Re: virus: To S.G. re: his Jesus predicament

Eric Boyd (6ceb3@qlink.queensu.ca)
Tue, 26 Jan 1999 13:19:13 -0500

Hi,

n cashen <ncashen@klondyke.net>:
<<
Critical thinking and logic do not encompass everything; we prove this with every SCHRITT or mistake science/philosophy makes. Nobody will like this here, because it is a declaration of acceptance of the illogical.
>>

Our making mistakes does not "prove" that logic does not encompass everything... merely that we are not perfect in it's implementation. If you want to see an actual proof for the non-universality of logic, try Godel's paper on Incompleteness.

(there is nothing I had more than bad arguments supporting true positions)

<<
Intuition tells us things that don't leave us with a "leg to stand on" all the time. Faith does not makes sense, but where would we be if nobody every dared to be stupid enough to have it? My suggestion is that you try to understand what this Jesus phenomenon represents, what it might mean to you personally. And do not allow anyone to pull it away from you, because then you will never have the chance to wrestle with it and find an outcome that you can believe in.
>>

Jumping from the incompleteness of logic to the love of faith is much too big a step. Instead, one is better to begin with a platform of ignorance and a good epistomology, and understand the *failability* of humans.

I personally think that "faith" is exactly the wrong response to "not having a leg to stand on". It's like putting your head in the ground, and claiming one can see the stars. Instead of bemoaning our poor eyesight, and jumping to faith, is it not better to construct vision improving systems, like eye-glasses and telescopes?

---

On a meta note, I have said before that Godel's proof itself only
proves that logical systems cannot refer to (or totally explain)
themselves -- It is the logic equivalent of a man saying "I always
lie".  In short, I am not yet convinced that truly *meaningful* holes
are present in logic, just that there are indeed holes.

ERiC