On 3/6/2003 8:37:45 PM, Taylor Rand
wrote:

>my
>conclusion is that our belief
>systems are all true. An
>atheist believe that there is
>no God - so there is no God.
>Muslims belive in Allah - so
>there is Allah. Christians
>believe they will go to heaven
>when they die - so they will
>go to heaven. I believe in
>reincarnation - so I will be
>reincarnated.

Belief doesn't determine reality in our
ordinary , day to day life, so why should
we expect it to do so in the spirital realm
or the life beyond? Anyone who's had a
cherished belief or pet theory beat up by a
gang of unforgiving facts knows that
"believing it don't make it so." Facts are
stubborn things. It might make us feel
warm and fuzzy to say that everyone is
right, but why expect reality to cater to the
modern age's obsession with tollerance
and self-esteem?

Of course it's possible that God set up the
afterlife so that we all get the afterlife we
believe in, tailor made to the exact
specifications of the beliefs we have
when we die, but I see no compelling
reason to think this is the case. Even if it
were the case, it would still be objectively
true that we each got the afterlife we
believed in. And of course if I believed as
part of my religion that YOU were going to
hell, and YOU did NOT believe you were
going to Hell, then MY belief about YOU
would be FALSE.

The above is just one example of the fact
that it's IMPOSSIBLE for everyone's
beliefs to match up with reality, given that
people believe MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
things. Either there IS a God or there
ISN'T a God. God cannot both exist and
not exist at the same time in the same
sense of the word. In logic, this is referred
to as the Law of Excluded Middle.

>There is no way
>to say who is right and who is
>wrong in any of this. We
>cannot prove God or Satan or
>total Chaos.

There is a difference between what's
TRUE (corresponds with reality) and what
we KNOW. For example, "God exists" is
either true or false. Whether we could
ever know whether it's true or false this
side of eternity is a separate question.
Reality is one determinate thing. Our
beliefs about reality vary. Only some
subset of those beliefs matches up with
reality.

How do you know, A PRIORI (a good
TEST term) that there is no way to say
who is right and who is wrong? It seems
to me that in order to know this, you
would have to rigorously examine all the
possible ways in which you might test the
various religions, apply those tests to
each of the world's religions (or at the very
least the primary traditions) and come up
empty-handed. A good start would
include proving that none of the
arguments in Chapter Five established
any of their conclusions.

>"And thou harm none, do as
>thou will."

What about a duty to help others or
promote the common good? This seems
a bit minimalist as a standard of morality.

I think the issues that you raise get at the
heart of metaphysics--issues which we
began the term with but which seem to
surface over and over again. I suppose I
should reiterate that everything I said in
the initial "What is Truth" posting applies
to religious truths as much historical,
scientific, or ethical truths.

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu