RE: Scientific knowledge versus spiritual knowledge
January 11, 2016 at 3:26 am
(This post was last modified: January 11, 2016 at 3:29 am by Thumpalumpacus.)
(January 10, 2016 at 8:49 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(January 9, 2016 at 6:26 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: You're forgetting another possibility -- that morality is a human construct.
Human construct? That rabbit hole can get pretty deep if you aren't careful. Some people also say that the truths of mathematics are human constructs too.
Two totally different things. We can see the reality of the mathematical models we construct in the ballistics of artillery projectiles, the motions of objects, and so on.
Simply because both are human constructs doesn't mean they share any other properties. You're making a category error.
(January 10, 2016 at 8:49 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Others go even further, saying that universals are conventions based on similar physical properties.
Universal whats?
(January 10, 2016 at 8:49 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Others go still further saying that the notion of physical existence is a human construct too and that all that remains are arbitrary collections of properties.
That's great, but irrelevant to my point. It's also a recapitulation of the category error you made in your first point.
I'm willing to bet that those "others" you haven't named are philosophers, too. Perhaps you should start a thread about them and their claims, rather than sidetracking this one with dust in order to appear to have a cogent reply.
(January 10, 2016 at 8:49 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Some go even further than that. They think that personal identity is constructed. Eventually you get to the point where everything in the entire universe is a construct of a construct constructed by nothing.
Again, a category error compounded by the fact that it is irrelevant to the point. We aren't talking about any of those other things, mathematics, notions of physical existence, or personal identities. We are talking about morality and its sourcing, and only the last point of yours might have a tangential bearing on the topic at hand.
(January 10, 2016 at 8:53 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(January 10, 2016 at 9:02 am)pool Wrote: Ask three theists what a God is. They will all give varied answers that perfectly fit into their fantasy of a sky daddy looking over them.So what? Ask three laymen what matter is and you'll get varied answers too. Ask three professional Christian theologians, a Catholic, an Orthodox, and a Baptist what God is and you will get remarkably similar answers. And none of them will remotely resemble you 'sky daddy' straw man.
Ask three children where Santa Claus lives.
Numbers do not a truth build. I thought you prided yourself on tight thinking.
