I don't see that one scientific theory gets replaced by another, in light of some facts turning out to be something else altogether. For example, Newtonian mechanics is still amazingly fruitful in its "domain." Even though is has been shown to be incomplete by the relativity and quantum theories, those theories did not "replace" it.
When I look at the history of science, what most impresses me is how this multigenerational community of minds (scientists, that is) builds on the theoretical work of its predecessors, right back to the beginning, as it were, in ancient Greece, that amazing historical period in which both natural science and the science of psyche burst onto the world stage for the very first time. One sees a sort of "evolution" from there....
Don't forget, the original atomic theory was proposed by Democritus (ca. 460 BC ca. 370 BC)....
As I wrote, I think "Reality is an 'abstraction' from Truth, and not the other way around"; and you replied that was close to what you meant by regarding Truth as an "abstract." In one sense, I think that's true: For Truth is a universal; immaterial; timeless. Which definitely means it is not the sort of concrete phenomenon with which human beings ordinarily engage in their practical lives.
But on the other hand, practical daily lives would be impossible to live if the world were not ordered in Truth. Truth is that which does not change; all the phenomenal world is in a state of constant change. But that change is not "random," rather it is constrained by the limits imposed by Truth.
To use religious terms, Truth is the Logos, Alpha to Omega, a/k/a the Word of God, which has been in the world since the Beginning, and will be there in the end, and in all the in-between. The world is what it is because the Logos is what it is. This is what I meant by "reality is an 'abstraction' from Truth, and not the other way around."
As my dearest sister in Christ, Alamo-Girl, has put it (I'm paraphrasing here): What IS is what God has said, His Word (Logos) in the beginning. Because God said it, it is Truth.
In conclusion, to me Truth is the Logos of God, operating in the world First Cause, to Final Cause, with Immanent Cause "in-between" guiding the evolution of the system from first to last. In short, God IS Truth. "Get rid of God," and you "get rid of" Truth. To put it yet another way, there is no foundation for Truth absent God.
So call me simple-minded! LOLOL! On the other hand, I resonate to Renée Descartes' telling observation that "the idea of God is the prior condition in the human mind for the possibility of any other idea, even that of the ego itself" (as Wolfhart Pannenberg expresses it). Thus, God is THE necessary idea, ontologically and epistemologically, that underpins Reality (if I might put it that way).
Just some thoughts, dear Mind-numbed Robot! I'm so enjoying this discussion! Thank you so very much for your thoughtful and thought-provoking essay/post!
Oooooopppps! Sorry for misspelling René....
Indeed, God is Truth.
He says a thing and it is. It is because He said it.
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. - Psalms 33:6
For he spake, and it was [done]; he commanded, and it stood fast.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:1-4
The Universe may be flat but it is nevertheless musical
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Only God sees all that there is all at once - every where and every when. He alone knows objective Truth, He alone speaks it.
The best that man can sense of reality is very subjective - merely a glimpse, an abstraction.
God's Name is I AM, YHwH (He IS), Alpha and Omega, the Creator, El Shaddai (God Almighty)!