Chris
Actually, the accidental post was not about God (yet). It was about the
General Ontological Denominator, or GOD (not God). Whether GOD is ultimately
the same as God remains to be seen.
Bertvan
> Do you expect to articulate some concept of God which will be a
demonstrable
>truth, either by rational argument or supported by evidence?
Chris
Not really.
Bertvan
>Do you believe
>most people are sincerely looking for acceptable answers to the same
>questions?
Chris
Yes and no. People MOSTLY (but not entirely or always) believe things for
rather "psychological" reasons, so, insofar as they ARE looking for answers,
they will only accept answers that are psychologically acceptable, and
psycholgical acceptability and cognitive acceptability, in the senses I
mean, are usually not the same. Truly cognitive establishment of beliefs,
especially major or basic beliefs, seems fairly rare, because it involves
rooting around in beliefs established during childhood, and most people are
simply not willing to uproot most such beliefs (and it takes a LOT of work
to do it correctly, as well, willing or not).
Bertvan
>Do you believe it would be "good" for society if everyone reached
>the same conclusions?
Chris
Sameness, in itself, is not a value.
However, on some issues, yes. We already do, on a few issues. For example,
most people believe that the Earth is more or less round. But, the real
question is more about basic cognitive attitudes. I DO believe that it
would be good for society and for individuals if everyone had the same BASIC
attitude (as long as it was MINE, of course :-) ) with respect to
discovering facts, establishing knowledge, etc.
Bertvan
>Are the concepts you are exploring anything you could
>have considered when you were eight years old?
Chris
Some of them, but I wouldn't have understood them the same way.
Bertvan
>Do you expect the conclusions
>you have reached today to be the same ones you hold thirty years from now?
Chris
With respect to some issues, yes. I'm an epistemological conservative; I
proceed in small steps, incrementally, as far as determining what I truly
take to be knowledge.
I don't expect my views on the laws of logic (for example) to be much
different thirty years from now. However, I expect to have extended and
deepened my knowledge considerably in the next thirty years.