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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark Chance" data-source="post: 1306748" data-attributes="member: 2795">Your scenario is an interesting thought experiment, but it has no relation to things as they really are. The moment a thing or a truth ceases to be perceived, it does not cease to be. That is the fact, or (at least) it is safely claimed to be the fact since no one can demonstrate otherwise.People who honestly believe otherwise (that things that are real are not real in and of themselves) have an annoying tendency to be either sociopaths or university professors. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />Your assertion assumes without demonstration that all religious and/or moral truths can be arrived at solely through the use of human reason. Most religious traditions reject this assumption. If it is posited that some religious/moral truths can be arrived through the use of human reason, but that others require the use of human reason in conjunction with something else (i.e., divine revelation, faith, et cetera), then variations in the various dogmas and moral conclusions of different religions is entirely explicable.Your assertion also assumes without demonstration that all truth must be arrived at in this lifetime. This is also an assumption that most religious traditions reject. Most religious traditions instead say, basically, that all who honestly and faithfully seek truth will find truth...in this life or the next.What's more, it can be amply demonstrated that in terms of moral conclusions, there is an amazing, indeed universal, set of conclusions that flow from religious inquiry. There are variations, to be sure, but those variations are often due to category errors.For example, "we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal" is a philosophical statement based on a specific religion's moral conclusions (but is also a claim is made by every major world religion, albeit in different words). Unfortunately, in the 18th century, even the brightest often made category errors about who were "men." For reasons based on culture rather than clear and honest thinking, certain groups who are quite obviously "men" were excluded: women, Africans, Jews, Catholics, et cetera.</blockquote>

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