How do we discern what is true?

[Seekingthetruth]

what reason is there to think that death is an ontological necessity?

Or even that reality is reality itself is necessary

 

[annad347]

After all we could just as easily have been born into a reality where people don’t die

That was the original plan.

 

[o_mlly]

Christians, find a small object and hold it in front of you. What are you more confident in:

1. When you let go of that object, it will fall.
2. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

How does a human person come to know the truth? Humans, cognizant beings with an unconquerable curiosity about everything, possess the faculties—senses, intellect, imagination and reason—to come to know the world that is outside ourselves. My faculties do a better job at finding the truth in the physical world than the truth in the spiritual realm. The duality I suggest here is not ontological but epistemological. I am better equipped to grasp the reality of rocks than the reality of God. For the latter, I must depend on the grace of revelation.

While I may never claim with finality the truth of my experiential knowledge, I can elevate its probability as truth by successive failures to disprove it. In this way, perduring knowledge, knowledge that stands the test of time, approaches truth.

But only a mystical wisdom can hope to wrap itself around Mystery. Mystical and theological wisdom, grounded in faith rather than experience, possess an intrinsic superiority to metaphysical wisdom. I am more certain of theological wisdom than metaphysical wisdom, and of mystical wisdom than theological wisdom (Maritain, Existence 139)

Maritain, Jacques. Existence and the Existent. New York: Knopf, 1961.

 

[Dan_Defender]

1. When you let go of that object, it will fall.

This is an observable, repeatable physics experiment. Our senses can perceive this. We live in a physical world, so of course we can confidently assert this.

1. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

This requires faith. It is not observable/repeatable and cannot be perceived by our senses. We have to rely on the Tradition and deposit of faith passed down to us. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe. Only the faithful can confidently assert this.