Hi everyone,
Many interesting points in the last monster thread.
To shift gears a little I pose the following. It is intended as a personal thought experiment. A little background; gaining "self-knowledge" is a common point in many religions as well as in the secular study of human behavior. For example, in Christianity it is the "revelation" and personal relationship with God through Christ, in Buddism it is "enlightenment", the word "Gnosis" (from the gnostic Christian sects) means knowledge, in some Eastern religions it is referred to as "mindfullness", in psychoanalysis (a completely secular study) it is "self-actualization". There are more, but you get the idea. The point is that gaining some level of "self-awareness" as to your own thoughts, feelings, motives, and beliefs is a significant component of human psychology and/or spirituality.
So here is the question. Assume there becomes available irrefutable proof that your beliefs are wrong. So for the atheist, assume the existence of God is absolutely proven; for the believers, assume the existence of God is completely disproven. It is harder to pose the question to the "fence-sitters", so I guess you can assume either with the caveat that you should assume you have missed out on "something" by being non-committal. How would this new, irrefutable proof that you have been wrong in your beliefs change you, your behavior, your outlook, your relationships, your view of humanity? The nature of the proof is completely irrelevant to the question, so to simply state that no such proof is possible sort of misses the point of the exercise.
I would be curious to see your thoughts, but to be honest, I think the real value of the exercise is what happens in your own mind/psyche/soul when considering the question.
Have fun
John Theodossy
Many interesting points in the last monster thread.
To shift gears a little I pose the following. It is intended as a personal thought experiment. A little background; gaining "self-knowledge" is a common point in many religions as well as in the secular study of human behavior. For example, in Christianity it is the "revelation" and personal relationship with God through Christ, in Buddism it is "enlightenment", the word "Gnosis" (from the gnostic Christian sects) means knowledge, in some Eastern religions it is referred to as "mindfullness", in psychoanalysis (a completely secular study) it is "self-actualization". There are more, but you get the idea. The point is that gaining some level of "self-awareness" as to your own thoughts, feelings, motives, and beliefs is a significant component of human psychology and/or spirituality.
So here is the question. Assume there becomes available irrefutable proof that your beliefs are wrong. So for the atheist, assume the existence of God is absolutely proven; for the believers, assume the existence of God is completely disproven. It is harder to pose the question to the "fence-sitters", so I guess you can assume either with the caveat that you should assume you have missed out on "something" by being non-committal. How would this new, irrefutable proof that you have been wrong in your beliefs change you, your behavior, your outlook, your relationships, your view of humanity? The nature of the proof is completely irrelevant to the question, so to simply state that no such proof is possible sort of misses the point of the exercise.
I would be curious to see your thoughts, but to be honest, I think the real value of the exercise is what happens in your own mind/psyche/soul when considering the question.
Have fun
John Theodossy
John Theodossy
http://geocities.com/myastrostuff/
