Sam asked the following question. I have typed my reply/answer and would love to hear others views on this also.
Hey Jason... like your new blog. Much easier to get around. very green. when i have an hour or two spare i will happily engage in dialogue with you. I am one of those Christian guys... as you know... but more than happy to defend the faith. Question: Where does true knowledge come from? Are you a modern man who believes that we are enlightened and so can somehow use reason and rational thought to attain to greater knowledge and the truth? Or are you post-modern in your epistemology... even if there is an absolute truth it cannot be known because language and culture as so distorted it that there is no longer any objective truth that can be known? Sam
Dear Sam,
Thanks again for reading my blog.
My ideas have not solidified yet and my readings by your own standards are not as extensive. But I would like very much to talk with you on certain aspects of the bible, particularly the core questions of creationism and evolution.
A good example of my ignorance is that before replying I had to look up epistemology in the dictionary.
In reply, I don't know what ideas are classed as modern or post modern, I am regrettably self taught and for that reason don't have enough formal understanding to categorise my thoughts.
By your description I would probably be a modern man, but I think that categorising truths is futile, because truth is truth wherever you find it. It can be passed down through millennia like Hamarabi's code or the Codex Sinai, the knowledge of astral movements, or it can be muttered from the mouths of toddlers.
And I believe the thinking person gleans every scrap that he/she can. Because to make an informed decision you need information and to ignore a truth in that decision is the true meaning of ignorance.
Regards Jason.
P.S. While I was looking up epistemology I came across the word 'Epiphany'. The Oxford dictionary described it as the "Manifestation of Christ to the Magi". Could you please clarify this because I am confused. I thought Magi were middle eastern priests of Mazda or Zoroaster.
2 comments:
Hey there Jason...
I just looked up 'epiphany' on dictionary.com and it says exactly the same thing. Though epiphany can mean an appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity.. Which is how i always understood it. Therefore an epiphany in the Bible would be the appearance of God to Moses in the burning bush, or the appearance of Jesus to Saul on the road to Damascus. But the Magi (who can read about in Matthew 2) are those fellows we like to sing about in Christmas carols called 'wise men'. Note: in the Bible it never says there are three of them (we have been sung a lie for hundreds of years). They are men from the east (possibly as far as China) who would have been considered wise in their culture and are considered wise by the Bible writers because they came from afar to worship King Jesus.
Question: You said in your reply 'truth is truth wherever you find it.' What do you mean by this?
The difficulty of truth is that lots of people claim truth. Islam for example says it is true that there is one God. Hinduism says there are many. Which is true? One or many? I find it hard to comprehend how both can possibly be true.
Sam
P.S. Sorry bout that 'epistemology' reference. I was reading about that stuff the day you posted your blog and forgot that I only realized what it meant that day also. Heehe.. sorry
I think that the problem is not in the idea of absolute truth, but rather in the fact that _people_ claim to know the absolute truth.
Truth is subjective. Even if you go down the path of NLP, where the aim is to strip language of all incongruencies, 'truth' is unique to each of us, especially when it comes to matters of faith.
I guess I beleive that we have to take all the knowledge we can possibly get, and pass it through our own filters, to get our own version of 'truth'. The trouble starts when we try to foist our version of truth onto other people.
Sam, something else interesting about the Magi/Wise Men, is that if you follow the timeline that the Bible sets out, they wouldn't have hit Jerusalem, until Jesus was 2 - 3 years old!! They may have come bearing gifts, but I'm glad it wasn't a fruit basket after all that time :) My Nan is a very devout Christian, and this is one of the things that really grates on her, is that all the nativity scenes include the wise men, and include 3 of them!
ky..
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