Evidence! How did you come to know reality?

by zannahdoll 120 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • cyberjesus
    cyberjesus

    awesome answer NOTVERYLIKELY

  • notverylikely
    notverylikely

    Thank you cyber jesus. I present you with...chocolate jesus.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wfamPW3Eaw

  • zannahdoll
    zannahdoll

    alice.in.wonderland

    Objectivism regards reason as an absolute.

    Absolutes... what about in light of new facts and further reason? Read a good mystery novel or study a true life crime and we find out our original reasoning isn't always accurate. We are limited by what we know.

    It holds that all knowledge is based on the evidence of the senses.

    Do your senses never play tricks on you? Some people sincerely believe they have SEEN aliens. Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster... they were spotted. Some people believe they have SEEN Mary, Jesus' mother. I have known people whose rosaries, with beads made of wood or porcelain, turned to gold in their hands as they were praying... So, all knowledge is based on the evidence of the senses?

    It holds that all beliefs, conclusions, and convictions must be established by logical methods of inquiry and tested by logical methods of verification. In short, it holds that the scientific approach applies to all areas of knowledge.

    I can't speak for other religions, but as a Catholic I know that there are many miracles that the church tests to authenticate... There are many C.E. miracles that have been proven by the church researchers and investigators. I'm sure you wouldn't trust these because of the people researching... however there are people to verify such things happen. One of my favorites is the story of Bernadette in Lourdes, France. They made a movie on her life that won an Academy Award for best picture. Currently there is this huge uproar about Medjugorje, which has not yet been verified by the church, and there are lots of witnesses who are our contemporaries. The Catholic Church is still waiting to see if it is valid...

    belief not based on evidence, or based on such spurious forms of "evidence" as revelation and authority.

    So with Objectivism there is no "revelation" or "authority" You don't have experts? Scientists? So on and so forth?

    What really interested me was when I googled Objectivism the first thing to pop up was Wikipedia and Ayn Rand: how she invented the concept so that we could bring metaphysical concepts into reality using such mediums as art.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand)

    Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand (1905–1982). Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that man has direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception through the process of concept formation and inductiveand deductive logic, that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or rational self-interest, that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure laissez fairecapitalism, and that the role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.

    Rand originally expressed her philosophical ideas in her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and other works. She further elaborated on them in her magazines The Objectivist Newsletter, The Objectivist, and The Ayn Rand Letter, and in non-fiction books such as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and The Virtue of Selfishness. [ 1 ]

    The name "Objectivism" derives from the principle that human knowledge and values are objective: they are not created by the thoughts one has, but are determined by the nature of reality, to be discovered by man's mind. [ 2 ] Rand stated that she chose the name because her preferred term for a philosophy based on the primacy of existence – "existentialism" – had already been taken. [ 3 ]

  • zannahdoll
    zannahdoll

    cyberjesus

    definition of faith

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faith

    faith

    –noun

    1.

    confidence or TRUST in a person or thing: faith in another'sability.

    Synonyms for faith

    http://thesaurus.com/browse/faith

    Main Entry:

    faith

    Part of Speech:

    noun

    Definition:

    trust in something

    Synonyms:

    acceptance , allegiance, assent, assurance,belief, certainty, certitude, confidence,constancy, conviction, credence, credit,

    credulity, dependence, faithfulness, fealty,fidelity, hope, loyalty, reliance, stock, store,sureness, surety, troth, truth, truthfulness

  • notverylikely
    notverylikely

    Well zannahdoll, we have established you can cut and paste from the interwebs.

  • wobble
    wobble

    Dear Zanahdoll,

    You have not addressed NVL's point that there is NO evidence for God, so any "Leap of faith" made by an Atheist is not comparable unless you can show that the Atheist believes something with no evidence at all.

    There are many things that scientists believe but cannot prove, but these beliefs rest on hypotheses based on evidence, just not enough evidence exists, yet, to establish a theory.

    What do we, who do not believe in Yahweh, Jesus, or indeed Zeus or Woden , believe in that has not one shred of evidence ?

  • agonus
    agonus

    Reality is subjective.

    Prove me wrong. Seriously.

  • agonus
    agonus

    BTW Tom Waits kicks ass...

    "I don't wanna grow up"... great great song made even better by The Ramones (RIP Joey and Dee Dee)

  • bohm
    bohm

    agonus: So is entropy, and "truth" is a bitch to express mathematically ;-).

  • notverylikely
    notverylikely

    Prove me wrong. Seriously.

    Asked....

    BTW Tom Waits kicks ass...

    "I don't wanna grow up"... great great song made even better by The Ramones (RIP Joey and Dee Dee)

    .... and answered :) It's mathematically a fact that Tom Waits kics ass. And I love the Ramones.

    Seriously my friend, this is part of debate I see people struggling with most often, who needs to provide proof and when. When a person (you in this case, me in others) makes an assertion (reality is subjective) you don't say "Prove me wrong". We get to say to YOU "Prove it" and either you have to show your cards or fold.

    Oh, and Bone Machine (I think OTTOMH that "Don't Wanna Grow" was on Bone Machine) was an album full of pure awesome. Earth Died Screaming, Dirt in the Ground, In The Coloseum, Going out West, Murder in the Red Barn, Who are You, Little Rain....great great album.

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