Thursday, December 6, 2007
What Is True?
Last class I brought up an idea relating to truth and its existence. The example I provided to explain this idea was as follows: if every single person on Earth believed that the world was flat, and there was no prove that the world is round, then the world would be flat. Personally, I believe that if enough people believe that something is true, even if 20 years later that thing is proven false, for the time being, that thing would be true. Truth is subjective in many cases, and that is what makes it so difficult [for me at least] to know what is true and what is false. There are many cases in which the truth cannot be discerned because we do not have enough knowledge of the subject to do so, so that makes me wonder, is everything that I believe to be true actually true or is it just something I believe?
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5 comments:
So you really think the earth was flat just because everyone thought it was?? And then suddenly when enough people decided they thought the earth was round, the earth suddenly sprung into a round shape??!??
With all due respect... BAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!!!1!1!!
No. What I meant by that comment was that if enough people believe something to be true, then to those people it is true. I'll give you another exaple: religion. Plenty of people believe in a God but there is no proof. I dont believe in God but plenty of people do so to them, there is a God and nothing can convince them otherwise. For them, this is the truth. If one day, it was somehow discovered that God does not exist [by means of fact and evidence], then the beliefs that those people held would be found to be false and anyone who continued to believe in God would be a fool.
Of course I dont believe that the Earth suddenly became round because a bunch of people believed it to be so, it became round in our minds once we discovered that it is, in fact, round. Im talking about perceptions here and how truth is influenced by them.
And by the way, who are you?
Jenni, sorry I misunderstood. Your wording made it seem as if you were saying that reality is actually, in truth, shaped by our beliefs. Now that I know you meant only what is "true" to each "believer", I find myself in general agreement with you. Yikes, I feel bad now because I really jumped on you based on my own misunderstanding. SORRY!
As for who I am: Sorry again, I guess my profile is private (it's a very old blogger account I can't seem to access any more). I am Jeff Ellis. I have a blog called "The Thinker", all about critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and creativity, at http://jeffreyellis.org/blog.
Jeff
Don't worry about it, I was just a little taken aback by your comment but Im glad you understand what I mean by it now. I actually had this same conversation with my boyfriend last night and he said the same thing as you until I expressed more clearly that my point was how beliefs/perceptions so strongly affect the way we process/view truth (sometimes it can be very inaccurate, like with believing the world is flat). I read some of your blog entries actually and found them pretty interesting, especially your most recent one on global warming...if you had anymore info on that (a link to an article or something), I'd appreciate it. Its definitely a subject I'd like to learn more about.
Jenni,
As far as my posts on global warming, you can just click the "Global Warming" link under Categories on the sidebar to get all these posts.
As far as other info: I would recommend the Climate Skeptics site, at http://www.climate-skeptic.com/. Especially make sure to read the "Skeptical Layman's Guide to Global Warming" (follow link on right side of page). Provides the most clear description of the skeptic's view of global warming that I've come across.
Jeff
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