(October 4, 2014 at 5:04 am)satsujin Wrote: We only know something is true when we personally experience it. So mcuh of what we learn in school is belief not knowledge because we believe our teachers would not lie to us. Unless you did the experiments in chemistry class, you wouldn't know it was true.No, that is not a belief, that is knowledge. We can choose to believe in that knowledge or verify it ourselves if we want to. We don't believe everything the teacher says, if you visit even an elementary school you'll see students often have doubts and will question the teachers on various subjects, and if the teacher cannot provide a satisfactory answer they will try to seek out other sources. However even today, in many schools such scientific thinking gets discouraged when it comes to sensitive issues like god, and people have started rising up against that, but that is a different discussion altogether.
Now about establishing the truth from your own experience, it is fairly impossible, because when it's your experience you'd tend to get biased about it from the start. That is why we tend to accept things to be true only when it has been proven and accepted by multiple individuals, and also all attempts at disproving it and any alternate explanations have failed.
Quote:To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
- Lau Tzu
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