philosophy, then segue-ing into religion...
As part of an email discussion with someone, I came up with the following lines. There may be some inaccuracy in what I say, but I think it's generally true. The second of the three points may reflect personal insecurity somewhat, but the other two are more fundamental, I think:
Yeah, not only am I skeptical of people's claims to know absolute truth (one strike against me as a potential philosopher); I am further skeptical of my ability to persuade too many others of my version of truth (a second strike); I am even more skeptical of the appropriateness of my trying to persuade them (assuming I could). That would be three strikes. Even though the ancient greeks didn't have baseball, I'm sure they would have gotten the metaphor ;-).
And btw, the first point doesn't say anything about the potential existence of "absolute truth", which to the extent the phrase means anything is, I think, unknowable. It doesn't even rule out divine revelation because, as Sartre put it, even if God does reveal something to us directly, we have to decide whether to accept the revelation as true or not. If the force behind the revelation is so overwhelming as to be unrejectable, then we've effectively just had our free will nullified. Which is why I think it's perfectly compatible to believe fervently in God and yet be very skeptical of any particular claimed revelation...
Yeah, not only am I skeptical of people's claims to know absolute truth (one strike against me as a potential philosopher); I am further skeptical of my ability to persuade too many others of my version of truth (a second strike); I am even more skeptical of the appropriateness of my trying to persuade them (assuming I could). That would be three strikes. Even though the ancient greeks didn't have baseball, I'm sure they would have gotten the metaphor ;-).
And btw, the first point doesn't say anything about the potential existence of "absolute truth", which to the extent the phrase means anything is, I think, unknowable. It doesn't even rule out divine revelation because, as Sartre put it, even if God does reveal something to us directly, we have to decide whether to accept the revelation as true or not. If the force behind the revelation is so overwhelming as to be unrejectable, then we've effectively just had our free will nullified. Which is why I think it's perfectly compatible to believe fervently in God and yet be very skeptical of any particular claimed revelation...