But it has been interesting....
Certainly I don't know what there is for you two to "discuss" — you can't even get on the same page. Also certainly I do not blame you for this, dearest sister in Christ.
The "fact" is, kosta has a rather peculiar mental tick. It goes something like this:
(1) There is no such thing as truth.
(2) But if there is, we can't find out anything about it. So we can't "prove" it. Since we can't "prove" it, therefore it can never be a "fact."
(3) Since it cannot be a "fact," then loop back to (1).
Kosta evidently wants to go by "facts" alone. But since he either denies or is extremely skeptical about the reality of truth, one wonders what standard, what criterion he uses to "prove" his "facts."
He keeps harping on pink unicorns on Jupiter, maintaining that they are akin to beliefs about God. It is probably true that, "factually," there are no pink unicorns on Jupiter. (BTW, how do we "prove" that?)
Yet kosta has established the "fact" that unicorns really do exist in some sense — by using them as a stick to beat you with. They exist in his imagination. Not to mention the imaginations of other human beings over the ages. In this sense, they have existed for a very long time, usually as a symbol of purity. (Though perhaps our friend kosta does not care much about either symbols or purity, because of their spiritual/religious overtones.)
But of course, this validation can only be made by means of historical sources — not by direct observation, but by "testimony" — and kosta has already told us on many occasions that testimony is unreliable and therefore unacceptable to him as evidence.
When you boil it all down, it seems kosta doubts everything in the world except what he can directly observe. In this sense, he is the measure of his own reality. So one imagines historical "facts" are useless to him.
No wonder you and he cannot get on the same page! You do not live in the same world!
Nonetheless, even these pink unicorns on Jupiter, supposed "non-facts," point us back to God. But I do not find this surprising. As a Christian, I joyfully acknowledge that all things in heaven and on earth point us back to God in some way.
Kosta, for whatever reason, will not look in that direction. He prefers to run the loop of (1) to (3) incessantly.
I don't know why.
JMHO FWIW
Thank you so very much, dearest sister in Christ, for the simply magnificent series of essays you've posted to this thread!
All thanks and praise be to God!
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. And in knowing that you know nothing, that makes you the smartest of all. - Socrates;
We know nothing at all. All our knowledge is but the knowledge of school children. The real nature of things we shall never know. - Albert Einstein
As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious. - Albert Schweitzer
I had no idea they believed that too. I suppose you'd say they also had a "peculiar mental tick."
When you boil it all down, it seems kosta doubts everything in the world except what he can directly observe. In this sense, he is the measure of his own reality.
Or, to put it another way, kosta takes everything with a grain of salt, especially statements of people who claim the invisible, unprovable, pink-unicorn-like "facts" of their own inner reality, as the only measure of truth. You are right, kosta is skeptical of such Gnostic fabrications.
No wonder you and he cannot get on the same page! You do not live in the same world!
IMHO, this irreconcilable divide originates from the strangely successful though tragic philosophic derailing perhaps starting with Descartes – namely, the view that a mechanistic universe can be decoupled from the mind, soul or spirit. The Newtonian paradigm was, after all, very successful for centuries in spurring scientific progress for the good of mankind.
But then came the twentieth century and along with it the discovery that Newton’s physics fail at the very large scale (Relativity) and the very small scale (Quantum Mechanics) simply because – tada – the observer is in fact part of the observation. Rest in Peace, Descartes.
For instance, space/time is relativistic and if a physicist is looking for a particle, that is what he will see. But if he is looking for a wave, that is what he will see (wave/particle duality.)
And more than this, Information Theory has shown that the Newtonian/Bacon reduction of causes to material and efficient cause can no longer hold. (Rosen) Formal cause and final cause are back on the table.
Therefore, whenever I am engaged in a debate (whether theology, math or science) with a materialist (atheist, agnostic or whatever) – I announce right up front that I will not yield control of the rules of engagement – and that includes the control of the dictionary – because “fact” “belief” “truth” “proof” "reality" and more are reduced by my correspondent's worldview.
Very interesting insight there Betty B. Your one, two, three loop says it well...and I think many people today are their own measure of reality, much of which are the imaginations of their mind.
Good post...enjoyed as always. Same with Alamo Girl’s. Always love the reads....though much goes over my head when you get to deep! HA! You both s-t-r-e-t-c-h ones mind til it hurts! But it’s a good hurt.