Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [RELIGION] creation myths

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> Alright, I think this is good.
>
> Let me try to paraphrase what you have said into my own words.  I am 
> going to slightly distort the meaning of what you have said, but not 
> much, and maybe you will agree with my version as well.
>
> The way we determine what is "true" or "false" is to make our best 
> effort to fit an explanation to our experiences (the evidence).

I would say, instead, that we cannot determine what is absolutely true or 
false but we can use evidence to compare various claims.


> There is nothing we can know with real certainty - as your quote from 
> Bertrand Russell put it, for all we know we have only existed for five 
> minutes and our memories are simply illusions.

Right.  But the point of the Russell quote was to expose the absurdity of 
claims that the Earth is 10,000 years old, or so.


> But it makes no sense to live life in this Russellian fashion.  We have 
> to eek out the life we have, and so it makes sense to make basic 
> assumptions, like our memories are reasonably correct, our minds work in 
> a reasonably logical fashion, and what we experience with our senses 
> corrolates reasonably well with the reality that exists outside of 
> ourselves.

That was really Russell's point:  We can't prove that the world wasn't 
created 5 minutes ago with all of our memories intact.  But that is 
absurd, so we shouldn't waste our time on it.


> It is from this perspective that I became a Christian.  The scientific 
> method follows this approach, but ultimately can only determine certain 
> facts that occur in a systematic or universal fashion.

OK, but Christianity can determine nothing at all.  Science: something, 
Christianity: nothing.  But you choose Christianity.


> But if someone like me has had certain experiences that cannot be 
> communicated in a systematic or universal fashion to the satisfaction of 
> his listeners, does that make his experience any less valid?

Let's just say that your brain was having a bad day and you had a couple 
of crossed wires and you saw/felt/heard a presence that seemed like God, 
but it was just bad wiring.  Yes, I'm dismissing your revelation as 
temporary "bad wiring" in your brain.  That is a possibility, so why 
rearrange your whole life around this one experience?

Mike

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion