How do you know what you know is true?

[Big_Dummy]

This question has to do with your theory of knowledge from whatever background you may come from. There are those who claims that the Bible is all we need to know. How do you know that? Others claims that completed revelation is in the koran or book of mormon, how do you know? And, what if you are wrong? Others point to Tradition and the church, again how do you know?

This topic is intended to be general in scope, feel free to address bible alone & knowledge, your source of revelations and knowledge, or Tradition and the Church and knowledge in a new thread with link in this one to it.

Thanks all
BD

 

[JRKH]

I know, by how any item relates to Love.

Christ tells us, in Matthew’s Gospel that, not only is Love the Greatest of the commandments, it is the touchstone by which we need to interpret everything else.
Mt 22:36-40 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, " YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Can there be any clearer and simpler guide??

Look at how Love relates to other things. Love always builds up, it never tears down.
St Paul, in 1 Cor 13 says it better than anyone else ever has.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

**4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. **

8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love - That which builds, That which guides, That whic supports all good things is my touchstone for Truth.

Peace
James

 

[judechild]

Hi,

Catholics believe both the world and God are intellegible, meaning that we can come to a knowledge of both through reason unaided by Revelation; there are a number of arguments that give evidence for a Supreme Creator.

Going from there, the question becomes whether that Creator is personal, hence the various religions of the world. Without Revelation, we would not be able to know if God is personal, because He is transcendent; if He wants us to know Him, He must reveal Himself; this makes sense, if you think of how we come to know of anything. We can come to know almost everything about a rock; an animal is more complex; to get to know a human is a two-way street, but for Beings which are above our comprehension the initiative must be on the Higher Being.

I can argue for you that the Revelation that the Church teaches is true, but it is by working backwards. The Catholic Church is quite vulnerable; if one dogma is incorrect, she does not teach the truth, and you should look for God elsewhere.

You have a very broad topic; do you have any specific questions?

 

[FightingFat]

This question has to do with your theory of knowledge from whatever background you may come from. There are those who claims that the Bible is all we need to know. How do you know that? Others claims that completed revelation is in the koran or book of mormon, how do you know? And, what if you are wrong? Others point to Tradition and the church, again how do you know?

This topic is intended to be general in scope, feel free to address bible alone & knowledge, your source of revelations and knowledge, or Tradition and the Church and knowledge in a new thread with link in this one to it.

Thanks all
BD

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_15101998_fides-et-ratio_en.htm

A big part of what it is all about is finding out what it’s all about!!!

Look at it this way. Are not these our questions: Who am I? Where am I going? What shall I do to put my life in order?

There is incredible joy in the truth, there is recognition when you hear it, when you feel it, when it just sits right and you know it is the truth. The utter joy of being delivered, the joy
of knowing God’s will—For His will is our truth and therefore our way; it is what all men are looking for. The more you find out about God, the clearer everything gets and the better you feel. That doesn’t mean bad stuff doesn’t happen t you anymore, it just means you can handle it when it does!