the nature of truth

06.30.04 (11:59 pm)   [edit]
From a scientific point of view it seems like there are degrees of truth. Children are taught that atoms are the smallest particles in our universe. In high school chemistry teaches that electrons revolve in "shells" around a central nucleus made up of protons bundled into certain areas. When university comes along all these concepts are broken down as a classification of electrons into energy levels and even further supercedes what was previously known. This is not the end as non-determinism and a lack of clarity about the most fundamental physical structures display.

The point I am trying to get to is that while the early models may be wrong, they work and they can be used. The differences between the models can be explained gradually to come to a more full understanding of the "truth" about a particular topic. There may be an exponential spiral when we get close to a truth that will prevent us from ever getting there. For example in science a string theory which abstracts everything back to one dimensional structures. This is exponentially harder to understand and work with compared to using integers in the intitial shell concept.

I have been having more and more debates lately that delve into the nature of truth. Even if the actual subject of the discussion has a different course it becomes apparent to me at least that the topic is going this way. I would just love to jump into some conversations and say, look at what you have revealed through the discussion process, truth has this aspect to it. However I see that this is inappropriate for most people as they do not have the same discussion phiolosophy as I do.

I have been delving into personality types lately as a way of describing interactions in my world. Specifically I have been investigating the Myers-Briggs system. Being an INTJ type I had thought about these things mysteriously before in some detail but I had never had a framework to base them on. I have used the personality types quite successfully in two major ways lately.

Firstly, to help me understand that my search for truth is not going to have a final conclusion. Everyone is complex and will never be described by a system of classifications. Analogously, an electrons uncertainty principle states that even if the exact position of an electron at a point in time can be determined, its momentum at that point in time, cannot be known. We can also know its momentum at a point of time but be unsure about its position. Probability theory can combine these things beautifully. It gives a probability at any point that the electron is likely to be located at that point at a certain amount of time.

Taking this concept to Personality Types, personalities aren't fixed. Actions from other personality types aren't unknown. I may become the life of a party and be a perfect host for one night in my life. The chances of this however may be very low and may not even be applicable to reality. Personalities are not as important in this sense as the concept that even at a single point in time we cannot know everything about everything with absolute surety.

Secondly I have used the personality types to understand how better to communicate with many people. Being a very analytical person I like to describe things in abstract terms. This may not be totally appropriate. Most of my close friends are either analytical people or they are people who have learnt to deal with us (poor souls). My style of communication is not appropriate when I am talking with a group of uninitiated concrete thinkers.

I would like to say that I try to sympathise with their views on life and communicate with them on their wavelength. Unfortunately I have not lost my sense of adventure yet. Too often I will go into a discussion with a position of Devil's advocate on a subject just to make them think. This would not be so damaging in most circumstances as i tend to just adjust my real views to fit my position in the discussion. Sometimes this goes horribly aloof as happened earlier tonight.

I am an evangelical Christian and I have faith in a God who loves and cares for his subjects. I am pretty sure that I believe in some kind of literal creation but not necessarily in a literal Genesis. In going into a discussion with fervent Traditionalist (SJ type) people I was trying to make a point that their preconceived ideas may not be all right. They took it horribly wrong and now they think I am a lost soul... tut tut... I was not actually necessarily saying that their point of view could be wrong. I have just spent so much time on logical matters that I have given up the idea of an absolute truth. I am ashamed to say that I did not trust my gut feeling in not even getting into this discussion. My original estimate was that they would probably catch onto something being wrong after a few minutes. Almost an hour later and I had dug myself a trench which was not going to be easy for either of us to cross. They were entrenched with their view that I would not be saved if I did not believe literally in the whole Genesis account and for that matter they brought the rest of the bible into it.

This is hard for me and I am still trying to get my head around exactly what I learnt from this experience but I think that truth is not absolute as they say it is. Apart from that I think that new views did infact develop and others changed to bring in new factors. A simple conclusion is to be alot more mild next time I try to get people to think out of their tiny little bubbles.

Another part of me says that they were very conviced in all they were saying. This does not mean they were right though as is horribly evident when con artists attack.

It has not ceased to give me amazement that some people can think so differently to me and infact take what I am saying horribly against its purpose. I guess that I didn't make it really obvious upfront that I was going to go in with this view. And five minutes in when I admitted I was talking for the intellectual thrill of discussion they were already too scared by my horribly heretical view points to believe that I was just being a Devils Advocate.

I will try to be more sensitive to their views in the future and try to tailor my "viewpoint" so that it does not counter "absolute" truths in such a massive context as was exhibited tonight. People need to think. It is dangerous to even get "perfectly legitimate systems" and believe in them absolutely.

Another point that I have heard before from one of them was that the Devil must be working in my brain stimulating me to do things such as the absolutely heretical point of view that I was verbalising (mostly on the spot as I went along). This may have been one of the major parts that kept me from stopping alot earlier. She thinks that she is a scientific person but basically she hasn't touched science from a philosophical point of view. Doing chem and biol in grade 12 does not make you a scientist. It just proves that you can memorise a bit of stuff (and not exceedingly well at that). Science has to ask worrying questions. How else will people develop. I have a point of view that says I am my own person and I take guidance from God but I am not just sprouting things that he tells me to say. I believe in Divine stimulation of certain thoughts but not in the cerebral context so to speak, more in a sensual general feeling in most cases. Sure prophets have direct stimulation but I don't see why most people have to be led by Divine stimulation.

Even further was a general consensus that God was everywhere at all times just making sure that his system did not break down. I think God made up a marvelous system that Science only continues to amaze me with. Being a biomedical major I have had to think about the complexities of all the mechanisms to provide a continuosly running system which can even maintain itself in certain cases. It was not just some half-arsed effort put in to see how Adam would survive. For all I know Adam may have had perfect architecture. Not likely I think and there must have been some need for the Tree of Life but I think that there are a number of things that are so amazing that my faith would not be the same without it.

The majority of people in this world are concrete people who don't want to question there basic makeup. I tend to build my faith, however shaky it is, by breaking down parts which are either not logical on their own or which I just haven't investigated yet. I need to do more bible study to get my head around what is and what could be. This will come with time. I have heard a lot of stuff said on a lot of topics that I do not agree with. I know I have touched on a lot of topics but this is how my life is. Its not sure and it is all interconnected. This does not mean that if one part breaksdown the whole will break down. Its more like if one part breaks I can use the rest as a basis while rebuilding the piece that was broken. True, a few times I have ripped most of it to shreds just to get out some little illogicality in the way things actually happen.

Logic is definitely not of the devil. Why else would God play dice?? Maybe because he got bored of determinism. Even though God may be everywhere and know everything at every point in time, however that may apply, I think that life runs its course. I had a problem with some of my early views since they relied on God only purporting to give us free choice in life. This did not inspire me to do much with my life. It was like, what will be will be. My presence in the universe I think is by choice, maybe even a combination of choices. I also think that the world might survive without me. I am not an absolutely integral part of the world acting as it does. This does not mean that I do not want to be here. I love the experience. I wouldn't have it any other way and I hope to have a long sound life at that. I also hope that while I am not an evangelist, that my actions will help people know a little bit more about the love of God. That is an ultimate goal for me. I have accepted God's Love and sacrifice for me on the cross and I believe that I will be saved, my purpose in life is to give people the same purpose. My methods in this are not always orthodox as I described at the start but I hope that by showing people that we do actually exist in a self-sufficient society we can make choices for both Good and Bad to influence outcomes. I do now believe that because God could "see" the future that the future state is suddenly decomposed into what is by a series of events. The knowledge of the future in the Godhead is extremely compact. Angels are likely to be in the same state that we are in. Of only knowing what is happening, that is, they are stuck in time like we are right now, to a certain extent. I like the concept of time. It makes interactions so much more interesting. I believe that because the knowledge of the future is kept as a tight secret that events will play out exactly the same as if there was no knowledge anywhere of the future. For instance in a human example, if someone knows of a fatal flaw in a system that will kill certain people if and only if they are told about the flaw, such as if they are told where a secret trapdoor with a combination that cannot be guessed. The actual possibility that they die is in there hands. Even if someone knew of this flaw as an integral part of the design and knew it was flawless apart from this and had seen the future and discovered that it was going to be disastrous, How much would it hurt to have to go through becoming friends with people in this situation. On the other hand if the likelihood was soo small and the possibility was remote even then how much less stress would there be on the engineer.

I think I lost myself even there. Its time to to bed anyway so I should sign off for the night. I hope that the overall effect of my post was positive.

God Bless

My new blog

06.30.04 (5:04 pm)   [edit]
Well, I have a blog. Now i'm asking myself what to do with it. Well anything will be better than 0 entries so I will get going.

:lol:

So what have I done lately. Exams.. Exams... and well Assignments... That was my life for a few weeks. Thats just the way things are.

Its also good to get up to date on some sleep. Although that mostly comes from going to bed early rather than getting up later. Shame all these people!!! Glen and co. who can sleep in until all hours of the afternoon.

It gets too cold down here in Vic to stay up too late anyway. As bad as it is getting up early its a lot easier being awake when the sun is up.

I went tabogganing on sunday. that was awesome. I have only been to snowy places twice and the last time i only skiied. I kind of picked up a tabogganing technique in the few hours we were there for. I rather skiing though. its a lot easier to direct yourself down the hill on skis IMO. They move so much easier. And they have nice little stoppers on the bottom so they don't fly off to the bottom of the slope (usually). Don't get me wrong, chasing a taboggan down a hill is good fun but whats with the dragging it back up the hill. I'd pay for a lift ticket anyday. Thats the way to do things in style.

I could go on for hours but tea is ready and my stomach is rumbling. Have to get some people to look at this later so i won't feel like i'm doing this for nothing. (Wouldn't be the first time though)