Fact and Fantasy

FACT AND FANTASY

Humans have developed a system for using their minds to distinguish fact from fantasy. We call it science, and it includes math, physics, chemistry, geology and astronomy. Information gathered by these methods can be demonstrated and replicated, always with the same results, unequivocal. We all know from experience
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Free Thinking Behooves Us All

Albert Schweitzer is reported to have said, “Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now, always, and indeed then most truly when it seems most unsuitable to actual circumstances.”

Since I see truth as not an absolute but an ever expanding manner of observing all existence, I would offer a slightly different expression by substituting the word “inquiry” for “truth”: Inquiry has no special time of its own. Its hour is now, always, and indeed then when it seems most unsuitable to actual circumstances.

In Search of Truth: Distinguishing Reality From Fantasy

In a world in which its inhabitants rely so heavily on fantasy and myth to supply answers to the eternal questions of (1) who are we?, (2) from whence did we come?, (3) where are we going?, it behooves us to be skeptics if we wish to arrive at anything resembling the truth.

All of the efforts to encourage pluralism, tolerance and cooperation are steps in the right direction. The question is: can we have a society (world) which provides liberty and equal treatment for all when we have such diverse fantasies and deem our particular fantasy to be the right one? Can we have diverse fantasies and still protect individual rights?

The historical record is that our differing fantasies have caused us to engage in much strife, e.g. the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the Protestant Reformation, witch hunts and court battles which endure to the present day. Shouldn’t we consider living without such fantasies and admitting that we actually don’t know the answers? This would at least give us fewer reasons to mistreat each other.