to do in the dorm room years ago? Ponder our navel and ask "why is there air?". The question on the table is this, right next too the Budweiser. IS truth something we learn by observation and thru our own logic or is it what has been recorded as empirical absolute truth by the ages. Is there absolute truth and if there is, what does that mean for you or me?

Not all "Truth" gained by observation and logic is truth. It is fully dependent upon the observer and the quality of the logician. I won't insult anyone but there are a lot of things accepted as true and logical in the last many years that are simply not so. Flat earth. Sun revolves around the earth. Blacks are inferior to whites. Women are just like men only with vaginas (viva la difference). Men cause climate change. Keynes.

All logic and observation without truth.

Faith can have it's flaws and error as well. Jim Jones. Astrology. Islam.

The object of your faith must have truth as it's basis. That truth may NOT always allow for logic. Yet, anyone that doesn't believe in miracles isn't being logical.

We all carry in our supposed logic and observation a measure of faith. Even Lie to Me (which I enjoy as a TV show) requires that the participant and practitioner of the capacity for observation have faith in the truth of the facial reads. Many do NOT (if you watch the show). Those who are inside the institute and understand the "truth" of facial reads have great faith. They see it as logic borne of observation. Truth.

When our faith is based in our observation and logic we have faith in the faith in and of ourselves, in our ability, in our reason, in our capacity to see better than others can see. In that way faith in observation and logic must have at it's core a certain arrogance. The empiricism of that faith must be flawed because of that limitation.

I agree with Martin Luther that "Logic is the enemy of Faith". It's not that I doubt the value of Logic and Observation, it's that I must have a plumline of truth, and faith in those truths, to measure myself against or it leads to people into: ""one logical extension of denial of absolute truth is reduction to "might makes right" with it's corollary "the winner writes the history"".

It was logical for Pol Pot to murder millions. It's logical for Ghadaffi (however it's spelled today) to murder thousands in the streets of Libya.

The plum-line of empirical truth is most often clouded by human observation and logic.

“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” Churchill

“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.” Einstein

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” Galileo

Seeking truth is the essence of all existence and in eternity is revealed at it's essence. Redlin
I need a beer

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