RE: What would you consider to be evidence for God?
April 6, 2016 at 4:13 am
(This post was last modified: April 6, 2016 at 4:24 am by robvalue.)
They are abstract concepts. They don't literally exist. Or at least, we have not observed them doing so. There is no manifested "number 7". So it's not "outside" reality; it's just not anywhere. There are groups of 7 real objects, which we model using the abstract "number 7". And obviously we use a symbol to represent the concept. And we can represent the concept in our brains.
In an abstract logical system, you only need show that conclusions follow from the premises. You don't, however, have any guarantee that the conclusions will have any correlations with reality. Sometimes they will have applications, sometimes they won't. Sometimes applications don't become clear until much later.
So by drawing out premises and using a logical argument, you're creating an artificial, abstract reality. Whether or not that reality is anything like our reality depends on the accuracy of the premises. To just assume you've been bang on is to say you know everything about how reality works. That's a bold statement, and if you really did know everything, I'm sure you'd be able to demonstrate it rather than theorise it.
In an abstract logical system, you only need show that conclusions follow from the premises. You don't, however, have any guarantee that the conclusions will have any correlations with reality. Sometimes they will have applications, sometimes they won't. Sometimes applications don't become clear until much later.
So by drawing out premises and using a logical argument, you're creating an artificial, abstract reality. Whether or not that reality is anything like our reality depends on the accuracy of the premises. To just assume you've been bang on is to say you know everything about how reality works. That's a bold statement, and if you really did know everything, I'm sure you'd be able to demonstrate it rather than theorise it.
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