this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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I don't think he doesn't exist. I simply don't know. Anyways, the question of whether he exists or not isn't even what keeps me up at night. It's which god is which, and where did they come from. Yahweh, Allah... etc. Yahweh's origins seem to be unknown. Are they the same deities? Who was Jesus, and why was his depiction so different compared to Yahweh, the OT god. Yahweh was depicted as a god of war, while Jesus preached love and forgiveness. Aren't they supposed to be one? Gnostic texts say otherwise. Why was the church so fixated on censoring and persecuting Gnositcs in the 2nd century? And what about their alleged connections to the Knights Templar? Although, this is speculation. There's just so many questions. You'll find out just how complicated this stuff is once you dive into it. It's why I said that it's not as simple and straightforward as it's made to look.
Yes, history and theology are indeed quite fascinating.
How would we go about differentiating fact from imagination?
It's very hard considering that the knowledge is decentralized unlike mainstream religion. What I've been advised to do, is consider the origins and context of what you're looking at first, compare it with other documents, analyze your observations, use critical thinking, talk to people who are researching the same things, and overall, just keep an open mind. That doesn't mean that you accept everything. It means that you should just consider the possibility.
It's not hard and it doesn't have anything to do with being decentralized. In science we have a very robust mechanism for separating imagination from reality. I'd be happy to explain what it is to you if you'd like. It's the reason we have satellites and are able to have this conversation. :)
Your method on the other hand does not convince me. You said "analyze your observations, use critical thinking, talk to people who are researching the same things" etc. Let's say two persons meet to determine the truth about a matter. They each use:
but they come to opposite conclusions on a topic. So qualifiers alone are clearly not enough. It's missing a fundamental piece that's essential to differentiating if a hypothesis is true or false. Do you know what I'm referring to?
Yes, I know. It's also really hard because we're mostly dealing with just really old texts, and word of mouth. Take for example the emerald tablets of Hermes Trismegistus. A popular alchemical text from thousands of years ago. They have been translated into a wide range of languages from Ancient Greek, to Arabic. The original tablets are lost. With every translation, it got misinterpreted, and misunderstood. In some cultures, some things in the tablet were not accepted, so they got omitted. For example, the transmutation of metals into gold or silver. Adding on how most alchemists like to use coded language when writing instructions, your left with a mess of translations that say different things from each other, with no way of telling which is the most correct translation.
You're not tracking the conversation. I understand historiography is hard. That's not what we're discussing. I'm not talking about historical research.
I'm talking about a way to differentiate between imagination and reality. We have a robust methodology in science to accomplish this. It's very clear and works. Can you guess what I'm talking about?