RE: Christian trigger words
January 10, 2019 at 5:39 pm
(This post was last modified: January 10, 2019 at 7:10 pm by LadyForCamus.)
(January 10, 2019 at 10:18 am)tackattack Wrote: @LadyForCamus @unfogged
If knowledge is the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association or the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning (standard definitions from MW) then knowledge is pretty easy to obtain. You don't question whether the sky is blue, or a tree is firm enough to hold you, or that tomorrow is another day.
Thank you for a thoughtful response! And, now you'll hate me because I'm going to be pedantic about the definitions of knowledge, lol. I'm not trying to be difficult; I just want to make sure we're on the same page before we move further on in the conversation. I don't want us talking past each other. From MW:
Quote:knowl·edge
1.facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
So, knowledge is, 1. the acquisition of facts about a thing, or said another way in definition 2., an awareness of facts about a thing. Would you agree with my summarization? If so, then knowledge of a subject requires the subject itself to be a thing that exists. As you said further down regarding your examples, we know the sky is blue, that trees are strong, and that the sun will rise tomorrow because these are material subjects that can be demonstrated. We can acquire facts about them, and these facts can be subsequently demonstrated. Facts are descriptive. They inform us of the reality of a thing. If a fact cannot be demonstrated, what qualifies it as a fact? We may intuitively understand these objects as real through our first-hand experience, but they can also be independently verified via the scientific method. Put another way, if I was the only one who ever saw trees, I may begin to doubt my first hand experience that informs me that trees exist. Intuition is functional short-hand, but it’s not without its flaws.
Quote:Those things are grounded in the material and natural. They are easy to quantify and measure with other tools we have like materialism and science. Neither knowledge or faith require evidence in their definitions.
I disagree here. Facts, in and of themselves, are evidence. And, knowledge is a collection of facts that inform us of a thing. It's implicit in the definition, even if the word "evidence" is not explicitly stated. If there are no demonstrable facts about a thing, then there is no evidence for that thing. If there is no evidence, why believe it exists at all?
Quote:People however, demand proofs and evidentiary standards to include a view into their own beliefs. That could be difficult to accept for those that don't believe there is a spiritual world.
I agree here. I would need someone to demonstrate some facts that describe a spiritual world before I could reasonably believe in one.
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
Wiser words were never spoken.