The Blasphemy Challenge

Why wouldn't factual discoveries be incorporated into one's belief system as a matter of course?A valid philosophy accommodates new discoveries. How is it that a fact can fail to cohere with reality?How does one distinguish facts that are real from facts that are not real?From what threat do facts offer our minds a refuge?__Edited by Archer Opterix, : HTML.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

Yes, sorry. Your choice of words got curiouser and curiouser as I looked.On one hand you don't seem to mean a disconnection between 'facts' and 'reality' at all. You seem to mean filtering personally useful facts from those facts that just become part of our common store of knowledge. You decide the ultimate worth of a fact not by its reality--facts are true by definition--but by utilitarian value.If so, I'd say that's something everybody does regardless of their personal philosophy. It doesn't lessen the instrinic value of facts, though. They show us reality. Usefulness just brings a practical dimension into it. Which sciences can one apply?On the other hand, your most recent explanation suggests that by 'facts' you mean the discoveries of science and by 'reality' you mean Catholic teachings. You set these against each other. It seems you really do filter facts you will accept as 'real' based on the comfort of their fit with church doctrines.If that's the case, the 'refuge' facts offer 'our minds' would be from the unwanted teachings of clerics.___Edited by Archer Opterix, : typo repair.Edited by Archer Opterix, : another typo. Grrrr!

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ArcherAll species are transitional.

The Good, the True, and the Beautiful. The Classical Triad.You are a friend of Plato's.___

Sounds to me like your personal monitor is set to a split-screen view.On one side is Platonic thinking: start with big things and work down to particulars.On the other side is Aristotelian thinking: start with particulars and work up to the big things.On the Platonic side you have ideals like the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. God is the ultimate Ideal. From these ideals you work your way down.On the Aristotelian side you have all bits of data that come your way, including the findings of science. From these particulars you work your way up.The view on one side informs and corrects the view on the other, you say. Your ongoing task is to feather and eventually eliminate any line dividing the two views.Is that a fair representation of the situation?You're aware, I know, that Aristotle's approach won out over Plato's in the Renaissance. The scientific method is Aristotle's baby. Those who work in the sciences excel at this way of thinking, as you see, and many are content to keep the Aristotelian landscape on their monitors full-screen.___Edited by Archer Opterix, : typo repair.

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ArcherAll species are transitional.