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Must be a slow day, but this is important stuff.

I think in PH's and js's list there must be a bold and all cap treatment of "provisionally"

I know of Nobel prize winners that have been flat wrong. They have also been "big" enough to admit it. Accepting something from "X", provisionally is an important part of how we build our knowledge bases, because it's just not possible to do or know everything. But, as "X" may not purposely lead you into a dark alley, we should always have our eyes open, even with the most trustworthy sources, and that includes theological sources (maybe even more so since their history is long, and suspect in some cases, and their early oral traditions leave a lot of doors open). Every man is capable of making mistakes. I know I have made many and expect to make many more.

(As you all might guess, I have trouble with authority figures, no matter how BIG they are) 8^)

I think in PH's and js's list there must be a bold and all cap treatment of "provisionally"

Agreed. You may mentally append that to everything I claim to know. Well, almost everything. I exist, that's for sure. And A is A. Always will be.

Kudos, furball4paws! You have a very engaging sidebar going with some really big thinkers.

All I can add to the side discussion is that Einstein in his book Relativity gave a considerable nod to Descartes:

We shall see later, however, that the general theory of relativity confirms Descartes' conception in a roundabout way. What brought Descartes to his remarkably attractive view was certainly the feeling that, without compelling necessity, one ought not to ascribe reality to a thing like space, which is not capable of being "directly experienced". [This expression is to be taken cum grano salis.]

He continues by explaining Descartes' aversion to space being considered independent of physical objects, i.e. space without matter. And of course, relativity and inflationary theory show us that space/time is created as the universe expands.

It is interesting to meditate on Descartes' sense of physical reality in light of Descartes' sense of existence cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am).

It makes me wonder how often we put the cart before the horse ...