Suppose the short answer is “no”. If one reaches the goal … “Ultimate Wisdom” … who cares how you get there eh! Krishnamurti expressed this sentiment … “Truth is a pathless land”. I understand his intention using the word “Truth” to be synonymous with the term “Ultimate Wisdom”. Though perhaps I err in my understanding.
Nope! yet in the past lots of individuals believed it … I’m thinking of the hermits/monks who took up semi-permanent residence in remote caves.
Seems we agree on this point … today I said as much in a post in the OP “What is prophecy?”
Some readers may be asking … yet again … how does this guy profess to cling to his Catholic faith?
As I mentioned in several posts … it’s my view that Catholic dogma/doctrine is and always has been in a constant state of flux.The changes may have been slow in coming and don’t appear to be linear … change/evolution nonetheless.
Perhaps a watershed moment was the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.
Another change I find myself attracted to was adoption of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception … no doubt in part because this change was the tipping point in the Catholic Church endorsing the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes France in 1858.
Wiki
A ShieldMaiden pointed out a much more recent shift … not yet formalized …
Are you sure there is a truth, an ultimate wisdom?
Does there need to be?
Various theological strains will naturally attempt to adapt to modern science, especially if it is backed by a large amount of evidence, then those strains will find a way to incorporate it into its essence, validating itself continuously as to not break the stronghold it has maintained for several years.
Be careful to not conflate Truth with Wisdom. Wisdom, by definition, is whatever is best to believe. Truth is not necessarily what is best to believe for all people.
That would be RM:AO:Sociology/SAM (Rational Metaphysics:Affectance Ontology:Sociology/Social Anentropic Molecule).
Religion, the retention of the legion (maintaining cohesion of the group), is based upon ordained revelation (realization of a truth), aka “faith in the prophets”. Philosophy is based upon reasoning, and Science was based upon measured empirical evidence. What is required is to merge those concerns into a coherent structure. Rational Metaphysics provides the intellectual means to accomplish that while SAM provides for the social means.
Rational Metaphysics is the combination of Definitional Logic, Scientific Methodology, and Resolution Debating. It is the Resolution Debating that provides for sufficient faith to mend damaged faith as well as ensure good reasoning to have faith.
The end result is that when doubt arises to challenge faith, there is a path of reasoning available that can be verified so as to restore any lost faith. Most of the time, faith is all that is needed or wanted. But blind faith has issues that lead to discontent, disharmony, and disillusion. If a means to verify faith is provided whenever such is required, faith becomes far more sensible because it is being checked against reason.
Such provides wisdom for all concerned, the “best thing to believe”, regardless of endeavor and/or Truth. And it isn’t the same for everyone.
For me … you have once again … through intention or accident … revealed a profound Truth.
Confucius introduced this menace 2,500 years ago in his “Rectification of Names” writings.
Sadly … as yet … we have no better alternative. While experience appears to influence individual consciousness deeper than words … we only have words/images to describe experience(s).
The perhaps very very old … yet still emerging … forms of communication without words … telepathy and collective consciousness … may point to a future alternative.
Same dilemma though … science has yet been unable to verify the authenticity/veracity of these two forms of communication … not that they aren’t trying though … eg. the Princeton Global Consciousness Project.
Perhaps the Biblical notion of Lady Wisdom points in the same direction.
Ah, you are referring to the perception of human decay, makes you feel a little traumatized does it?
One only has to notice it and be aware of it to protect oneself from it, this is enough for any healthy mind… even if it closing in on you, near you and surrounding you, it will not be able to reach you if you remain aware…
However, if by any chance you are possessed with an overwhelming need to help and save people then it may prove to be detrimental to oneself…
and this need, in that direction, may also reveal a lot about you…
If you are healthy then you have all the time a healthy mind and body can naturally have…
Mannikin … your posts are both titillating and vexing. To write so eloquently of such incredibly complex issues you surely have a deep reservoir of rich personal experiences.
Not me … I have a generous … yet selfish … heart.
The notion of time is a human construct and I wrote of it in that sense.
Mannikin, The king of the damned, I knock upon the doors, who is it? but I…who peers into the abyss, the screams, the ideals, the dreams…but it is never good when the tank is empty of the thankless many… Will the room be consumed by your personal doom?
Is a mirror necessary for one to see themselves?
Generosity loses it’s value when it’s holder becomes self-less, similar to love losing its meaning when dispensed to all.
Generosity guarded by selfishness is enough to protect the heart, for this is one of the openings the virus attempts to crawl into and build its nest, taking over the mind and body distancing you from yourself. Generosity guarded by selfishness allows you to acknowledge its value, manifesting as a comprehension of differences…
The virus seeks to delude you that these differences don’t exist.
To the virus, time is a tool, a very useful one, a fertile ground to plant its deceptive seeds, once it takes root to a certain degree, even if the plant develops a flower, its beauty will be overshadowed by it’s thorns…
My discomfort stems largely from the stubbornness of humanity … and I vacillate on that … for a while I see it as stubbornness and later empathy and compassion seeps in … until the scales are removed from their eyes they are as blind as bats.
Eventually I return to my only refuge … patience and humility.