Okay, so for a long overdue update to this little corner of the blogosphere I'm going to cheat a little. This post was originally a reply to a question on the OrthodoxChristianity.net forum, the original thread of which can be found here. As will be seen, this is a fairly old (in internet terms) piece, which was (in a redacted form answering only the second part of the question) posted to my Facebook account. I recently came across it again while searching through my online profile in response to a school assignment on how we present ourselves online, and decided to add it to this more search-friendly venue. I have also taken some time to add to and edit the original post. The middle portion is entirely new.
In Response to the Question “How does one differentiate what is true and what is not?”
In some cases we can ascertain what is true by mere observation: 2+2= 4 because every time you take two of something and add another two you end up with four. This is good for physicists and forensic analysts, assuming all the data is correct (i.e. assuming cops haven't planted that bloody glove or that "universal constants" are in fact universal and not a localized phenomenon of our area of the solar system).
