RE: Why do you not believe in God?
July 16, 2012 at 5:18 pm
(This post was last modified: July 16, 2012 at 5:18 pm by Mystic.)
(July 16, 2012 at 5:13 pm)CliveStaples Wrote: Let's say you experience a memory--that is, you have a recollection of some experience. Your reasoning seems to be, "Well, since I remember it, it must be that the experience actually occurred." That is, that all memories are reliable by definition.
Does this stand to reason? Are we incapable of forming false memories? It seems to lack both a posteriori and a priori support--that you have a memory does not imply that the content of that memory accurately reflects some past state of affairs.
There is different type of memories. There is some memories we feel, but are not certain of. There is other memories we remember, and are certain of. In the latter, they are a reliable connection to the past.
I don't infer because I have this memory, the past must have occurred. I infer that this memory gives me knowledge of the past occurring by virtue of the properly basic experience I get from the memory. Not from an inference.
If God can remember something reliably then so can we. If he can remember the past reliably, then so it's possible that we do.
Unless you say, not even God can know of the past in a sure manner, then there is no reason to assume humans cannot have knowledge of the past that is reliable.