Proving What We Already "Know"
June 16, 2022 at 6:34 pm
(This post was last modified: June 16, 2022 at 6:35 pm by bennyboy.)
Those who know me already know what this thread will be about.
I declare as agnostic because I do not know whether I believe in a God / gods. But this isn't (at least I think) because I don't know how words work. It's because I don't know how perception works. I don't know what categories or types of perceptions I could use to establish:
-an objective material universe
-God / gods
-pretty much anything
For example, if I was walking through a desert and saw a burning bush that talked to me, I wouldn't shout "Hosanna" and fall to my knees. I'd check my water bottle for signs of tampering. EVEN IF God talked directly to me, I'm not sure I wouldn't dismiss it as some type of random brain event.
On the other hand, even if you hit my hand with a hammer, and it hurt, I'm still not sure I'd be convinced that there's an objective material universe in which any of the things I interact with exist in anything but a very abstract way. I've learned just enough about science to know that WHATEVER is real, it's for sure not real in the sense that I experience it.
My question: by what mental process, or academic study, or philosophical methodology, could one pull away that veil and hope to arrive at something like truth?
If anyone's interested, I was reminded of all this due to a couple of recent Lex Fridman interviews. Here's one that blew my brain:
I declare as agnostic because I do not know whether I believe in a God / gods. But this isn't (at least I think) because I don't know how words work. It's because I don't know how perception works. I don't know what categories or types of perceptions I could use to establish:
-an objective material universe
-God / gods
-pretty much anything
For example, if I was walking through a desert and saw a burning bush that talked to me, I wouldn't shout "Hosanna" and fall to my knees. I'd check my water bottle for signs of tampering. EVEN IF God talked directly to me, I'm not sure I wouldn't dismiss it as some type of random brain event.
On the other hand, even if you hit my hand with a hammer, and it hurt, I'm still not sure I'd be convinced that there's an objective material universe in which any of the things I interact with exist in anything but a very abstract way. I've learned just enough about science to know that WHATEVER is real, it's for sure not real in the sense that I experience it.
My question: by what mental process, or academic study, or philosophical methodology, could one pull away that veil and hope to arrive at something like truth?
If anyone's interested, I was reminded of all this due to a couple of recent Lex Fridman interviews. Here's one that blew my brain:
