Tue 15 Aug 2006
Believe nothing?
Posted by Darren under Epistemology , Faith , Philosophy , Pluralism , World ReligionsI've seen this image floating around the web recently, supposedly quoting the Buddha. Of course, we probably cannot know if he ever said it, since the central texts about his life and teaching were not written until 400-500 years after he lived. (Unlike approximately 15 years for the earliest New Testament document, btw.) Regardless, what's your reaction to the quote?
In a sense, I agree with the quote. We of course should use reason and common sense.
But perhaps sometimes our own "common sense" is wrong. We sometimes develop bad ideas that need correction. If we rely upon our own "common sense" reasoning to decide whether an idea is true or false, won't we naturally dismiss any ideas that differ from our preconceived notions? After all, our "common sense" can often differ markedly from that of a similarly reasonable person standing beside us.
So I have written, for your kind consideration, my own statement on this issue:
That's just off the top of my head, maybe it's not much of an improvement. Then again, I didn't spend much time sitting around idly coming up with it. I guess the question comes down to in what sense we can really "know" things. The problem with the relativist viewpoint of truth is that no one actually can live consistently with the view that all truth is relative. What do you think?
2 Responses to “Believe nothing?”
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August 17th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
What do you mean.
All truth is relative… see I said it. oh wait. that's an absolute statement. DOH!
November 15th, 2013 at 9:19 am
Its like you learn my mind! You appear to grasp a lot approximately this, such as you wrote the e-book in it or something. I feel that you just can do with some % to drive the message home a bit, however instead of that, that is great blog. A great read. I'll certainly be back.