Truth & the Law of Non-Contradiction
Before making any claims about the truth or falsehood of certain propositions, claims or statements, I thought it best to comment upon the nature of truth.
As an aside I hope that such a comment is not taken as pompous as it may sound.
The first thing to say about truth is that it excludes - all truth excludes something else; by definition truth excludes that which is false. If truth is all inclusive, that is if it includes all positions, then that truth is meaningless because every possible proposition is true at the same time (even contradictory ones). Such a perspective is unintelligible. For those of you who have seen the film, The Incredibles, think of it this way: one of the film's themes is that if everyone is "special," then no one is really special. Thus it it cannot be the case that both an Atheist and a Muslim are correct in their views upon the existence of God.
The law of non-contradiction applies to the truth and meaning of any given statement. The law essentially says that a question cannot ellicit two opposite answers. Or, to boil it down even further, that for a statement to be meaningful it cannot be contradictory. Thus if I ask my friend Stacy if she is pregnant, and at the same instant that she says yes her husband says no, I will not say "I see - how wonderful!" I might think that this isn't Stacy, or that she hasn't told him yet, but I would not find their answers meaningful.
This may all seem rather unneccessary, but it will provide a foundation for me later on. Some will argue that both the Christian view is correct, while the Hindu view is also correct simply because they are religious views and thus not governed by the same rules as any other knowledge. But this cannot be the case if any religious dialogue is to be meaningful or significant, or even intelligible. Quite simply, it cannot be the case that God exists and does not exist, or that we only live once but are reborn through the karmic cycle. The bottom line - in a world of disagreeing worldviews, someone must be wrong.
Now, I am not saying that I am going to launch into a tirade about how worthless other religions are, or anything of such an offensive or derogatory nature. As once person once said, at the risk of humor - when you throw mud at others not only do you get your hands dirty, but you also lose a lot of ground.
To the more relevent point - if all truth by definition is exclusive, and the same answer at the same time cannot ellicit two opposite answers, I draw this conclusion - Jesus made a most meaningful statement when he claimed to be the exclusive truth. One can say that Jesus was wrong, but one cannot deny that his claim was a reasonable and meaningful statement.
As an aside I hope that such a comment is not taken as pompous as it may sound.
The first thing to say about truth is that it excludes - all truth excludes something else; by definition truth excludes that which is false. If truth is all inclusive, that is if it includes all positions, then that truth is meaningless because every possible proposition is true at the same time (even contradictory ones). Such a perspective is unintelligible. For those of you who have seen the film, The Incredibles, think of it this way: one of the film's themes is that if everyone is "special," then no one is really special. Thus it it cannot be the case that both an Atheist and a Muslim are correct in their views upon the existence of God.
The law of non-contradiction applies to the truth and meaning of any given statement. The law essentially says that a question cannot ellicit two opposite answers. Or, to boil it down even further, that for a statement to be meaningful it cannot be contradictory. Thus if I ask my friend Stacy if she is pregnant, and at the same instant that she says yes her husband says no, I will not say "I see - how wonderful!" I might think that this isn't Stacy, or that she hasn't told him yet, but I would not find their answers meaningful.
This may all seem rather unneccessary, but it will provide a foundation for me later on. Some will argue that both the Christian view is correct, while the Hindu view is also correct simply because they are religious views and thus not governed by the same rules as any other knowledge. But this cannot be the case if any religious dialogue is to be meaningful or significant, or even intelligible. Quite simply, it cannot be the case that God exists and does not exist, or that we only live once but are reborn through the karmic cycle. The bottom line - in a world of disagreeing worldviews, someone must be wrong.
Now, I am not saying that I am going to launch into a tirade about how worthless other religions are, or anything of such an offensive or derogatory nature. As once person once said, at the risk of humor - when you throw mud at others not only do you get your hands dirty, but you also lose a lot of ground.
To the more relevent point - if all truth by definition is exclusive, and the same answer at the same time cannot ellicit two opposite answers, I draw this conclusion - Jesus made a most meaningful statement when he claimed to be the exclusive truth. One can say that Jesus was wrong, but one cannot deny that his claim was a reasonable and meaningful statement.
posted by Brian at 9:15 PM
0 comments
