Is it reasonable to expect ultimate truth to be self evident?
Many religions seemed to be based on hidden 'truths' revealed to a specific person or culture, rather on things that are self evident to all. And much of theology seems to be excuses made by humans for the erratic behavior or lack of action on the part of their deities.
I tend to feel the more explaining a group has to do for why their deity doesn't show themselves or use their power, the less credibility they have.
Is it reasonable of me to expect ultimate truth to be self evident rather than needing a lot of people and mind bending to explain itself?
I know there are lots of things in the Universe we can't see or sense with our normal senses, are these hidden supernatural truths just an extension of these?
2008-07-26T07:12:36Z
These are really interesting answers, thanks all, you are giving me a lot of great food for thought! I appreciate everyone giving such thoughtful responses.
neil s2008-07-26T04:56:34Z
Favorite Answer
What is "self evident" will depend on what modes of experience are common place in a society, and what modes of thinking are common for interpretation. Since the formal logical aspects of most society's thinking roughly matches, we must look to their ways of experiencing the world to see why their claims are made. Now, it may turn out that certain ways of experiencing extend our senses in a positive way (microscopes, telescopes, etc.) or in a negative way (alcohol, narcotics, etc.). If the former, those experiential methods can be brought within the framework of science and evaluated for both content and meaning. So, each case of where your question will apply requires an empirical solution, not a priori theorizing.
It is reasonable to expect a simple explanation, but there is nothing that requires no explanation. How can you answer a question of this magnitude without explanation? "How did the Universe begin?--Yes."
Now to your individual questions/thoughts...
"much of theology seems to be excuses made by humans for the erratic behavior or lack of action on the part of their deities." I can't speak for all theology, but I can speak for the Christian faith. Everything in the Bible can be explained in a few commandments: Love God above all, love your neighbor as yourself, and go share the Good News of Christ. At least the second should be "self-evident"... I don't know what definition you're using, but it seems straightforward without theology. The first and third go hand in hand - if you truly love and serve God above all, you will want to spread his message. I started seeing the whole Bible in a different light when I started viewing it like this...
"The more explaining a group has to do for why their deity doesn't show themselves or use their power, the less credibility they have" Okay, fair enough. Again, for Christianity: God doesn't show his omnipotence completely because that would be pointless. What's more satisfying for you, coming home to a dog who greets you enthusiastically out of his own free will, or coming home to a robot that you'd programmed to greet you? Obviously the first, because the dog is CHOOSING to love you. If God forced us all to do his will and be perfect humans, that would basically be creating robots. And what's really the point in that? In choices we have our freedom. This doesn't seem too complicated to me...
"Is it reasonable of me to expect ultimate truth to be self evident rather than needing a lot of people and mind bending to explain itself?" What do you mean by "Ultimate truth"? There is no one magic answer to everything. Douglas Adams parodied this idea in one of his 'hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' novels, in saying that the answer to life, the universe and everything was 42. Everything that is, is true. This is a weird thought... but it was a weird question...
"I know there are lots of things in the Universe we can't see or sense with our normal senses, are these hidden supernatural truths just an extension of these?" Be careful of this question. Many of things you can't see or sense have just not been explained by science yet. As someone mentioned earlier, lightning striking the ground was once a mystery... but we now know why it occurs. Just because science has explained this phenomenon does not mean, however, that science can explain all phenomenons. But don't fall into the trap that, when you hear a new answer to something, assuming that because of an explanation for A, we don't need a god for B.
Ultimate truth is only incredibly elegant in retrospect!
The only perfect science is prior knowledge!
Lightning strikes the ground. Why? We know now! But once upon a time we did not! And it wa as a result of a LOT of hard work and some incredibly great ideas that we eventually worked that out.
To the ecumenical matter: It is a search for an easy explanation that people turn to Religion. Dawkins states that God lives in gaps. And as our knowledge grows by the day, the gaps get smaller...
NOTHING, I say it again, NOTHING is supernatural - you just don't understand it yet. Lightning was once thought to be supernatural.
Religion that avoids questions tends to be unreliable. religions that make excuses are the same.
Now finding an ultimate truth is about a realization. Of course it is self evident, but one needs to be led there, one cannot be taken there. if someone sits down and tells you the ultimate truth, you will not hear it, because you hear words through the filters you have that have been created through your experiences. If I show you "the truth" you do not see "the truth" you, at best, see my truth filtered through your perceptions.
Forget about finding truth in an external source, look inside and see what you can find. An externalized truth is not a truth, for if you are not there, how can it be?
The truth is self evident to all, but can you see it?
The ultimate truth is very self evident but it is not possible to know that! If you knew then you would be called self realized! It is like an ant compared to this universe! Can the ant understand how big is the universe so the great people said that search for the universe within!!!!!I believe they said the kingdom of heaven is within you! The search for truth is the only ultimate goal or whatever u desire to know!