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Can't both be right?
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2026 10:40 pm
by MikeNovack
I've seen it expressed here, that if person A has beliefs about the divine, and person B has beliefs about the divine, and these beliefs are mutually contradictory, the following is certain ......... both can be false, one can be false and the other true, but both cannot be true.
Really? Let me tell you a story about a group of blind men and an elephant << text of story omitted --- if you don't already know the story you can easily find it on the web >>
What is this story about? EXACTLY THIS QUESTION. The story is a parable explaining of how/why we humans have such differing understanding of the divine. That the divine is so vast, and our ability to see/perceive it so limited, we can all have true, but contradictory versions.
Re: Can't both be right?
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2026 10:50 pm
by Immanuel Can
MikeNovack wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2026 10:40 pm
I've seen it expressed here, that if person A has beliefs about the divine, and person B has beliefs about the divine, and these beliefs are mutually contradictory, the following is certain ......... both can be false, one can be false and the other true, but both cannot be true.
Really? Let me tell you a story about a group of blind men and an elephant << text of story omitted --- if you don't already know the story you can easily find it on the web >>
It's soooo...silly. Are you seriously going to trot that one out again? It's so old, and so debunked.
The "six blind men from Hindustan" are all grabbing
different parts of the elephant. Not the same parts, and saying opposite things: different parts. And none of them is grabbing the whole. They're not contradicting at all, so don't represent any demonstration of the Law of Non-Contradiction.
Let's try this again. Here are three statements.
1. There is one God.
2. There are multiple/many gods.
3. There are not gods, and not God.
These exhaust the possibilities, rationally speaking. There are no more. And they are, as per Aristotle, genuinely contradictory, genuinely opposite.
Now, how many can be true?
Re: Can't both be right?
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2026 11:15 pm
by MikeNovack
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2026 10:50 pm
Let's try this again. Here are three statements.
1. There is one God.
2. There are multiple/many gods.
3. There are not gods, and not God.
These exhaust the possibilities, rationally speaking. There are no more. And they are, as per Aristotle, genuinely contradictory, genuinely opposite.
Now, how many can be true?
Well first of all, a minor correction. When you wrote "There is one God" you meant to write "There is exactly one God".
No, the story is about the reality that limited by our perceptual limitations, we can at best perceive the divine as exactly one god, more than one gods, or no gods.
Are you really willing to commit that THE DIVINE cannot at the same time be one God, many gods, or no gods? Explain to me what you mean by "The Trinity".
Re: Can't both be right?
Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2026 11:22 pm
by FlashDangerpants
MikeNovack wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2026 10:40 pm
I've seen it expressed here, that if person A has beliefs about the divine, and person B has beliefs about the divine, and these beliefs are mutually contradictory, the following is certain ......... both can be false, one can be false and the other true, but both cannot be true.
Really? Let me tell you a story about a group of blind men and an elephant << text of story omitted --- if you don't already know the story you can easily find it on the web >>
What is this story about? EXACTLY THIS QUESTION. The story is a parable explaining of how/why we humans have such differing understanding of the divine. That the divine is so vast, and our ability to see/perceive it so limited, we can all have true, but contradictory versions.
I think you've misunderstood by way of a misplaced word. You should have written
mutually exclusive really rather than just
contradictory. The parable of the blind men describing an elephant with regards only to the small portion of it that each can feel is not a counter to the principle of bivalence found in the
Law of Excluded Middle.
Re: Can't both be right?
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2026 2:05 am
by Immanuel Can
MikeNovack wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2026 11:15 pm
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2026 10:50 pm
Let's try this again. Here are three statements.
1. There is one God.
2. There are multiple/many gods.
3. There are not gods, and not God.
These exhaust the possibilities, rationally speaking. There are no more. And they are, as per Aristotle, genuinely contradictory, genuinely opposite.
Now, how many can be true?
Well first of all, a minor correction. When you wrote "There is one God" you meant to write "There is exactly one God".
"Only," you mean? I think that was evident, was it not?
...limited by our perceptual limitations...
No, no...the statements are ontological, not epistemological. We're not asking what people know, we're asking, what is the case? It's about the truth, not about perception.
Now, before we move on, answer the question. Now that you understand the three claims, how many of them can be true?
Re: Can't both be right?
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2026 2:32 am
by popeye1945
Truth is experience, and always true to the biology doing the experiencing, until it is tested by a group or collective of biological subjects that do not agree with the individual biology's conclusion. Two differing biologies can differ, and both can be right according to their individual biologies, for again, experience/truth is always true to the biology doing the experiencing, and can only be found true or false through further biological evaluations. Remember, biological consciousness measures and gives meaning to all things.