Life is a game of chance...

esuhl

TruckerT wrote: »

Not long ago, black people were inferior to white, and homosexuals were perverts

That is no longer the truth

It never was the truth. It seems true that some (many?) people had such beliefs, but that doesn't make the belief true.

Essentially, we make sense of the world through abstract concepts (such as night and day, for example), yet those concepts don't necessarily have a clear correlation with reality. (In objective reality, there is no "night and day", just stellar and planetary objects casting light and shade.)

So sometimes we use the word "true" incorrectly as a way of saying "It's as close an approximation as is necessary; you get the gist" or "I'm so sure, I can't even be bothered to think about the possibility that I'm wrong", such as in the statement "The sun will rise tomorrow morning". Surely it's possible (however incredibly unlikely) that it might not. Or that the abstract concept of a "sunrise" is so objectively unintelligible that it would be impossible to say that such a statement could be true (i.e logically Boolean) in any case.

The only truths we can ever know are tautologies (e.g. "a square has four sides").

purch

Closed for 7 hours due to a truck dumping diesel all over the carriageway

I very much doubt the driver of the vehicle was culpable.

dtsazza

TruckerT wrote: »

esuhl wrote:

We exist in a twilight world in the grey area between certainty and randomness where our decisions can only be based on our best guess of the probabilistic outcomes.

That sounds like the perfect breeding ground for extremism

On the contrary, it sounds like life.

If anything, it suggests that those who become extremists do so with a (voluntary or otherwise) decision to shut out the shades of grey, and wish to impose their blinkered view of such a subtle and varied world on everyone else.

TruckerT

esuhl wrote: »

truth is, by definition, er... true. It's just that we end up "blowing in the wind" in our quest to find it

if truth is, by definition, er.... true, then why do forums like this exist?

it used to be 'true' that the earth was flat, and that hanging was a fair way to deal with convicted murderers

neither of those things remains true

TruckerT

TruckerT

dtsazza wrote: »

those who become extremists do so with a (voluntary or otherwise) decision to shut out the shades of grey, and wish to impose their blinkered view of such a subtle and varied world on everyone else.

yep, that's the way it has always worked, and it will work again when 'everyone else' loses hope, faith and charity

truckerT

OptionARMAGEDDON

TruckerT wrote: »

I agree with most of what you say, but truth does vary with time

Not long ago, black people were inferior to white, and homosexuals were perverts

That is no longer the truth

TruckerT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_Global_Inequality

IveSeenTheLight

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Its more like the game of Risk or Monopoly

Both good games, but isn't it more like Game of Life

kabayiri

Speaking of chance.

A while back I read this book :-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Luck-Would-Have-Incredible-Lightning/dp/0340832797/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320915605&sr=1-1

It is interesting to read about luck/chance/fortune, whatever you choose to call it. People have a number of misconceptions about what luck is.

As rational beings we try and find 'cause' in many things.

bendix

TruckerT wrote: »

I think it was quite by chance that the banks discovered their absolute power to bring down a capitalist economy

I think it was quite by chance that the anti-capitalist protestors discovered their potential to bring down a major component of the UK Establishment

I think it is quite by chance that we are discovering the impotence of our leaders to deal with our current woes

I think it is a matter of chance as to which form of extremism will succeed in 'filling the void'

TruckerT

I think it's quite a certainty that you're a bit of an idiot.

Rotor

TruckerT wrote: »

if truth is, by definition, er.... true, then why do forums like this exist?

it used to be 'true' that the earth was flat, and that hanging was a fair way to deal with convicted murderers

neither of those things remains true

TruckerT

I think you are confusing 'truth' with 'belief'
You would make a fine politician; they always start with "It is right that........."