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1). Nothing makes the eternal unseen. It so happens that the essence
of creation is that the temporal is seen.
2). As for the essence of certainty and knowledge, I stick by my
statement. As for reason, I say it is a great gift, however it is
only as good as the premises on which conclusions are based. What
certainty does one have that his premises are absolutely reliable? If
not total certainty, then, again, he is dealing with what can't be
known...only hoped, surmised, believed, etc. Reason can be easily
used to mislead (ask any computer programmer who has to debug
something that he KNEW he wrote correctly; a lawyer can reason quite
convincingly that an innocent man is guilty or vice versa). Garbage
in garbage out applies to the process of reason.
3). Faith is not to be confused with "whim" or "emotion," though I
realize it is often used in the same vein. Emotion is a product of
consciousness, whim is an act of the will. Faith is really what you
believe enough to act on. It is not acting without a satisfactory
comprehension of what CAN be known...that would be more close to
"whim." It acknowledges that some things, for various reasons, cannot
be known...yet. You believe that the sun will rise tomorrow enough to
act on it. But do you KNOW it will happen with absolute certainty?
Can you prove it will happen? Alas, it is not in our power to know
that. Yet we must act. Trace every argument back to its original
premises, and you'll find that something, somewhere, was taken by
faith (that is, believed prima facia, without perfect certainty.)
That is a fact of comprehension. We act on what we believe, with a
degree of hope (realized, articulated, or unconscious) that our
expected conclusion will occur. Once you evaluate all that CAN be
known with an exertion of effort that satisfies you, if you resolve to
act you act with limited knowledge. It is simply an unavoidable
element of the human experience.
So, I repeat, the question is not "do we live by faith," but what do
we put our faith in -- what (or whom) is the object of that faith.
You can maintain, as any good atheist or objectivist will do, that you
act on nothing out of "emotion," or that you act only on what you
know. Consider the above paragraphs, and honestly observe the
assumptions under which you make decisions, and I think you'll see my
point.
You may indeed believe very strongly that only what is seen matters,
but again, unless you can prove it to me with certainty, with the
greatest respect I must point out that, once again, you are relying on
your own strong belief. And that, as I hope to have shown, is just
another way of saying, "faith."
Finally, I prefer to distinguish between "gods," and God. The premise
here is that there is only one true God, creator and sustainer of
creation. Certainly, however, anything can be worshiped, trusted, and
therefore be the object of faith; these I would call "gods."
I hope this diffuses some of the emotion that seems to be built into
the subject of "faith."
---"James R. Fulton" <captech@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The Unseen Omega Man Versed:
>
>
> Charles Wright wrote:
> >That is, that "what is seen is temporal but what is unseen is
> >eternal."
>
> Oh? What makes the unseen eternal? How do you know it is?
>
> Then Charles wrote:
> >Take God, for example. One can know beyond a shadow of a
> >doubt that He exists without ever having seen Him -- that is, having
> >no certainty in the usual sense of the word. Truth is only
understood
> >by faith.
>
> No... one cannot know anything by "faith". We know nothing by
"faith", nor
> by whim, nor by emotion.
> Rather, our epistemology, our way of knowing things, is through the
use of
> reason.
> Reason tells us that there are no mystical beings such as are
referred to
> as: "Gods",
> psychics, magicians, faith healers, etc., etc.......(snip)
>
> FAITH is the SUBSTANCE of THINGS NOT SEEN, the EVIDENCE of
THINGS
> HOPED FOR, or was that a EL function(just to keep things on the omega
> subject)
>
> Keep The Faith and may your indicators rhyme themselves into
reason.
>
>
> -=-jimmy-=-
>
>
>
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