THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK - Animosity is a Curious Animal Indeed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Coleman (Post 25485)

Odalisque,

Could you expand upon this point?

You are getting at something that troubles me. Namely, whether it is actually possible to get at the truth. Is it possible to make a true statement? Is the truth something that can only be suggested or hinted at? Does the truth always hide itself?

Even if there can only be a finger pointing to the moon, it seems to suggest that the moon exists somewhere beyond the finger.

What I had in mind is that truth is not as simple as it may seem. If I say that the sun rose this morning, I'm making a true statement within the realm of ordinary discourse. Within the realm of scientific discourse, it is not true. The observed event is actually the earth rotating, not the sun rising. Yet, I believe that it is still, in some sense, true that the sun rose this morning. Suppose, instead of this, I say that the goddess Nut, having swallowed the sun last night, gave birth to it this morning. It is a third take on the same event, this time viewed in the realm of mythic discourse. The three statements (rising sun, rotating earth, Nut giving birth) may each be true within their own realms of discourse, although (if viewed as belonging to a single realm of discourse) they contradict one another. Each may in its own way have something valid to say about the event, or about ways in which we may experience the event.

My feeling is that truth is complex and multi-layered, and that the realm of religious discourse may (at least sometimes) provide an additional layer of truth. My opinion is that people who suppose that there is only one valid (truthful) realm of discourse are mistaken. When people take mythic and/or religious statements (these two may not be the same as one another) as belonging in the same realm of discourse as science, I think that the result is grotesque.

When I assert that Hat-hor was the hand that masturbated Atum at the first time (which is something that I would assert) I am making a very different statement about the creation of the universe from a scientist talking of the big bang. But both, I assert, are valid within their own realms of discourse.

Whether truth is knowable depends very much on what one sees as the nature of truth.

To give another example, we may regard a work of fiction as true in that it illuminates the way things are (or may be). The fact that none of the people (whose actions are described in the work of fiction) have ever lived in our world does not change the fact that the work is truthful.