On Sun, Mar 23, 2003 at 10:00:48PM -0000, iaamoac wrote: > Don't you mean "knowledge *or* critical thinking", or do you *know* > everything that you believe?
No, I meant and. Thinking without some knowledge is useless, and knowledge without critical thought is dangerous. > Are laws that force the belief that murder is evil upon others evil? That murder stops someone from living (thinking, moving, communicating, etc.) is verifiable and obvious. True, it is a belief that one shouldn't stop someone else from living against their will, but it is a belief that follows quite easily from comparison of empirical observation of the results of murder with noting one's own will to live. The founding fathers of America might have called it a "self-evident truth" instead of a belief. Compare that type of belief to a belief in an all-knowing, omnipotent but undetectable god, who, for example, is sometimes said to prohibit consensual sex outside of marriage and who demands worship from people or they will suffer the consequences later. That is far from self-evident. Surely you realized I was referring to the latter type of beliefs, not the former. Critical thinking, John. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
