Second Post
Some Basics of Drawing Valid Conclusions
A grace-filled Pentecost Saturday, y'all!
I'm the kid of Ukrainian WWII refugees, and grew up bilingual, bicultural, and biritual. Growing up, I faced the necessity of integrating outlooks that were contradictory in various aspects. This encouraged me, to prevent schizophrenia, to think outside the box, and to question narratives unless they had a solid foundation. The goal was integration into a harmonious whole in tune with the Gospel.
So, some unsolicited, but necessary advice:
1.) Do your homework!! (Teacher's motto: “No assignment too big, no grade too small!” 🤣) Do not simply let others do thinking for you that you could have done yourself. Thinking requires effort and, more importantly requires the next two items.
2.) Build a data set. Thinking about a particular subject, issue, theory, outlook, etc. requires information. Quality information. From reliable sources, including your own eyes, ears, etc. That takes some effort. (Do your homework! 😉)
3.) Paradigm! It's the mental framework that makes sense of your data set. Every paradigm has a set of assumptions supporting it. Make sure the assumptions upholding your paradigm are valid, i.e., grounded in reality. That takes effort, too. (Requires: homework! 😁)
4.) Truth is accessible to anyone who honestly seeks it. It is not the exclusive domain of professors, lawyers, bishops, politicians, grownups, etc. (There are innocent small children out there who put prideful Ph.D.s to shame.) So don't allow a high-falutin’ personage gaslight or shame you into denying what you know is reality: if they want to contradict you, they need to show actual evidence, not their diploma, black belt, crown, stock portfolio, etc.
5.) Metaphysics. The study of being/existence. A few items (not an exhaustive list) worth knowing:
— Principle of Noncontradiction: a dog cannot simultaneously be a slime mold (the latter in its full chocolate brown beauty currently fruiting out of a rotting log by my front door).
— Matter. Aka stuff.
— Form. What organizes matter into an object, living or not.
— Soul. The immaterial something that organizes matter into a living organism. It is a form.
— Animal soul/plant soul. Self-explanatory. Perishes when the critter or plant dies.
— Human soul. Self-explanatory, BUT…immortal. Why? Bc it has the non-time-/non-matter-bound abilities called free will and intellect. I.e., it can decide to act apart from external/internal influences, plus it can abstract from concrete sense data and come up with new things. So when a human dies, his soul persists…like forever.
So, with the above tools in our mental tool belt, we can actually tackle assorted questions.
My bailiwick is Great Flood Geology.
Stay tuned!
Our Mother of Perpetual Help, aid us!
Ademar