Hey all,
I posted here for the first time in July, I believe it was, having recently given up my "faith". Since then I've been doing my best to immerse myself in unlearning all the presuppositions that religion infected me with. I've recently been invited to a formal gentlemen's discussion group to participate in some very deep conversation (hopefully). They are young guys, like myself, who get together formally, following Robert's Rules of Order and a dress code, to have religious and philosophical discussions. I've had some limited experience with these types of formats when I was a bit younger.
Here, however, most of them (if not all?) are theists. They, as a group, had concluded that they believe that absolute truths exist. The person who invited me to the group made a caveat that this was because they all believed in a god. Now, since giving up my "faith", I've studied morality to some degree, and have adopted the opinion that |m| (absolute morality) is a non-sensical thing or doesn't exist. However, absolute truth is a very different thing. If this is brought up again, and I hope it is because I'd love to hear their opinions on it, I would like to be more conversant on the topic.
At present, I think it's possible that absolute truths exist. BUT I can imagine alternate universes where the fundamental mechanics of our universe are absent, lessening the probability of any one truth's survival in transcendence. In physics, we see these mechanics breaking down the closer we get to anomalies like "black holes".
Maybe a meaningful answer to the question "do absolute truths exist?" is "it doesn't matter if they do, because they wouldn't benefit us unless we can measure and apply them to our own benefit in THIS existence."
Because truth matters to me, I'd like to know if truth is transcendent or absolute in anyway. But I can't help but think I'm projecting myself wishfully onto a fruitless endeavor.
I also can't help but apply my arguments against absolute morality to absolute truth. I'd rather not derail this thread with morality, as I am more concerned with absolute truth at the moment, given my soon-approaching meeting with this group.
Can you please offer a good argument one way or the other? Or provide me with something that I can digest rather quickly to make me more conversant on the topic (this meeting is in the next few days)?
I thought it was nice of them to invite an atheist... though I'm still skeptical.
... as always. Thanks for the help in advance!
I posted here for the first time in July, I believe it was, having recently given up my "faith". Since then I've been doing my best to immerse myself in unlearning all the presuppositions that religion infected me with. I've recently been invited to a formal gentlemen's discussion group to participate in some very deep conversation (hopefully). They are young guys, like myself, who get together formally, following Robert's Rules of Order and a dress code, to have religious and philosophical discussions. I've had some limited experience with these types of formats when I was a bit younger.
Here, however, most of them (if not all?) are theists. They, as a group, had concluded that they believe that absolute truths exist. The person who invited me to the group made a caveat that this was because they all believed in a god. Now, since giving up my "faith", I've studied morality to some degree, and have adopted the opinion that |m| (absolute morality) is a non-sensical thing or doesn't exist. However, absolute truth is a very different thing. If this is brought up again, and I hope it is because I'd love to hear their opinions on it, I would like to be more conversant on the topic.
At present, I think it's possible that absolute truths exist. BUT I can imagine alternate universes where the fundamental mechanics of our universe are absent, lessening the probability of any one truth's survival in transcendence. In physics, we see these mechanics breaking down the closer we get to anomalies like "black holes".
Maybe a meaningful answer to the question "do absolute truths exist?" is "it doesn't matter if they do, because they wouldn't benefit us unless we can measure and apply them to our own benefit in THIS existence."
Because truth matters to me, I'd like to know if truth is transcendent or absolute in anyway. But I can't help but think I'm projecting myself wishfully onto a fruitless endeavor.
I also can't help but apply my arguments against absolute morality to absolute truth. I'd rather not derail this thread with morality, as I am more concerned with absolute truth at the moment, given my soon-approaching meeting with this group.
Can you please offer a good argument one way or the other? Or provide me with something that I can digest rather quickly to make me more conversant on the topic (this meeting is in the next few days)?
I thought it was nice of them to invite an atheist... though I'm still skeptical.
... as always. Thanks for the help in advance!
