Re: virus: Belief and Knowledge (was: The truth about faith)
Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Mon, 30 Jun 1997 09:36:00 +0100
David McFadzean wrote:
>
> I've been giving this quite a bit of thought this past week, trying to
come up with
> a good response to Prof. Tim's message about if and when faith is
justified (the
> terminal illness scenario). I came to the same conclusion, that it can
have a good
> effect in the situation where there is a possibility of a
self-fulfilling prophecy.
> The place where I get stuck is in trying to figure out the mindset of
the person
> after they have succeeded believing what is not true (or at least what
the evidence
> does not support). Would they say "I know it is not true, but I
believe it anyway"
> or would they say "I know it is true because ..." and provide some
bogus reason, or
> would they say "I don't need a reason, I just *know* it is true",
or...?
"If I have sufficient faith in it, it will come true."
Robin