Relativity of Wrong

[leavingthecave25]

This is a link to an essay by Isaac Asimov that I ran across a while ago that I found especially profound; thought it might be worth sharing with the group.

http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm” class=”bbcode_url”>http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm

[Heber13]

Good article, thanks for sharing.

The similarity between science and religion, IMO, is science sees the theories as incomplete and works to refine them. Similarly, Religion sees truth as incomplete and waits for God to reveal more, line upon line, and in the mean time, professes to have the truth from God with a sure knowledge through faith, until that faith can grow with more knowledge. Some people, however really want to have certainty with their religion, and set themselves up for CogDis when they do.

But I like the idea of truth with probabilities of certainty, which will always be less than 100% in this life.

[TragedianActor]

Great essay! I had never read it before, and it does lead to a new understanding of the nature of truth.

Truth itself doesn’t change. However, mankind’s understanding of truth changes all the time. So what can we really be certain of?

[Heber13]

TragedianActor wrote:

Great essay! I had never read it before, and it does lead to a new understanding of the nature of truth.

Truth itself doesn’t change. However, mankind’s understanding of truth changes all the time. So what can we really be certain of?

Exactly! If everything we are taught today is subject to change with new revelation, then I’m not certain of anything, but can perhaps be “certain enough” to have faith and act on things, even if I’m open to it all changing in the future. Similarly, science holds to what it cannot disprove, while continuing to learn more by continuing to try to disprove it.

[Author]

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