Question for Atheists

Originally posted by scottishinnz
You should stop trying to equate the two.

Are there any facts that are absolutely true?

Originally posted by dj2becker
Would you say the statement 'life evolved from non-life' is the absolute truth?

I believe it is.

Originally posted by twhitehead
To assume that a particular strategy is 'perfect' just because it evolved is a fallacy. For example elephants evolved a large size because it benefited them, however as circumstances change so does the cost/benefit. Thus their large size could become a burden resulting in their extinction. Similarly humans evolved intelligence, which has so far clearly be ...[text shortened]... the point where it no longer is, and it would then either evolve away or result in extinction.

That's pretty much the point I was getting at.

Addition: That and the fact that all human ingenuity comes from the
brain which is subject to mutation between generations like any other
physical property, which would explain how come we seem so special in
relation to what we know about the rest of the animal kingdom, where the
capacity for abstract thinking hasn't been as big a necessity for survival as
for humans.

Originally posted by twhitehead
I believe it is.

And you believe this because of what?

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are there any facts that are absolutely true?

Yes. But that says nothing about right and wrong, because they are not facts.

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are there any facts that are absolutely true?

No. Facts, as opposed to relations of ideas in a Humean sense, are observable, contingent, emprircal entities. As such they are only confirmed by probability and repetition. As far as I am concerned, the perseverence of factual knowledge is inductive in basis and as such is relative to experience.

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are there any facts that are absolutely true?

Are there any truths that are absolutely factual?

Originally posted by scottishinnz
Yes. But that says nothing about right and wrong, because they are not facts.

When given two statements, where one is a fact and the other is not, would you not say that the factual statement is true?

Originally posted by dj2becker
When given two statements, where one is a fact and the other is not, would you not say that the factual statement is true?

What does the "two statements" have to do with whether facts are true or not?

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
What does the "two statements" have to do with whether facts are true or not?

Are facts true or not?

Originally posted by dj2becker
And you believe this because of what?

Because of the amount of evidence for it and the lack of evidence against it. Why?

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are facts true or not?

No, statements about facts are true or not. We could however call a fact a truth, but that is a result of the flexibility of the English language.

In English 'fact' can mean an actual fact or a statement about fact so it gets rather confusing.

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are facts true or not?

I may have been wrong previously. Facts are only facts when verified by
several independent sources. Before that they are merely observations that
can have to the observer external or internal causes, and when you use a
personal experience with an internal cause as a matter of fact, your truth
becomes all skewed.

I think. 🙄

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are facts true or not?

This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

Originally posted by dj2becker
Are facts true or not?

A fact is something that is the case. It is the state of affairs reported by a true statement.

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

Common dictionary definitions of truth mention some form of accord with fact or reality.

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

Yes. Facts are true by definition.