From Greg Williams (930527)
Joel Judd 930527
I wanted to know whether you think there is ANY knowledge which
is NOT tentative
As I understand knowledge and human beings, no.
And that includes the "truth of all things" of the Book of Moroni,
right? And the "truth" of any "revelation," right?
But I think one can still speak of a set of values or beliefs as
"true," (one can say anything one wants) but I think of such
statements now as referring to the efficacy or the helpfulness of such
beliefs for the lives of the people to which such statements are
directed. Therefore, in general (without going into all the Nazi-Jew
scenarios), LYING IS BAD is a "true" statement. I think ALL people
would be better off IF they believed this.
In other words, you think that "truth" is a pragmatic measure of the
usefulness of a particular belief for a person or persons, right? Then
if a particular belief is considered by person A as being useless to
person A, that belief can legitimately be called "false" by person A,
even if it is called "true" by person C, right?
Whether we existed previously, or will continue to live after death,
etc. I think the fact that this theme runs through so much of
mankind's literature and philosophy, not to mention religion, is good
evidence for there being something "out there" to discover.
Samuel Clemens pointed out some evidence -- for him -- on this point
(in "Mark Twain Speaks Out," first published in 1958 in HARPER'S
MAGAZINE). The following excerpt can serve as an example of a belief
being considered "false" (as per the above) by somebody on pragmatic
grounds:
"When we believe in immortality we have a reason for it. Not a
reason founded upon information, or even plausibilities, for we
haven't any. Our reason for choosing to believe in this dream is
that we desire immortality, for one reason or other, I don't know
what. But I have no such desire. I have sampled this life and it is
sufficient. Another one would be another experiment. It would
proceed from the same source as this one. I should have no large
expectations concerning it, and if I may be excused from assisting
in the experiment I shall be properly grateful. Annihilation has no
terrors for me, because I have already tried it before I was born --
a hundred million years -- and I have suffered more in an hour, in
this life, than I remember to have suffered in the whole hundred
million years put together. There was a peace, a serenity, an
absence of responsibility, an absence of worry, an absence of care,
grief, perplexity; and the presence of a deep content and unbroken
satisfaction in that hundred million years of holiday which I look
back upon with a tender longing and with a grateful desire to
resume, when the opportunity comes."
As ever,
Greg