Anyone Can Claim Truth
Let me tell you a true story. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there were star wars. First there was a massive clone war and then there was a rebellion against a galactic empire. Just because I have no evidence for this, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. I derived this knowledge from faith, which is an alternative means of knowledge from science which requires objective evidence. But it is equally valid, right?
Let me tell you another one. I won the deed to the Brooklyn Bridge last night in a poker game. The problem is that I live in Pennsylvania and have no desire to move to New York right now so I need to sell it really cheap. I’ll sell it to you for a fraction of what it’s worth. I’ll sell it to you for $5000. It is worth 5 million. This is the truth, why won’t you buy it? Oh, you want evidence? Just take my truth on faith. That is a different kind of knowledge, right?
The fact is that faith isn’t a different way of deriving truth it is just a way to claim truth. Anyone can claim truth, but being able to show truth requires evidence. Just because there is no evidence don’t mean that something isn’t true. But we can’t call it knowledge. We can only claim knowledge when we have sufficient valid evidence and can objectively show that something actually is true.
Religious people don’t believe anything on faith alone except for their particular religious claims. Isn’t that interesting? Why are religious people just as skeptical about other people’s religions and about matters involving money and the world we live in, but when it comes to their own religion, faith suddenly becomes an alternative and equally valid way of deriving truth? The real truth here is that religion is just as much of a scam as my deed to the Brooklyn Bridge.
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- Faith and Foolishness (scientificamerican.com)
Filed under: Alternative Worldview, culture war, faith, god of the gaps, Religion, science, truth
