“Truth Detour - Road Closed”

“Truth Detour - Road Closed”

Recently while driving there appeared a sign, “Detour Ahead.”  Soon another appeared “Detour Ahead” and then a sign that read, “Road Closed.”  Not being familiar with the area did not help matters.  As you might suppose the road was indeed closed and with such being so, a fair amount of back tracking became necessary.

In the course of seeking genuine reality/truth one travels many roads.  However, what is most disconcerting is to encounter someone who claims a willingness to travel any road necessary but soon erects “Road Closed” signs. 

How can such be so?  It seems that if one is a genuine seeker of ultimate truth, that person would be willing to take any road necessary and then follow that road wherever necessary.  Sadly such is not so!

There are those who fall within the Reverend George McDonald* observation,

“To give truth to him who loves it not is to only give him more multiplied reasons for misinterpretation.” 

How does one know if they are dealing with one who will seek truth no matter where the road leads and no matter the costs involved?  You can most often identify those who are in such honest pursuit as they exhibit certain qualities.  At this point it must be said that no one possess or is possessed of perfect integrity—all are fallible.

THE ROADBLOCKS TO REALITY

The pseudo-seekers of reality share several qualities, among them are the following.

Dismissive:  To immediately dismiss a potential threat to one’s truth paradigm is often counterproductive.  The person who would seek genuine truth is one who submits all to careful examination no matter the outcome.

Existential superiority:  In a recent interaction a significant body of information was dismissed based upon one’s experience.  The notion of personal experience trumping the veracity of a truth claim is dangerous for reasons that will be explain below.

Explicitness:  Any profitable interchange deals in specific subject matter.  To cast generalities back and forth serves little in the pursuit of truth as both the late Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins amply demonstrate.

Fair exchange:  There is a great difference between argument and attack.  It is one thing to question the foundation, logic, and conclusion of an argument and it is something else to argue with innuendo, misstatement, projection, and misrepresentation.  Such interactions are nothing other than attack as opposed to sincere quest for truth.

Vulnerability:  Because at times truth is illusive there are those who will take a chance, pass a “Road Closed” sign, travel that new road, think a new thought, come to a new conclusion, be faced by a new finding, and most of all they are willing to challenge and have their conclusions challenged.

THE EXAMINATION OF GENUINE TRUTH

The genuine seekers of reality share several qualities, among them are the following.

Foundation:  Sound conclusions are built upon sound presuppositions.  When one encounters a new truth paradigm, it is well to ask, “What is necessary for such to be true?”  If the foundation is faulty then there is a very strong possibility that the structure of the argument is going to be faulty.

Logical consistency:  If truth is genuine, the pathway to that truth has a certain logical consistency.  In that vein, one is wise to carefully insure that a seeming illogical argument is not dismissed for other than logical fallacy.

The Comparative Measure:  To verify a truth claim, it must be compared to, based upon, and in sync with a known and verifiable truth.  All else is theory until proven otherwise.  This very often is where the one claiming an existential foundation for truth runs into difficulties for such is without connection to verifiable and proven realtiy.

So here is the question.  Passing all of the signs along the roadway to truth, how have your beliefs fared.  Did they stand up to the test or do they need to be re-examined?

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*The Scottish Reverend George MacDonald was an accomplished author, poet, and writer of fantasy literature.  It is said that Lewis Carroll was influenced by his writings and thus wrote the wonderful, “Alice in Wonderland.”  Others fell under his influence to include C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

"Christianity - Does it Depreciate the Natural World?"

Christians Depreciating the Natural Word

Although this is the title of the article (see background below), there is a break down between the title and the article.  What the article really postulates is that because of the Christian’s belief that there is a future beyond this life, they have little concern about the natural world.

Of course even a cursory view of the history of scientific study, inquiry, and discovery will reveal a very different story.  The reality is that with the coming of the Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic Counter Reformation, the theological groundwork was laid for there to be magnificent scientific discoveries. (See articles at http://alviesthots.blogspot.com/2012/11/christianity-is-it-opposed-to-science.html along with two accompanying articles).  

Truth of the Matter

In sum, the truth of the matter, genuine Christians deprecate the world as presented by the naturalist who presents either a less than complete verifiable scientific narrative or an unverifiable scientific narrative born of bias.  Because genuine Christians give truth an unequalled priority, they indeed cannot be comfortable with the secular naturalists views of the science.

Generalizations Abound

Those who hold this position must resort to anecdotal example and generalization to make the point.  The reality is that any argument that relies heavily upon these two sources for information is certainly to be suspect.  Even if the conclusion were true, the lack of factual data and the innuendo discredit the notion and especially so in this case.  Of course such characterizes much of the material that this and other postings call into question.

Fact Check

The problem with the anecdotal evidence presented in this argument is that the writer is presenting out of bias and not out of fact.  For example he wrongly attributes a quote to former Interior Secretary James Watt which if he would have fact checked would reveal it was wrongly attributed to him (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1339686/posts).  As well the fact that there are Christians who are involved, rightly or wrongly, in the environmental movement is not mentioned.  Such is the behavior of one who writes out of bias and not fact.

Reality, Science, and Theoretical Conjecture

There is a basic process to be considered.  One becomes more and more convinced of that with which one feeds one’s minds.  That is to say if one fills their thinking with the theoretical it soon becomes reality. 

The problem that the secularist brings to the science table is that they are so filled with the notions of secular naturalism that they cannot see other possibilities for reality.  Consider the following quote.

Dinesh D’Souza in a debate with Christopher Hitchens regarding the notion that everything has a cause observes, “…In the weird world of the quantum, we can find exceptions to that rule.  But quantum effects cancel out when you come to macroscopic objects and whenever you hear someone say ‘consciousness I really don’t know what that is but perhaps it is a quantum thing’ what he is basically saying is that he does not know.  …The quantum is invoked to explain things that are unexplained.” (see debate at  www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V85OykSDT8&feature=g-hist).

Such suggests that there are dead ends in naturalism.

Dead End Science

The point is that because genuine science constantly runs into naturalistic dead ends they have created a whole field of theoretical conjecture to include quantum physics, theoretical mathematics, etc.  Sometimes it is just plan difficult to do science in a closed system scenario when there are constant signs pointing to the fact that genuine science must include. 

The whole area of first causes is an example of such a scientific dead end.  The question that mystifies secular science is what precipitated the “Big Bang?”   Since it is not possible to postulate that nature big banged nature into existence and since it is an inconvenient truth to acknowledge the supernatural, science then resorts to quantum physics in which there is much speculation and theoretical conjecture.

Biases Exposed

The reality is that most of what passes for secular science today is an atheist bias or philosophy which then calls upon other more empirical studies to support the position.  This is not science, this is simply bias which grasps at science, physics, mathematics, etc. for support.  Of course genuine science cannot provide such support so we arrive back at the theoretical.

Faith in Fact or Theory

Now before one runs to the conclusion that one places faith in God, Religion, and Creation as a fact, consider the following.

Not one person alive today was there when it all began.  So no one really knows for sure so the prudent person is left with a choice.  It is as follows.  Should one place their faith in a closed system theory which constantly leads to dead ends or should one place their faith in an open system theory that answers many of the questions posed by the previous theory?

Should one place their faith in a closed system that is founded more upon the mores of a particular social system that proposes relative, secular, humanistic truth or in an open system that postulates transcendent, universal, and objective truth?  While one can make that choice the outcomes of that choice are beyond one’s control and should be considered very carefully.

Background

To see the list of subjects to be discussed in this series see my blog (Christianity – Is it a Faith Driven by Fear? http://alviesthots.blogspot.com/2012/11/christianity-is-it-faith-driven-by-fear.html).  Contained within that blog is a reference, 20 Reasons to Abandon Christianity and in that reference is a list which is the springboard from which this subject has been discussed.

"The View"

 

Our views are bounded and often restricted by our assumptions, biases, prejudices, convictions, and so much more.  Yet, if just for a moment, we could set aside those things, we might find such understand that it would allow us to see more about truth, reality, and life.

The Perfect Panoramic View

Imagine there is this very beautiful panoramic view, just perfect. The view includes all that you had ever hoped for in such a sight.  From sky and earth and from side to side it was captivating.  If it had a voice it would call to all who came by to stop a while and have a look into me.  Yes, into for one did not look at such a view but into.  

It would call out to all, "See me in the winter snows.  Watch me in the blooming spring.  See what is here in the summer sun.  Come and be mesmerized by the colors of fall." 

 "Look and see me in the flash of lighting as they play across the skies and the finds its way to earth.  Hear the thunder roll and echo through my canyons and valleys. Watch the rains as they play upon me.  See the morning fog as it seeks to hide in my valleys.  Hear the wind as it makes its way through me to you.  Watch as the rain washes and renews me and the sun glistens and shows to you more colors than you thought possible as it reflects and refracts off of a million rain drops."

Not only did it have life, it called to you and gathered your interest into the depths of the view and yet you knew there was more than one could ever see.  More than any paint could capture or photo reflect.  There was a certain enormity if not eternity of sorts as one could never tire of such a picture.

Captured with a Home

As it happens you decide to build a home and in that home a window.  A window placed strategically in such a way so as to invite any and all who entered to enjoy that picture—the interesting and captivating perfect view.  It would be an attempt for such a view could never be captured by a window no matter how grand. 

It would be a home but more importantly a place of refuge, a place of peace, a place where one would marvel at both the place of peace and the ever deepening panorama that stretched into what seemed to be the eternal distance.  Panorama?  Yes, but more properly panoramas as the wonderment of the scene was that as it drew one ever deeper into its beauty, there seemed to be more to see and such seeing brought seeking.

The Home is Built

So it is that you engage a contractor.  He sends over his architect who begins his work by asking you question after question.  Then he asks what restrictions you might have for the plans he is about to draw.  You add several and it is then the architect goes, he stops and views the site, and then does his work.

The contractor then has the builders come and do their work.  The landscape folks do their work according to the site plan.  Then of course the interior designer comes and does his work.  The list goes on and on of the people who come and work on the project.

The Unveiling Day

Then comes the big day, the day for which you had planned and waited—the unveiling day.  You arrive at your new home and from the moment you arrive you can see it is picture perfect.  Everything as you imagined it would be. You are some kind of excited.   From the moment you step onto the property there is a prevailing sense of peace and joy.

You take time looking at the landscaping all so perfect.  First you look around one side of the house and then the other and yes there is the view.  You anticipate seeing its magic, its majestic beauty from your home, a home that would welcome all who cared to stop by. A place of refreshing and reflection as one seeing the view could not help but reflect upon it.

Meanwhile the look of the flowers, the walkways, the house, are all so picture perfect.  It is like it is a cool drink for the parched soul. The character, the ambiance of the site, the way the home is situated on the site, the outside architecture is just perfect, just as you had many times imagined that it would be.

Present that day are all of the people who had a part in the project--project, what project.  It was a dream, yes a magnificent dream.  They are there waiting for you to enter your perfect home.  How excited they are for you to enter and to explore all of the rooms, nooks, crannies, etc.   Most of all you are excited to see the view that made all of this important even possible.

The Entrance

Then it is time to go into your home and to the view that was so important to the project.  The contractor with a hug smile opens the front door and says something like, “Welcome to your new….”  His words are lost to your shock.  You hear yourself gasp.  You stammer out, "Wha... wha… what happened to the view, what happened to the big beautiful picture window?  Where is it?  Something is wrong? This cannot be, it is impossible.”

The contractor nods at the architect who with great sensitivity approaches you and kindly explains. Do you remember that when we visited, you placed assumptions and restrictions on what I could and could not incorporate into the design?  Well following your words meant that the window you see before you is all I could give you.  Not only was the window much less than I wanted it to be and much less than it could have been but the view beyond is restricted, distorted, and not the view for which you had hoped.

The Offer

The architect continued.  If you would be willing to give up your restrictions and free me to redraw the plans and the builder to rebuild, then you will have your window.  You will have all for which you had hoped and more.  This is the offer I can make to you but, it all depends upon whether you are willing to give up your assumptions, biases, prejudices, convictions, etc.  So here is the offer, you have to decide. 

For the One who would seek Realty…

So it is with our views of truth and reality.  When our views are boxed in by our assumptions, biases, hard heartedness, prejudices, and druthers, it limits our view.  Said another way these are the things that block our views of many realities including that of God.

Ephesians 4:17-19 17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. NASU