Do you believe in God? I muse at the answer of some that they "live in a scientific age" and that "science disproves God." I believe this answer confuses the ideas of knowing empirically versus a different type of knowing that is harder to explain. For example, I know that two plus two equals four. I know if I jump up, I will fall back to earth. Still others believe that their ability to explain creation (ie. gravity) means that it wasn't created. The universe is larger than people in 1900 believed, so there is no God? So, many dismiss the idea of God because they can't empirically quantify or observe Him. Or, they've quantified or empirically observed more of creation, so that means there is no God.
So how does one know that they love someone? How does one know what is beautiful? Does science also disprove love and beauty? Isn't this a different type of knowing? Curious your thoughts.
Ah, that wonderful branch of philosophy called epistemology! How do you know that you know what you know? It seems self-evident, but really it isn't. Descartes said "Cogito Ergo Sum" (I think, therefore I am). The fact that we can think and be aware of things, according to Descartes, is the starting point. A.J. Ayers put forth "Logical Positivism," the notion that only that which can be known empirically is true. The trouble is, that statement is itself impossible to prove empirically. Where it begins for me: "In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram." Genesis 1:1 in Latin. Thanks for the post, Mike, and for letting me remember some of the Latin I learned in high school and college!
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