Theology and Sociology

[SimpleCaveman]

Hello Grand Nudger,

Thanks for joining in. And, if I may say, thank you for your service.

I was interested in a comment of yours about that, SimpleCaveman.  The idea that the greeks (anyone really) "got pretty far" with respect to developing their theology.  How would we know?  Is there a particular end point so we can tell who gets further than someone else.  What is the metric?  Are we sure that the arrow of progress flows the same way as the arrow of time?  That we have better ideas about gods now..than then - and if then, perhaps gods do have weaknesses, perhaps gods can be defeated, perhaps...well...you know the drill.

I suppose “far” in the sense of uncovering Truths. No, I don’t think there is necessarily an “arrow of progress” in uncovering Truth. People often make falsehoods from truth or despite truth.

I think the “metric” is like what I understand Boru to be saying. You have to be internally consistent. The deductions have to logically follow from the assumptions. The idea has to fit with our (I suppose current) understanding of reality. Things like that. We use our Reason to determine, as far as possible, whether an idea is good or bad, true or false.

Would you have different criteria for whether an idea is true or not?