(March 5, 2011 at 10:58 am)reverendjeremiah Wrote: Why is it not okay to want to know beyond a reasonable doubt? Why is it not okay to ask "can we ever be 100% sure about anything?" Im not sure if I am following you on this. Could you break it down better for me?
It is okay to want to know beyond reasonable doubt, the problem is the way you are using the term 'reasonable doubt' makes the word 'reasonable' completely redundant, you might as well just be saying 'doubt'.... Were you to say "can you show that Satan isn't fooling you beyond all doubt" I would say no, anything that is not logically necessary is open to doubt.
A doubt is much the same as positive belief but in antithesis, just like not all beliefs are reasonable neither are all doubts, they become reasonable when we have good reasons to believe them over all other competing positions.
My point was that not all doubts are reasonable, You could accurately describe the weather where you are right now and I could say 'doubt it' and the simple fact that I am able to doubt you does not make my doubt reasonable. You could be lying about the weather and my saying 'doubt it' would still not be reasonable if I have no good reason to doubt you.
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