Re: OT: Subscribing to the Knowledge of the Gods

[Jed Rothwell]

OrionWorks wrote:

Recent exchanges between Mr. Rothwell and Mr. Wesley concerning the 
topic of "Absolute Truth" brings to mind a terrible trap I believe 
we all must be careful not to fall into: Subscribing to the 
Knowledge of the Gods.

Good point. I do not think people are capable of knowing absolute 
truth, and I am not even sure there is such a thing. There is always 
some margin of doubt, although it is small for things like Newton's laws.


Mr. Wesley reminds us that we have recently lived in an age where 
"Atheism used guns to attempt to enforce its will." (Germany, WWII 
and Nazism, of course, comes to mind.)

Actually most Germans in WWII were quite religious, and the soldiers 
all wore belt buckles engraved with the motto, "God is with us." (See 
the movie "Stalingrad.") Some of the German leaders were atheists, 
but so was Winston Churchill for that matter. At least, he said of 
himself privately, "I am not a religious man." Overall, the war 
produced a sharp decline in religious belief and church attendance 
throughout Europe and Japan.

- Jed