Daemon Sophic
Avatar in flux
We are definitely finite beings, even if you think of us as "star-stuff".And since, presumably, we are "finite beings" is there a distinction to be made between no truth and truth we cannot know?
Anyways. Yes as Oberon has stated......However, I would like to phrase things differently, as your question and Oberon's answer are still cloudy to me. :sorry1:
Yes there is a distinction. Annnd.....neither one encapsulates what agnosticism is. :no:
- "No truth" is an absolute affirmative statement that there distinctly is no truth. This would be the atheist viewpoint.
- "Truth we cannot know" is again, absolutly affirmative; but this time in the opposite direction. It says distinctly that there is truth, but also says we are too small to comprehend that truth. This is a deist point of view.
---going further---
- "Truth we do know" - This is the viewpoint of almost all organized religions; saying not only do we know that there is truth, but we also know exactly what the truth is, and we have it right here in this book/scroll. reach:- "We don't, and probably cannot ever know if there is truth. Furthermore, even if there is truth, then likely we won't be able to comprehend it." - This is agnosticism.
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Using the falling tree format: We are a group of people from a desert tribe who have never seen trees before. We are currently standing a mile off from the edge of a massive 10,000 square mile forest.
Atheist - "No trees have ever fallen in that forest. Period."
Deist - "One or more trees have fallen in the forest and made crunchy/crashing sounds as they fell.....or maybe wooshing/thumping sounds.....or maybe they cried out in pain as they fell....or....."
Pantheist - "Lots of trees are falling all the time, making all sorts of sounds."
Monotheist - "Only one tree ever fell. It was a 300 foot tall Sumac with 147 branches and 874,047 orange leaves. It was right over there (pointing), but you cannot see it anymore because is fell down. Duh! As it fell, its thunderous crash sounded like millions of gold and silver bells, and could be heard by millions of people around the world. It fell in a north by northwesterly direction at exactly 9:22 PM on April 12th roughly 6000 years ago."
At this point another monotheist cries out "You fool! :slap: it had 129 branches!" ...and another holy war breaks out.
Agnostic - Nice view. I suppose if we went into the forest we might find out more information.