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This is one of the most pertinent articles I have read on this site.
Note that this basic subject, of being true to “our shared reality” (as I would phrase it), is a bedrock foundation of Christian and Jewish belief, and Christian apologetics, and critical Bible study skills. This topic about being true to reality, cuts across all sorts of other topics, although the currently “intellectually-blind” American culture often does not realize that.
Teaching about our shared reality, is foundational for teaching the Christian faith (hence, for catechism). It is NOT, as many Protestant Fundamentalists claim, some sort of “empty philosophy” or “wrangling over words”, that is a common response by some Fundamentalists when the topic of the nature of reality is bought up.
Note that there are many related connections, to discussions of what our shared reality is.
Some of these are…
1 The Bible presents aspects or characteristics of our shared reality (so Christians and Jews CANNOT ignore this topic!)
2 The Bible presents a MORAL-ETHICAL OUGHT to accurately present our shared reality. This is in the form of “You shall not lie!” Lie about what? About our shared reality. The biblical form of this command is “You shall not bear false witness”, and that opens up the topic to include all sorts of reality that is not commonly discussed by Christians. Such as how we perceive the behavior, and statements, and opinions of other people. Also, how we perceive the written record of mankind (including the testimony of the written Scriptures). Note that the Bible includes examples of the nobility of researching whether or not the opinions or assertions of someone, are true.
3 The Bible presents the truth that we each, can choose to ignore our shared reality, or mis-hear or mis-see what is happening. Note Jesus warning “Be careful how you hear!” Human choice, is in the middle of our perceiving. And the classic virtues include virtues that affect how we perceive. These are patience, endurance, gaining knowledge, and gaining the ability to carefully reason. If we do not pursue and practice these virtues, we should not expect that we will gain critical thinking skills, or be able to have the self-discipline to pay attention (to what people say, to the reality around us, to arguments, or to a process of testing whether an assertion/opinion is correct).
4 Note that while the Bible does not provide detailed models of HOW we perceive and think about our shared reality, the truths that the Bible affirms, REQUIRE specific constraints on our worldview, regarding what our shared reality is, and how we can know about it. This is a point that it mostly ignored in Christian apologetics, because many apologists have not carefully thought about them.
For example…
Everyone SAYS that the want JUSTICE.
But to get justice, you must first have access to:
A shared reality
Accurate (enough) individual perceptions of that reality (we could call this evidence)
Accurate methods of reasoning about what relevant connections exist, in our shared reality (the ability to recognize RELEVANT evidence, and IRRELEVANT evidence, with regard to a certain topic.
An accurate (enough) method of communicating with other human beings
A fair rule of law, that encodes what is evil, and what is righteous, and has
A clear method of applying the law to valid evidence, to produce JUST
decisions.
Try confronting those who do not believe that we live in a shared reality, with this logical outcome — that there can never be any such thing as JUSTICE! As the historic philosophers clearly recognize, those models of reality the deny that there is truth, or that we can know it, are dark and hopeless models (with regard to interesting topics, such as JUSTICE).
Unless Christian teaching starts with…
—- what our shared reality is
—- how we perceive our shared reality
—-how we can test out personal perceptions, to see if they are correct (this requires sound logic)
Then we can never get to asserting the core of Christian doctrines, such as the 10 Commandments (specifically, “You shall not bear false witness”).
Rather than being “empty philosophy”, these basic assertions about our shared reality are a necessary foundation for presenting the truths that the Bible asserts.
————— —————
Note that the massive chaos in our current politics, is often due to the younger American generations NOT having an exposure to basic philosophical examinations of what our shared reality is. Or, how we are to accurately perceive it. Or, how we are to use sound logic to examine our perceptions and opinions, to see if they are correct.
The electronic screen generations, for example, often do not have the attention span required to listen carefully to the (above) argument about what we must know, for there to be “justice”.
The electronic screen generations often do not have the basic vocabulary, to understand discussions of Epistemology, Formal Logic, Moral Theory, or Critical Bible Study skills. (Or, increasingly, what the text of the Bible is asserting.)
————— —————
Christians are FORBIDDEN from gossiping, and lying. They are COMMANDED to test all things, and hold on to what is true.
Conspiracy theories are unproven speculations. They are “explanations”, but like hypotheses, they do not have the evidence to affirm them as truths. Conspiracy theories, ARE NOT accurate descriptions of our shared reality, or about causes and effects in our shared reality that have been fully demonstrated. Christians should NEVER embrace conspiracy theories, or spread them.
Conspiracy theories about a “Deep State” plot, start out with the assumption that …
1 There is an omnipotent entity that can hide all true evidence
2 What I am asserting (the conspiracy theory) is TRUE, however this omnipotent entity covered up all evidence for what I am saying
3 STILL, you must believe the explanation I am giving you, even though no one will ever get the evidence to confirm this explanation, because the omnipotent Deep State has the power to cover up any and all evidence for what I am asserting.
This is an argument that there is a category of explanations, that can NEVER be proven to be true, because some omnipotent institution has covered up all the evidence that could have been used to prove the theory. This is essentially the same thing as saying…
“My theory is UNFALSIFIABLE, but still you MUST BELIEVE IT, because I believe it.”
In formal logic, definitions, and propositions, that are UNFALSIFIABLE, are not logically coherent, and are discarded as nonsense.
The basic format of a conspiracy theory, is that it is UNFALSIFIABLE.
————— —————
Christians need to go further, and assert that a righteous person must not only ASSERT TRUTHS, but LIVE IN ACCORD WITH THOSE TRUTHS.
Those who assert the commands that we should protect the weak and helpless, should not be out there insulting people and threatening them and their families, or have a history of abusing women, and lying about our shared reality. Jesus’ parables about the FRUIT that a tree produces (defines what sort of tree it is), is a stark reality check.
Someone who responds to criticism with abuse and threats, is showing what sort of tree they are.
These are deeply Christian topics, although they are also topics that are very relevant to the politics of 2024.
Note that this basic subject, of being true to “our shared reality” (as I would phrase it), is a bedrock foundation of Christian and Jewish belief, and Christian apologetics, and critical Bible study skills. This topic about being true to reality, cuts across all sorts of other topics, although the currently “intellectually-blind” American culture often does not realize that.
Teaching about our shared reality, is foundational for teaching the Christian faith (hence, for catechism). It is NOT, as many Protestant Fundamentalists claim, some sort of “empty philosophy” or “wrangling over words”, that is a common response by some Fundamentalists when the topic of the nature of reality is bought up.
Note that there are many related connections, to discussions of what our shared reality is.
Some of these are…
1 The Bible presents aspects or characteristics of our shared reality (so Christians and Jews CANNOT ignore this topic!)
2 The Bible presents a MORAL-ETHICAL OUGHT to accurately present our shared reality. This is in the form of “You shall not lie!” Lie about what? About our shared reality. The biblical form of this command is “You shall not bear false witness”, and that opens up the topic to include all sorts of reality that is not commonly discussed by Christians. Such as how we perceive the behavior, and statements, and opinions of other people. Also, how we perceive the written record of mankind (including the testimony of the written Scriptures). Note that the Bible includes examples of the nobility of researching whether or not the opinions or assertions of someone, are true.
3 The Bible presents the truth that we each, can choose to ignore our shared reality, or mis-hear or mis-see what is happening. Note Jesus warning “Be careful how you hear!” Human choice, is in the middle of our perceiving. And the classic virtues include virtues that affect how we perceive. These are patience, endurance, gaining knowledge, and gaining the ability to carefully reason. If we do not pursue and practice these virtues, we should not expect that we will gain critical thinking skills, or be able to have the self-discipline to pay attention (to what people say, to the reality around us, to arguments, or to a process of testing whether an assertion/opinion is correct).
4 Note that while the Bible does not provide detailed models of HOW we perceive and think about our shared reality, the truths that the Bible affirms, REQUIRE specific constraints on our worldview, regarding what our shared reality is, and how we can know about it. This is a point that it mostly ignored in Christian apologetics, because many apologists have not carefully thought about them.
For example…
Everyone SAYS that the want JUSTICE.
But to get justice, you must first have access to:
A shared reality
Accurate (enough) individual perceptions of that reality (we could call this evidence)
Accurate methods of reasoning about what relevant connections exist, in our shared reality (the ability to recognize RELEVANT evidence, and IRRELEVANT evidence, with regard to a certain topic.
An accurate (enough) method of communicating with other human beings
A fair rule of law, that encodes what is evil, and what is righteous, and has
A clear method of applying the law to valid evidence, to produce JUST
decisions.
Try confronting those who do not believe that we live in a shared reality, with this logical outcome — that there can never be any such thing as JUSTICE! As the historic philosophers clearly recognize, those models of reality the deny that there is truth, or that we can know it, are dark and hopeless models (with regard to interesting topics, such as JUSTICE).
Unless Christian teaching starts with…
—- what our shared reality is
—- how we perceive our shared reality
—-how we can test out personal perceptions, to see if they are correct (this requires sound logic)
Then we can never get to asserting the core of Christian doctrines, such as the 10 Commandments (specifically, “You shall not bear false witness”).
Rather than being “empty philosophy”, these basic assertions about our shared reality are a necessary foundation for presenting the truths that the Bible asserts.
————— —————
Note that the massive chaos in our current politics, is often due to the younger American generations NOT having an exposure to basic philosophical examinations of what our shared reality is. Or, how we are to accurately perceive it. Or, how we are to use sound logic to examine our perceptions and opinions, to see if they are correct.
The electronic screen generations, for example, often do not have the attention span required to listen carefully to the (above) argument about what we must know, for there to be “justice”.
The electronic screen generations often do not have the basic vocabulary, to understand discussions of Epistemology, Formal Logic, Moral Theory, or Critical Bible Study skills. (Or, increasingly, what the text of the Bible is asserting.)
————— —————
Christians are FORBIDDEN from gossiping, and lying. They are COMMANDED to test all things, and hold on to what is true.
Conspiracy theories are unproven speculations. They are “explanations”, but like hypotheses, they do not have the evidence to affirm them as truths. Conspiracy theories, ARE NOT accurate descriptions of our shared reality, or about causes and effects in our shared reality that have been fully demonstrated. Christians should NEVER embrace conspiracy theories, or spread them.
Conspiracy theories about a “Deep State” plot, start out with the assumption that …
1 There is an omnipotent entity that can hide all true evidence
2 What I am asserting (the conspiracy theory) is TRUE, however this omnipotent entity covered up all evidence for what I am saying
3 STILL, you must believe the explanation I am giving you, even though no one will ever get the evidence to confirm this explanation, because the omnipotent Deep State has the power to cover up any and all evidence for what I am asserting.
This is an argument that there is a category of explanations, that can NEVER be proven to be true, because some omnipotent institution has covered up all the evidence that could have been used to prove the theory. This is essentially the same thing as saying…
“My theory is UNFALSIFIABLE, but still you MUST BELIEVE IT, because I believe it.”
In formal logic, definitions, and propositions, that are UNFALSIFIABLE, are not logically coherent, and are discarded as nonsense.
The basic format of a conspiracy theory, is that it is UNFALSIFIABLE.
————— —————
Christians need to go further, and assert that a righteous person must not only ASSERT TRUTHS, but LIVE IN ACCORD WITH THOSE TRUTHS.
Those who assert the commands that we should protect the weak and helpless, should not be out there insulting people and threatening them and their families, or have a history of abusing women, and lying about our shared reality. Jesus’ parables about the FRUIT that a tree produces (defines what sort of tree it is), is a stark reality check.
Someone who responds to criticism with abuse and threats, is showing what sort of tree they are.
These are deeply Christian topics, although they are also topics that are very relevant to the politics of 2024.
