From: "Dan Minette" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: What is truth? Date: Sat, 7 Feb 2004 12:51:51 -0600
----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Edmunds" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 11:32 AM Subject: Re: Reviews for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"
> > > > >From: "Dan Minette" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: Re: Reviews for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" > >Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 13:40:26 -0600 > > > > > >----- Original Message ----- > >From: "Travis Edmunds" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 12:23 PM > >Subject: Re: Reviews for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" > > > > > > > > > I see where you are coming from. But it all comes down to ones own > >concept > > > of evil now doesn't it? > > > > > > >Unless, of course, truth actually exists. :-) > > > >Dan M. > > <lol> Well, what exactly is truth?
Truth is that which is valid apart from our beliefs and perceptions. If truth doesn't exist, then everything is arbitrary. If it does, than some ideas are actually better/more accurate than others. I certainly cannot prove that it is wrong to take a 4 year old girl, rape and torture her in the most hideous manner possible before killing her. However, I believe that it is a true statement that she deserves better than that because of her inherent worth as a human being.
Another word you bandies about is fact. Facts are actually a lot more limited than a casual observation might lead one to believe.
Dan M.
So, you cannot prove that truth exists, you are the holder of your own beliefs, and I am a casual observer. How wholly unremarkable. And there you have it, a truth if you will. You cannot prove anything, and hence you revert back to your beliefs. That sir, is exactly what I'm talking about.
In order to cushion the backwash towards myself though, let me say that I agree with you on the score of someone having "inherent worth as a human being". That one stems not from morality I think, but from the fact that life, in the grand scheme of things is rare. Or at least we cannot prove otherwise at this point in time. Also, humans are the only sentient beings known to exist, so there is something special, different about us. And though torture is at the best of times cruel, the needless loss of life of a human being is...needless. If I were born and raised in circumstances where killing was commonplace, and completely ethical, I still think some side of my intellect would have reservations. Though not reservations stemming from morality, but rather from something unique being destroyed. There is a difference.
In closing let me say that the other day I caught myself. I was watching the evening news, and learned of the poor girl down in Florida who was murdered, among other things. Immediately, something went off inside me. Some sort of alarm. Silently, I branded the perpetrator sick, a monster. But then I caught myself buying into what I was raised to believe. And although I do think it was wrong what was done, I realize that those thoughts are in direct accord with my own moral guidelines, and thus are hardwired into my head. I do not think I will ever be numb enough to avoid that type of initial reaction to news of that sort. I am the product of my own environment. But it is in challenging such thinking, that we move ahead intellectually, is it not?
Please don't brand me some sort of monster. Some sort of preaching fool. For I feel that things are bad and good. I just don't think so. It goes against any sort of intellectual meandering I might engage in.
-Travis "I feel it as much as the next person" Edmunds
But from whence do those feelings come?
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