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You are truly well named...You are bouncing around all over the place...Why do you want to make the question complicated? It's simple.
Have you considered my answer? Do you have a model of human knowledge? If not, you have no real business asking this question.
Worldviews are hard. They're not easy. Philosophy is complete abstraction. To accept one thing logically necessitates accepting another and another and so on in regression, with binary choices all along the way. I'm just trying to engage people about their own choices, to understand their thinking. The question is supposed to be an opening dialogue, but is it meant to be?
Well, anytime you use terms like absolute or objectivity or truth, you're advocating a theistic worldview. So the question is confusing. If you're going to ask a big epistemological question, you need to have some big epistemological answers yourself or at least commit to a clearly defined epistemological model. That would clarify things.
In fairness I'll attempt an answer piecing together assumptions from the hypothetical. If I become aware that there are no absolutes, I'd personally maintain my sensibility of them, for cognitive sanity. For a time, I'd probably assess the worth of things differently, regard the doings of the world with less engagement. But in the end return to a synthesis and continue to try and be happy (whatever that would mean, "ultimately" ).
So without a "God" in play, there can be no absolutes? Is that what you're saying? If so, would you mind explaining that a bit further?
So without a "God" in play, there can be no absolutes? Is that what you're saying? If so, would you mind explaining that a bit further?
"God" at the most basic definition is any idea that an absolute exists. If you're a materialist or strictly empiricist, you can't logically believe in absolutes. Of course, that goes back to my question: What is your model of human knowledge if you're a materialist or empiricist (returning that this is a question of proof)? Once again, if one has no epistemology of one's own, one has no business calling to task anyone else's.
"God" at the most basic definition is any idea that an absolute exists...
That is not the accepted definition of "God" in my experience.
I think we can all agree that 99.9% of the world equates God(s) with being(s) that are not human and those beings have powers and qualities beyond our own. In most cases one of these God(s) is responsible for creating the universe and everything in it.
That is not the accepted definition of "God" in my experience.
I think we can all agree that 99.9% of the world equates God(s) with being(s) that are not human and those beings have powers and qualities beyond our own. In most cases one of these God(s) is responsible for creating the universe and everything in it.
Yes?
I see. The question is directed to only those who attribute that definition to God? Or at least that definition you created for 99.9% of the world.
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Originally Posted by PanTerra
Yeah, that was a really round about way of saying, "not much."
I know, I know! But I also wanted to question the question, because it gets asked so much but is never really investigated, and I hope it will be.
I see. The question is directed to only those who attribute that definition to God? Or at least that definition you created for 99.9% of the world...
Are you disagreeing that the vast majority of folks share "my" definition of what "God" is?
FWIW, I don't believe in an intelligent creator, so that definition is certainly not one I ascribe to. It is simply my understanding of how nearly all of the religious or faithful people I've ever communicated with view their personal version of "God".
Are you disagreeing that the vast majority of folks share "my" definition of what "God" is?
FWIW, I don't believe in an intelligent creator, so that definition is certainly not one I ascribe to. It is simply my understanding of how nearly all of the religious or faithful people I've ever communicated with view their personal version of "God".
I am disagreeing, because it's simplistic. Even the wildest evangelical at heart has a little more nuanced understanding of the ramifications of the idea of "God" than that. I understand a lot of this is cultural, and that some people live in very different social climates. It's not my experience of 10% of people, much less 99.9%. But then, what is all this to my answer anyway, since that's not my definition.
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