“If I do not disregard it then I must consider it on equal grounds with all “accounts” of creation and concede the utter impossibility of making a decision.”
“stupid postmodernists” would suggest a separate solution. Namely—the bible presents an account of creation which is “true” w/r/t certain cultural contexts.
Now, all “truth” in this sense is “equivalent” in that it is merely statements within a cultural or philosophical context. However, this is not the standard by which you, I, or anyone (since we are all necessarily IN a cultural/philosophical context) judge truth.
So you are free to say “I disregard the bible as an accurate account of creation because I belong to a cultural context in which it is incoherent, but I accept that it presents ‘truth’ in various contexts in which it (or its interpretation) does not contain inconsistencies.”
See, the issue is that “truth” to you can never be “truth” to me. You can merely send signals. Like your blog post, for instance. Since we probably largely share contexts you have high probability of transmitting truth. Good job! Of course, your usual mode of communication won’t work to convince people with different standards.
Now it comes down to whether you want to call your “truth” the REAL Truth. You can do it if you want. It might even make you feel better. Just know that everyone else (even people who disagree with you) is doing it too.
Oh well, another bit of nothing sent into the void.
If two people were sufficiently motivated, they’d rapidly agree on what exactly “REAL Truth” is.
Consider the telescope. Why did people trust telescopes? Probably because they learned to first trust spy glasses. It was pretty easy to trust that in fact there really was a group of brigands riding across that field towards us …
“If I do not disregard it then I must consider it on equal grounds with all “accounts” of creation and concede the utter impossibility of making a decision.”
“stupid postmodernists” would suggest a separate solution. Namely—the bible presents an account of creation which is “true” w/r/t certain cultural contexts.
Now, all “truth” in this sense is “equivalent” in that it is merely statements within a cultural or philosophical context. However, this is not the standard by which you, I, or anyone (since we are all necessarily IN a cultural/philosophical context) judge truth.
So you are free to say “I disregard the bible as an accurate account of creation because I belong to a cultural context in which it is incoherent, but I accept that it presents ‘truth’ in various contexts in which it (or its interpretation) does not contain inconsistencies.”
See, the issue is that “truth” to you can never be “truth” to me. You can merely send signals. Like your blog post, for instance. Since we probably largely share contexts you have high probability of transmitting truth. Good job! Of course, your usual mode of communication won’t work to convince people with different standards.
Now it comes down to whether you want to call your “truth” the REAL Truth. You can do it if you want. It might even make you feel better. Just know that everyone else (even people who disagree with you) is doing it too.
Oh well, another bit of nothing sent into the void.
If two people were sufficiently motivated, they’d rapidly agree on what exactly “REAL Truth” is.
Consider the telescope. Why did people trust telescopes? Probably because they learned to first trust spy glasses. It was pretty easy to trust that in fact there really was a group of brigands riding across that field towards us …