Absolute Truth

If someone states, "There is no absolute truth!," isn't that an absolute statement?

Absolutely!

ohio county wrote:Absolutely!

Absotively posilutely absolute! 110%!

Keli wrote:If someone states, "There is no absolute truth!," isn't that an absolute statement?

No. It is simply a statement of someone's opinion- just as most "truths" are just a statement of someone's opinion.

ziggy wrote:

Keli wrote:If someone states, "There is no absolute truth!," isn't that an absolute statement?

No. It is simply a statement of someone's opinion- just as most "truths" are just a statement of someone's opinion.

That's your opinion. Opinions are like armpits--everyone has at least one and most of them stink.

Zig,

That is a copout. Either something is so or it is not. Either it's windy and cold outside or it isn't (unfortunately, it is). The weather has no care for my own preferences (in addition to being under six inches of global warming, it is also very windy and 4 degrees outside).

God, or the nonexistence of God, is similarly independent of our own preferences. Either He exists or He does not. Either the pagan gods exist or they don't. Either Vishnu creates and Shiva destroys or they do not.

You would not go out to start your car and then, when the car growls at you and then fails to start, wonder if what was happening was real or not. You would not question whether the car "really started" after all. You would accept the unpleasantness as reality and go from there.

Now I might have an opinion on a friend's car and opine "that will never start" and that opinion may be correct "when it does not start" or incorrect "when it does."

While my opinion is just that, an opinion, in the end it will often be verifiable or falsifiable.

Keli wrote:If someone states, "There is no absolute truth!," isn't that an absolute statement?

Well I guess it is an absolute statement.

But that does not mean it is absolutely true.

However, I believe that certain mathematical/scientific formulas and statements are absolutely true, don't you?

SheikBen wrote:Zig,

That is a copout. Either something is so or it is not. Either it's windy and cold outside or it isn't (unfortunately, it is). The weather has no care for my own preferences (in addition to being under six inches of global warming, it is also very windy and 4 degrees outside). .

Sure it does- depends on our preferences. If one is use to the weather in Barrow, Alaska, 4 degres and "windy" in December can be balmy and pleasant. If one is use to southern Florida, 4 degrees and windy can be hellishly harsh and potentially deadly.

God, or the nonexistence of God, is similarly independent of our own preferences. Either He exists or He does not. Either the pagan gods exist or they don't. Either Vishnu creates and Shiva destroys or they do not. .......................................................

...................................... While my opinion is just that, an opinion, in the end it will often be verifiable or falsifiable.

So is God, or the nonexistence of God, verifiable or falsifiable?

The existence of God is verifiable but not falsifiable.

(Which is why I would not say that it is a scientific conclusion, incidentally, just as I would not say that materialism is a scientific conclusion).

We can meet God if He is there; if He is not, then the only way we'd ever KNOW that is to be everywhere in the universe at once, with the power to perceive all of reality, and therefore be able to say for sure that he is not there. Of course, if you could do all of THAT, you would yourself be God and would have proven yourself wrong:)