Faith
As much as I don't like it, it's true that ultimately it all rests on faith, that most abhorrent of concepts. The foundations of everything.
Firstly, faith that there's such a thing as logic, and facts, and these can be known. Everything else rests on that, and without it there can be no proof, of anything. This is not to say that one requires perfect logic, or facts in order to procede--it's likely that imperfect logic and facts are all we have ever had. But that's still worlds different from no logic, no facts. There might in fact be no logic, no facts, and the appearance of such merely coincidence, accident, illusion, what have you. Certainly we have strong reason to assume otherwise--but it all comes from logic and facts. So it can't be of any use in terms of proof in this case.
Faith in the old "I think, therefore I am". It uses logic to derive a fact, so without the first, it's meaningless. Even with it, it's dubious. It requires faith that in this particular instances the logic is correct enough, that there isn't something being overlooked. I suppose I should perhaps also point out that it requires faith that thought exists and is actually being utilized by the... communicator, for lack of a better word, even if all it's communicating with is itself. For instance, while I am typing "I think, therefore I am" and it's presumably true for me, it's also being communicated by computer monitors, a webpage, stored text--for which it is presumably false. What, really, is to say humanity doesn't fall into the same category? We could be automatons, driven purely by natural processes, regular as clockwork. There might not be an "I", a thought. There's no real way to tell.
And faith in faith. Obviously, without that you can't have the other two. Faith that, it isn't simply a defense mechanism to protect us from things we can't understand, can't process, couldn't truly deal with. An evolutionary trait to keep us living and breeding when we're smart enough to see that it all very well might be futile and pointless. That, under even this foundation, there's some underlying truth even more basic than logic and facts and existence.
No matter what they may say or think, no one can act and live without taking those three things for granted to some degree. Usually more than those 3, but probably none of the others are non-negotiable.
It's deeply irksome, because I've seen the most deeply held beliefs of myself as well as others be proven wrong, wrong, wrong time and again. I don't like faith, and I don't trust it. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that I hate it. It's annoying to realize that it's literally impossible to exist without everything depending on it. No, annoying is the wrong word.
Firstly, faith that there's such a thing as logic, and facts, and these can be known. Everything else rests on that, and without it there can be no proof, of anything. This is not to say that one requires perfect logic, or facts in order to procede--it's likely that imperfect logic and facts are all we have ever had. But that's still worlds different from no logic, no facts. There might in fact be no logic, no facts, and the appearance of such merely coincidence, accident, illusion, what have you. Certainly we have strong reason to assume otherwise--but it all comes from logic and facts. So it can't be of any use in terms of proof in this case.
Faith in the old "I think, therefore I am". It uses logic to derive a fact, so without the first, it's meaningless. Even with it, it's dubious. It requires faith that in this particular instances the logic is correct enough, that there isn't something being overlooked. I suppose I should perhaps also point out that it requires faith that thought exists and is actually being utilized by the... communicator, for lack of a better word, even if all it's communicating with is itself. For instance, while I am typing "I think, therefore I am" and it's presumably true for me, it's also being communicated by computer monitors, a webpage, stored text--for which it is presumably false. What, really, is to say humanity doesn't fall into the same category? We could be automatons, driven purely by natural processes, regular as clockwork. There might not be an "I", a thought. There's no real way to tell.
And faith in faith. Obviously, without that you can't have the other two. Faith that, it isn't simply a defense mechanism to protect us from things we can't understand, can't process, couldn't truly deal with. An evolutionary trait to keep us living and breeding when we're smart enough to see that it all very well might be futile and pointless. That, under even this foundation, there's some underlying truth even more basic than logic and facts and existence.
No matter what they may say or think, no one can act and live without taking those three things for granted to some degree. Usually more than those 3, but probably none of the others are non-negotiable.
It's deeply irksome, because I've seen the most deeply held beliefs of myself as well as others be proven wrong, wrong, wrong time and again. I don't like faith, and I don't trust it. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that I hate it. It's annoying to realize that it's literally impossible to exist without everything depending on it. No, annoying is the wrong word.