Final Statements: The Nature of Truth

SilvaRanger, when you'll look a little closer to the posts in this thread, you'll see that you're not alone in some or most of your beliefs.

Welcome to the discussion!

hmm, this really isn't a good thread to post in after being away for so long (i agree, FM) but i'm going to anyway.

i can't comment on the mathematics because i just don't have the math education that i'd need to fully understand the concepts. most of what y'all are discussing is very foreign to me.

Personal beliefs: i do believe in gods - at least 2 have shown themselves to me, and there may be others who haven't. just because i haven't met them doesn't mean they do not exist. i think i've explained my religious beliefs on this site before & don't feel i need to again. this strikes me as more of a debate on outlook than religion.

and my outlook on the world is this - there is a very good possibility that i am wrong in everything i believe. however, there is also a very good possibility that the followers of any (or every) other religion are wrong. i see life as a collection of experiences, and through those experiences i have chosen (purposely) to believe in SOMETHING - the things i find most "true" (here, "true" means "what i think is true" NOT "what is capital-T True"). why did i choose this? almost as a safety net - realizing that everything the collective world believes unquestioningly has a good chance of being wrong, being a fabrication can be very depressing. and so i become a pagan existentialist - using faith to fill the Void

(note to avoid flames: i do NOT want to imply that anyone else's religion is a fabrication. just that i see a possibility that it MAY be)

on use of the word "pagan": THANK YOU JUNTEL!

Quote:
"But if we don't perceive any wrongness in our beliefs, should we just take them as true, and not dig deeper in its truthfullness or reality?
Should we stay confortable in complacent beliefs?"

this may have been a rhetorical question, but i'm going to answer: how can i be sure my beliefs are not wrong UNLESS i question them? if i never re-evaluated my beliefs, i would still believe that the US was an island, Dallas sat alone in its center & Houston was to the north (something i actually did think as a 4-year-old, obviously before i saw & understood a US map)

"It's not because it "feels" right that it is right.
Just as it's not because it computes rigth that it is right."

as someone said earlier, capital-T Truth (archetypal caps) is a slippery thing. personally i doubt that Truth will ever be pinpointed & explained, because its inexpicability (is that a word?) is what makes Truth worth searchign for. if we could all point our fingers & say "That is True!" & agree on it, why would we bother debating? or thinking, for that matter, if our world & lives were pre-defined?

"Rational thought, but also Non-Rational thought (which i think you call irrational thought), are both usefull, but yet unsufficient to this day to encompass the whole understanding of nature."

(grr - i hate days when i just feel like a bad writer - unable to make a point)

i have a strong feeling that the opposition/combination of rational & irrational thought would be a great way to describe the Balance, but the idea in my head isn't forming itself in the words i write.

"There are many things in this world, and maybe on other planes of existence, that can't be proven to exist, or not, by scientific means. But just because science can't prove the existence of something does'nt mean it does'nt exist."

very true

"example certain things I believe in but cannot explain rationally why or how they might exist or why I believe in them. If I am correct it is a zen philosophy that many things cannot be explained, but can be understood on a level that needs no explanation."

i think you're right - it is a Zen philosophy. in my Month of No Entmoot, i did a lot of thinking & an experiment - to see if i was who i thought i was, if that makes any sense. the phrase "to find yourself you must give yourself up" is getting new meaning in my mind. as is "i think, therefore i am."

and as for thinking & therefore existing: my boyfriend & i were talking recently about the meaning of life, & he brought up the idea that life (or a string of many incarnations & reincarnations) is a search for knowledge & a search for capital-T Truth - without that search there would be no reason to live.

it's an idea i haven't completely contemplated but find definitely intriguing...

aryne *

Welcome back Arynetrek! This is the first post I've seen from you in a while!

And that's the "truth!"

You have no idea how refreshing it is to be told that it's possible to be wrong in things you believe.

*sighs contentedly*

*goes to sleep*

thanks!

aryne *