xanth all I'm saying is that dictionaries are a starting point, a signpost. compare this to having a map. a map will give one more info ... while a travel guide may also provide additional details about the history and places of interest ...
how can navigate if our desire is for absolute truth...
by Ruby456 52 Replies latest jw friends
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Ruby456
aha
I think there are many groups that have this obsession with finding absolute truth and think they've found it. You're describing pretty much every fundamentalist group in history. Groups like Westboro are outliers in how vocal and shamelessly offensive they are in proclaiming "the truth," not in thinking they've found it
not just religious groups - any boundary making exercise has the potential towards absolutism imo
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Ruby456
hiemere - I'm not selling anything just discussing how we can be so sure of our knowledge that we can say it is absolute truth and that includes anything I say
edit: btw I agree that skepticism is important
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cofty
Page 2 and you still haven't defined "absolute truth".
The only claims for absolute truth I have ever heard have come from religion. Can you think of a secular example?
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The Rebel
Jesus said " I am the way the truth and the light". And the problem I have with the statement is the " I" Maybe absolute truth can only be found outside of a persons ego, and the " I". Possibly as long as we think as individuals we can find absolute truth we are living an illusion.
Anyway I think I need Slim to help me with what I am trying to say :-)
However in my opinion anyone saying " I have absolute truth" is making a statement like " we are in the truth". It's a bold statement and the "I" in my opinion is quite an egotistic thought.
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nonjwspouse
Just a quick thought. Wasn't it Satan who claimed Eve would gain absolute truth if she followed his instructions?
Wasn't that action of Eve's, thinking she could able to attain absolute truth, that had God of the old testament so so enraged?
Could it be God saw this attitude of believing in absolute truth as evil?
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Ruby456
cofty
Page 2 and you still haven't defined "absolute truth".
The only claims for absolute truth I have ever heard have come from religion. Can you think of a secular example?
I'm not sure if there is an exact definition of "absolute truth" other than what has been discussed here. I'll try and think of a secular example but for now I guess it would be anything that requires passive acceptance of its truthfulness.
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Ruby456
agreed, the rebel
thats an interesting example nonjwspouse.
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cofty
Ruby - Your thread title implies that "we" have a desire for something called absolute truth.
I have never come across the idea outside of a religious context. I'm just asking what you mean.
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A Ha
Ruby-- not just religious groups - any boundary making exercise has the potential towards absolutism imo
Yes, I agree.
Dawkins is a biologist committed to studying how life originates from simple cells while in chemistry cells are an emergent property of modularity. so I guess in a sense chemistry questions some of the assumptions that biologists make because saying that cells are an emergent property questions the absoluteness of the boundaries that biologists adopt
But here I don't. For one thing, cells are things, they not properties. I have never read any biologist--or anybody--say cells (things) are emergent properties of modularity (a property of a larger system).
And biologists are scientists who acknowledge there are no absolutes. Even if cells are emergent (if they are, they're emergent of something more basic, like atoms), this is not even a tiny problem for biologists, who have absolutely no problem with the concept of emergence.