Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
Nothing we presently know is final or absolute, just as it was 100 years ago and so it will be in a 100 years time. For anything to be final and absolute requires that science, or the people undertaking it, be omniscient. However, all we have to go on is observation, experimentation and theory and none of those would allow for any omniscience. If you were, you wouldn't need them.
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To be omniscient is to be a God. Lot of humanity strives for it and it is not bad goal as long one realises that there is very very long way to go to achieve this. If ever. But it keeps the humanity going forward.
Craig, to be wise at age twenty is as just as unlikely as being good driver at age 6. You need accumulation of good and bad experiences, disappointments and downright betrayal. Lots of time to observe and to understand yourself, the world and the society around you.
Since age of about 5 I was atheist. My granny’s readings from the Bible seems to me to have something unreal in it. So I reject it.
My parents used to scare me that if I don’t behave, when the Saint Nicolas comes (on 6 December - you don’t observe this in Australia) the devil will smack me with his broom. Right, I thought to myself. I got one of the kitchen knives and stuck it underneath of kitchen table. When St Nicolas and the devil came to our place I dived under the table, got the knife and went for devil (my aunt in devils costume). Lucky they disarmed me before I could do some real damage.
Until about ten years ago I was describing myself as an atheist. Then I had good look on my believes. And I come to conclusion that I’m a hypocrite. I did vehemently deny existence of any god without any proof of it. So I had to modify my worldview and describe myself as Agnostic. I still don’t believe in existence of superior being – but it is just my believe, not the knowledge.
When you are four years old you would not think twice to step on the road in front of 20 tons truck doing 80km/h. As you grow older you will learn what is possible and probable and what is not. Most of it without using any mathematic. It is called common sense. And with ever decreasing exposure to adverse conditions most of today’s society seems to sadly lack of it. As the years go by and our experiences and education accumulate, some of us will develop holistic point of view on the world around us. I do not claim that this point of view is going to be free of bias resulting from our experiences. But worldview of seventy years old person will reflect more accurately workings of world that surround us then point of view of someone who is twenty years old.
I must add that when I was twenty I would vehemently disagree with mayself.