Such a beautiful, well-meditated, heartfelt, and eminently rational post there, Heartlander. IMHO FWIW.
But not to worry: Truth is Truth. There is nothing that man can do to modify it or displace it in one iota. The universe itself depends on it for its existence, its order.
And so it stands to reason: History repeats itself because it is governed by higher laws that human beings do not pay adequate attention to. And so we ever seem to be "surprised" by its enfoldment in time.
In the meanwhile, Man is called to recognize and adjust himself to a reality that was already "ordered" before he was born into the world.. There is no rational evasion from the proposition that Truth finally rules the universe.
A "ratio" always invokes that which is the determining factor by which one changing thing can be interpreted by reference to another thing which does not change.
We know that in nature, some things change, and some things don't. If we didn't think so, then we'd have to throw out any conceivable basis by which to establish universal law -- which is the "thing" that does not change. And at that point, science itself would be dead.
And science itself is supposed to be a rational activity. So why would it want to do that -- to "throw out the baby with the bathwater," as it were?
The reason "history repeats itself" is because Truth is alive in history, as it is in science, as it is in any human endeavor of any kind at any time. And mankind is slow to "take the lesson."
Thank you so much for your beautiful essay Heartlander. I'll be meditating it further my friend.
No, Betty, it was moronic. The idea that philosophical naturalists must subscribe to astrology and alchemy because the latter are not inherently theistic; not only do i dismiss the intelligence of anyone who could write it, but I wonder at the intelligence of anyone who could claim it was rational.
Seriously, if you can't handle elementary logic, don't name-drop Plato. And please don't ping me any more.