Re: Question for religious parents

dragonlady wrote:
In article <1141283734.566966.39970@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"cjorp@xxxxxxxxx" <cjorp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Look, the only way that we assert anything about reality at all is by
ruling things out, by saying that they are wrong. The only way to
convey information about what the world is like is to assert there are
certain ways in which it is not.

Which is NOT the same as "jettisoning truth in the name of tolerance".

Of course not. That's the same as "thinking critically."

Saying that just because you think that a proposition is true doesn't
mean that you think the people who think a proposition is false are
wrong is the same as "endorsing a contradiction."

And in your mind, would that be wrong?

Um, yeah. *laughs*. I heartily endorse the principle of
non-contradiction. If you want to take a closer look at the truth
tables at that Wikipedia link you can see that embracing a
contradiction leads to being able to prove that *any* proposition is
both true *and* false in first-order predicate calculus, in which case
we can't actually prove anything, or claim anything about the world.
We can only make vaguely expressive comments.

Critical thinkers respond to contradiction by saying, hey, there's
something really wrong here -- I must have made an error by assuming a
premise or something. They don't say, oh, look, how non-judgemental
and Zen I'm being! I'd say that's jettisoning truth in the name of
tolerance. Furthermore, it doesn't buy you tolerance.

Actually, I think of it more as embracing paradox.

A contradiction is not a paradox. A paradox is a proposition like,
"This sentence is false."

--
C, mama to three year old nursling

.

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