Facts about Truths

Homer Simpson said it best when he said, "Facts? You can prove any crazy idea with 'facts'!" They were trying to be funny, but it is oddly true. More often than not two opposite parties an look at the same data, pull facts from it and use those to support opposing ideas.

Maybe, but I'm pretty sure MY facts are the factiest.

Charles Tarnard wrote:Maybe, but I'm pretty sure MY facts are the factiest.

THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTE TRUTHS!

R Scott wrote:THERE ARE NO ABSOLUTE TRUTHS!

Of course there are. We call them Reality. Whether anyone knows any is another question.

Thank You Kindly,
Topher

Facts are wonderful. I love them.
You can twist them any way you want, to get the results you want.
You can't do that with any old lie.

The actual quote is: "Facts are meaningless… you can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true. Facts, shmacts."

I am a die-hard early Simpsons fan.

The question is, "which facts have the most truthiness?"
John S
PDX OR

I absolutely LOVE this. I came across a paper I wrote freshman year of college and it began something along the lines of "Reality. Who gets to define it or say it even exists?" or something like that! Ha! I mean I was obviously questioning a lot considering I had just left home and was discarding everything I had been taught, but I really still love thinking about this sort of thing. Who does define reality? I like thinking about it in regards to people that get diagnosed with schizophrenia. We call them abnormal, but their reality is just different than the "norm", whoever the fuck decided what that got to be. It is all just a matter of different perspectives, I think.

I think Einstein's Theory of Relativity is relevant to this because in a way, everything can be relative depending on the perspectives used.

Dave Burton wrote:I think Einstein's Theory of Relativity is relevant to this because in a way, everything can be relative depending on the perspectives used.

I often wonder if my perspective is moving towards crazy, or if I'm stationary and crazy is moving towards my perspective. Maybe I'm both right.

Cassie Langstraat wrote:I absolutely LOVE this. I came across a paper I wrote freshman year of college and it began something along the lines of "Reality. Who gets to define it or say it even exists?" or something like that! Ha! I mean I was obviously questioning a lot considering I had just left home and was discarding everything I had been taught, but I really still love thinking about this sort of thing. Who does define reality? I like thinking about it in regards to people that get diagnosed with schizophrenia. We call them abnormal, but their reality is just different than the "norm", whoever the fuck decided what that got to be. It is all just a matter of different perspectives, I think.

But sometimes their reality suggests that people in our reality should get hurt or killed. Otherwise I think many would be happy to let their reality be.

I've been struggling to find a picture to illustrate, and I'm far too un-artistic to make one, but I always imagined as though we were all living on the surface of a sphere, and what we know is like a circle around us.

Our own circle looks perfectly round and complete. But if we look over to our neighbours circle, his one looks a bit, well, not quite round. And as for those people right over there, their circle is looking decidedly squooshed up. And by the time you half way around the globe, those people right at the 'edge' practically have straight lines instead of circles, and I can't even begin to imagine what might be on the other side of the sphere of which I am so obviously right at the centre.


This is the best image I can find, found here.

Charles Tarnard wrote:
But sometimes their reality suggests that people in our reality should get hurt or killed. Otherwise I think many would be happy to let their reality be.

Oh I know, but SO many instances occur where they just start seeing things, not harmful things, and then everyone around them chastises them and essentially kicks them out of their lives if they don't choose to get medicated. I think that happens because people are just scared of the idea of different realities. And that makes me sad. It makes me sad that those people get pushed out of their jobs and families just because they see the world differently.

This is getting a little off topic, but seeing as it's my own thread, and it's in meaningless drivel, I'd like to share this video which was recommended to me today by a friend of mine who's doing research into the genetics of psychosis and non-drug threrapies for psychosis. She's also one of those few people who has successfully overcome a severe psychosis without medication, so she has a very personal interest in the subject, as well as a personal understanding of what it's like.



If you don't have time to listen to the whole thing, here's the bottom line...

"What the science is telling us today is that, actually, one of the most powerful interventions we have in helping people with severe mental illness is kindness."

Burra Maluca wrote:

This is so true!!!

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Burra Maluca wrote:

This is so true!!!

This video sums it up!