by yadda yadda 2 12 Replies latest jw friends
When asked who was the wisest man, Socrates said, "I know one thing, that I know nothing".
I can definitely say that what I thought was immutable truth 25 years ago is not what I now believe. The older I get, the less certain I am of what is definitely true.
Ageing and life experience teaches us in the end that we really know nothing. Life is very humbling.
Do you agree with Socrates?
Totally.
The more we learn and understand and evolve the more realise we know nothing.
Yadda, I totally agree. It's like climbing up into a never-ending mountain range. Every time you think you have reached the top you see another line of peaks and realise you are only in the foothills. I remember reading a book on Leonardo da Vinci who wrote in one of his notebooks that everything has already been learned and discovered, there is nothing left to learn. Wow how wrong he was. But dont many people echo that thought now, saying we understand the universe, matter, everything? Crazy.
to know you know nothing is to know something
one cannot know nothing
;)
Yes, I agree. Strange, isn't it, the more we learn as we get older the more we learn that we know so little.
I feel my ignorance on a daily basis, and try to increase what I do know as much as possible, but the more you learn the more you are conscious that there is so much more to learn.
As to Truth, it is often mentioned on here that "Truth does not change", and that is a good phrase to use with a JW who talks of "New LIght" of course, but I find that with increased knowledge my perception of what is True changes.
The wonderful thing is, that being free of the Brain Removal done by the WT/JW's we are free to gain all sorts of knowledge, and though we do not know for sure what is true, because we have honed our Critical Thinking skills, we sure as fate know what is not true ! (Like the concept of fate LOL)
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition. But certainty is an absurd one " Voltaire.
yadda: Ageing and life experience teaches us in the end that we really know nothing. Life is very humbling.
Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say we know nothing. But the concepts of pure worship, pure language, bible truth, "We have the truth" are fantasy notions that severely retard spiritual and personal growth. I have found it rather refreshing to throw off old notions of "true knowledge". When I was IN THE TRUTH that would have frightened me. Since then, I have found outsiders respect my ability to identify my error and respond to it. For all my character defects, this is my one claim to wisdom - I can be humble about my past in a cult.
This lack of wisdom in identifying and having the ability to admit and correct their errors is the demon that will have the Watchtower Society chasing it's tail (and the tails of their followers) all the way to their own demise. They have no humility, despite their demand of it from others. They pay lip service to the concept of humility, the ability to take responsibility for error, but have no idea how to apply those concepts for themselves. Instead, they resort to spin and damage control.
They will never know the freedom from burden associated with what Socrates stated and others have echoed on this thread.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
Reopened Mind
Agree! Good point!
Love HW
I wish I was a sure of anything as the GB are of everything.
