Friend and subscriber Marv emailed a comment on this post, which led to a little back and forth. I reproduce it here in case you may find it at least entertaining (hopefully!) if not actually thought provoking.
FIRST, Marv said: If the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is true (there’s that troublesome word again), then we can never know the truth. And if we can never know the truth, then maybe there is no truth. True?
THEN, I answered: It could be a paradox. If it's true that there is no truth, then isn't that itself a truth? Or maybe there is a truth even if we can't know it. Like an asymptotic limit. We know it's there even though we can never get to it. Like the King of Siam said, "It's a puzzlement."
So, maybe if there is no truth, we have to say that there is no fake news, either. Or maybe there is nothing but fake news! That is, we make it all up, based on our worldviews, our skewed views of what we think of as reality? (See last May's Reality and Truth post.)
What a synchronicity! I published this post two days ago, December 19. Yesterday, Marv and I added the above comments. And now today I experienced a related aha. At a community gathering this morning, the leader recounted the story of the origin of the now famous and oft quoted answer to an 8-year-old child's question about the existence of Santa Claus: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." The child's letter to the editor of the New York Sun was answered in the September 21, 1897, edition of the paper (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030272/1897-09-21/ed-1/?sp=6&q=Yes+Virginia+Santa+Claus&r=-0.05,0.374,0.855,0.389,0).
The gist of the answer was that, of course there is, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Even if you or no one else actually ever sees him, we can't be limited to believing only what we can see, whether with the naked eye or an eye aided by microscopes, telescopes, lab tests, or rigorous scientific controlled experiments. Machinations of the head have limited ability to say much, if anything, definitive about phenomena of the heart. It's like that asymptote in yesterday's comment. We strive to reach it, but we never can - yet we know it's there.
Given all that, could we be saying, "Yes, Virginia, Truth does exist"?
Friend and subscriber Marv emailed a comment on this post, which led to a little back and forth. I reproduce it here in case you may find it at least entertaining (hopefully!) if not actually thought provoking.
FIRST, Marv said: If the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is true (there’s that troublesome word again), then we can never know the truth. And if we can never know the truth, then maybe there is no truth. True?
THEN, I answered: It could be a paradox. If it's true that there is no truth, then isn't that itself a truth? Or maybe there is a truth even if we can't know it. Like an asymptotic limit. We know it's there even though we can never get to it. Like the King of Siam said, "It's a puzzlement."
So, maybe if there is no truth, we have to say that there is no fake news, either. Or maybe there is nothing but fake news! That is, we make it all up, based on our worldviews, our skewed views of what we think of as reality? (See last May's Reality and Truth post.)
What a synchronicity! I published this post two days ago, December 19. Yesterday, Marv and I added the above comments. And now today I experienced a related aha. At a community gathering this morning, the leader recounted the story of the origin of the now famous and oft quoted answer to an 8-year-old child's question about the existence of Santa Claus: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." The child's letter to the editor of the New York Sun was answered in the September 21, 1897, edition of the paper (https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030272/1897-09-21/ed-1/?sp=6&q=Yes+Virginia+Santa+Claus&r=-0.05,0.374,0.855,0.389,0).
The gist of the answer was that, of course there is, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Even if you or no one else actually ever sees him, we can't be limited to believing only what we can see, whether with the naked eye or an eye aided by microscopes, telescopes, lab tests, or rigorous scientific controlled experiments. Machinations of the head have limited ability to say much, if anything, definitive about phenomena of the heart. It's like that asymptote in yesterday's comment. We strive to reach it, but we never can - yet we know it's there.
Given all that, could we be saying, "Yes, Virginia, Truth does exist"?