----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 7:38
PM
Subject: [TruthTalk] POLYANYI
I suppose you got the point of Newbigin --
He was criticizing the dualisms present in the
scientific model and not endorsing them.
Faith is inferior to knowledge only if there is
indeed a gap between the mind (the home of faith)
and the real world (the object of study, the
place where certainty dwells).
jt: Newbigin must be an
unbeliever also because the mind is not the home of faith.
Faith resides in the
heart... One may have a heart of faith or an evil heart of
unbelief.
If the gap is real, then "faith" is subjective
and falls under the category of private opinion,
and "knowledge" is objective, falling under the
heading of public truth.
jt: Would you say
that Abraham was full of "private opinion" and walked in public
truth?
This dualism disappears when we realize that
the gap is itself an illusion of our mind,
a trick played upon ourselves when we think of
knowledge as a picture of reality. Faith and
knowledge are compatible because both involve a
participation with reality.
jt: Whose reality would this
be?
Rather than competing one against the other
for fealty and affection the two integrate
and work together, each bolstering the
other.
jt: Faith rests in the promise of an unseen God who is
Spirit. What does this have
to do with "public truth" and
what exactly is public truth? judyt
In a
message dated 3/25/2004 10:38:58 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Locke's famous definition, belief is 'a persuasion which
falls short of knowledge.' Certainty is a matter of knowledge, not of
faith.
If we understand that persuasion and certainty are
the same, these statements contradict. From my point of view,
the first is much closer to the truth than the latter. I "know" this
to be true because of Paul's use of the concept of faith, especially in
Romans 14. The vegetarian's teaching was wrong, hence he
is the "weak brother," but he is directed by Paul not
to violate his faith, inaccurate as it was.
John
Smithson