LET'S TALK ABOUT . . .



                                     FAITHFULLY YOUR'S . . . ABSOLUTELY YOUR'S


I want to thank those of you who are reading and responding to these blogs.  Your comments and questions are deeply appreciated and respected.  I hope to respond to many of them in the days to come.  To do so, however, without laying a foundation and creating a context from which my responses can be considered would seem ineffective and unbeneficial in the bigger picture.  So hang on to your questions.  Do not weary of the journey.  It is good for us to wrestle with issues that have the potential of changing our lives!

In the previous two blogs our capacity for deception, even by our own perceptual realities, has been set forth for your consideration.  As well, the consideration that we may have swung too far into a relativistic trend since the twentieth century to claim intellectual integrity regarding absolutes has been set forth.  The conclusion thus far is that as limited finite human beings we need to seek an external plumb line to anchor us and explore possible solutions to extremely complex issues in these turbulent times. 

Continuing forward, it would seem logical to argue that the external plumb line humanity needs is an absolute one.  That, however, is going to be left for the next blog, Absolutely Your's, which will deal with issues of "authority."  One need only listen to the news to realize that the world is in the midst of multiple authority crises.  Some days one wonders if there are any authorities worthy of an investment of trust, especially in light of all the exposures and scandals at the highest levels of authority around the world.  How do we know it is an endeavor worthy of our energy to invest any measure of trust in a given authority figure or structure?  Knowing and trusting are integrally linked and we are living in the midst authority and trust crises.   More . . . next time.

It is logically prior to consider here what is known as "epistemology," which deals with how we know what we know.  At any given moment we are bombarded both from internal and external sources.  We referred to this in the second blog.  This blog and the next one, then, are going to raise  questions regarding how do we know what we know and how do we know it is true, worthy of our trust.  If what we know is in fact not true then we are deliberately trusting an untruth, selectively choosing to invest trust anyway not caring if it is true or we may be deceived.

There is more than one way in which we know and process all that comes into our lives for consideration.  We as individuals know what we know cognitively, emotionally, perceptually, intuitively, relationally and existentially, to mention only a few.  We know what we know through many different and varied processes in which we engage consciously or unconsciously.  We are the synthesis of many internal and external forces that come to bear on us at any given moment.  In the final analysis we are left to invest belief and trust in something on some internal/external basis.

Have you ever thought about how you know what you know?  Or, how you know what you know is true?  Can you agree that in the final analysis it comes down to a belief and a choice to invest trust?
Does that shed any light on why relativism has taken many down roads of confusion, disillusioned and disheartened as to whether we can ever really know or trust anyone or anything with absolute confidence?  Many have been left enraged or hopeless, adrift without an anchor!  How confident are you in what you know and why you know it is true?

Until next time . . . this is, Just Janice!