Your example doesn’t exactly work because “gay” is a word with multiple meanings. Gay still means happy, it’s just not very common. The truth of the answer would depend upon which sense of the word “gay” you were asking about.
I get your point though: the planet definition changed.
But I...
I think I agree with you here
If you had asked anyone back in 1995 “Is it true that Pluto is a planet?” they would have said “Yes”. It was a truth.
I wouldn’t phrase it necessarily as “scientific truth” though, since that’s not really a thing.
Your post was very informative and this was something I hadn’t heard before.
My understanding was kinda the opposite— bunnies (and eggs) were associated with fertility, Spring was the time to celebrate and promote fertility and new life, and since the Resurrection was also about new life, it...
:D Sorry!
I meant in regards to a “spiritual experience” — assuming that “spiritual experiences” happen sans religions.
How would a person within a culture without the concept of any religion describe a spiritual experience? Mostly just thinking out loud.
What are your thoughts if there was a single national curriculum? In this case, the teaching degrees would train teachers to a standard curriculum nationwide.
Most likely.
I would be so interested in experiencing how people thought, in a natural state, before knowing various religions. How would they describe things?
No. Obviously, comparing notes with other people is a great way to learn about reality.
You wrote: “if two people both claim to see the same "spiritual realm" but their descriptions of that realm don't correspond at all, then even without being able to see that realm myself, I can conclude...
I doubt you would end up with a drawing that would look like the rabbit/duck. You’d probably end up with a clear rabbit or a clear duck, depending on what that person saw. And if you didn’t have prior knowledge of the rabbit/duck, you’d likely not think “oh yeah it could be a rabbit or a duck”...
How do you know that’s not happening?
We don’t have an objective rabbit/duck picture that both we and they can see. We can only go by the way they describe it. The mere fact that they describe it differently isn’t evidence that “they aren’t seeing the same thing”.
Do you think that they are “seeing” the same thing. Like I understand that you believe people experience different things based on their own understanding, but do you think the underlying thing remains constant?
What if it’s something like this and they’re just describing it differently? I imagine it’s even harder when you have little to which to compare it. Cultural experience could explain the differences in description when people are trying to explain something difficult to describe.
Can you clarify what you mean by “problem with”?
Like, do you think atheism is combative towards the subjective? Or is it more like atheists have trouble appreciating or accepting the subjective?
I think you might have something here. But then I thought, I don’t think most theists would...
I get what you’re saying because I’ve experienced this myself as I get older. I remember fights with my mom where I just thought she was dead wrong but really our perspectives were just different. And as I get older, I find I’m gaining that sort of perspective and I can understand and appreciate...
This is similar to Stephen Jay Gould’s “Non-Overlapping Magisteria” concept:
"Science tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly...
Thinking that Star Trek is terrible is a “Star Trek thought”. I’m not sure why you jumped to fandom. A religious belief doesn’t mean “I’m a fan of religions”.
Completely agree. There’s a huge issue with various departments (like DOD but I’m sure it happens in others- heck, it happens in my private hospital) where if they don’t use all their budget then their budget gets cut for the next year. So to avoid that they spend money they don’t need to spend...
What’s your fair share of your electrical bill?
I see government as no different than a utility. Government provides services that we utilize and our taxes are the bill.
Personally, I would hope if reincarnation were true, that our lives would differ from life to life. Otherwise, what would be the point of living the same life over and over gain?
But I think it can be cool to find similarities between us and people we admire, without needing to be literally the...