{"id":24,"date":"2007-03-24T17:23:16","date_gmt":"2007-03-25T00:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/2007\/03\/24\/bloodlust\/"},"modified":"2007-03-24T17:24:22","modified_gmt":"2007-03-25T00:24:22","slug":"bloodlust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/2007\/03\/24\/bloodlust\/","title":{"rendered":"An argument for Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think that Errol Morris hasa really unique take on the issue of the death penalty.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of citing some of the typical arguments against the death penalty, Errol Morris suggests that people become obsessed with the idea of vengeance.\u00c2\u00a0 In their eagerness to see the prevalence of justice, they become less concerned with the actual facts and evidence of the presented case, and more concerned with simply giving a killer what he\/she deserves.\u00c2\u00a0 In doing so, people end up creating their own facts.\u00c2\u00a0 Morris says that the “need to believe what we want to believe is stronger than our need to understand the truth<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The ability of people to convince themselves of things is absolutely amazing.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the end, there is a set reality.\u00c2\u00a0 W edo not exist inside our own consciousness.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a truth.<\/p>\n

Or is there?<\/p>\n

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I don’t think that I need to.\u00c2\u00a0 I think of it as something akin to Pascal’s Wager.\u00c2\u00a0 For those of you who are not familiar, Pascal’s Wager is an atheist argument for the existence of God.\u00c2\u00a0 According to Pascal, you might as well believe in God, because if you believe in God, and there is a heaven, you can get there, and if there isn’t, no harm done.\u00c2\u00a0 On the downside, if you disbelieve in God, and there is a heaven, you’re screwed.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is a little illustrative diagram:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nGod exists<\/em><\/td>\nGod does not exist<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I believe<\/em><\/td>\nGo To Heaven<\/td>\nNothing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I do not believe<\/em><\/td>\nBurn In Hell!<\/td>\nNothing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The way I see it, we might as well believe that there is a truth, using the same logic as Pascal.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nTruth\u00c2\u00a0exists<\/em><\/td>\nTruth\u00c2\u00a0does not exist (reality is subjective)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I believe in truth<\/em><\/td>\nLife has meaning<\/td>\nLife still has meaning for me, because I believe that it does.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I do not believe\u00c2\u00a0in truth<\/em><\/td>\nMy life is meaningless.<\/td>\nMy life is still meaningless.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Hmm.\u00c2\u00a0 Seems like our lives might make more sense if we believe in truth.\u00c2\u00a0 That is, unless we just want to hang out at the 7\/11 with our slurpees all our lives, in the words of Dr. Campbell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think that Errol Morris hasa really unique take on the issue of the death penalty.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of citing some of the typical arguments against the death penalty, Errol Morris suggests that people become obsessed with the idea of vengeance.\u00c2\u00a0 In their eagerness to see the prevalence of justice, they become less concerned with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/robyn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}