Are they real?

Yes, they are real, a photo by bobmendo on Flickr.

Today I became a celebrity of sorts. At least I experienced what celebrities sometimes experience. A Facebook hacker created a fake Bob Mendelsohn account and asked my friends if they would 'friend' him. Many said yes. One of them is an expert on identity fraud and had a conversation with Fake Bob. We all quickly determined the fake Bob's real intent was to gain emails and gain bank accounts. His entire convo is at the bottom.

But that got me thinking about true and false and about real and pretend things. The photo is from Bayview Golf Club here in Sydney's north, where I've played a few times. Those elephants are real, to be sure. If they were not real I couldn't see them. But they are not alive. I've seen giant elephants in Thailand and in Botswana. But these are statues. The water is real. The rocks are real. Everything is real in the photo, but the elephants are not living beings.

For those who don't know, I'm a religious person and spend much of my time sharing what I believe with others, in Sydney where I live, and in other places where I travel. I also spend time on social media sharing this belief and interact with many.

So how would anyone determine what's true or false? One of my Facebook friends asked me where we had originally met. Luckily I remembered that one. Others noticed the fake Bob's grammar was not up to my standard. Others had received my warning and stayed away.

But let's say you want to find out using epistemology what is true and what is not true. What method would you use? How do you know what is true and what is not?

Wikipedia helps here: "Whether someone's belief is true is not a prerequisite for (its) belief. On the other hand, if something is actually known, then it categorically cannot be false. For example, if a person believes that a bridge is safe enough to support him, and attempts to cross it, but the bridge then collapses under his weight, it could be said that he believed that the bridge was safe but that his belief was mistaken. It would not be accurate to say that he knew that the bridge was safe, because plainly it was not. By contrast, if the bridge actually supported his weight, then he might say that he had believed that the bridge was safe, whereas now, after proving it to himself (by crossing it), he knows that it was safe.

Epistemologists argue over whether belief is the proper truth-bearer. Some would rather describe knowledge as a system of justified true propositions, and others as a system of justified true sentences. Plato, in his Gorgias, argues that belief is the most commonly invoked truth-bearer."

So I ponder that with the issue of Bible accuracy and Bible itself. The Jewish people have held to this book for 3,500 years. Christians have joined in the last 2,000 years. Is it belief that cause the claims of truth or is it truth that causes us to believe?

Let me say Jesus claimed to be 'The Truth." (John 14.6) I'm sticking by Him. If you think I'm presumptuous then know that I'm not claiming Truth status. I'm merely following the One who did. He claimed to be the Only Way to the Father. I don't make such a claim of my religion or my views. I can and have been wrong so many times, but He is never wrong. That's where I line up.

I'm not a fan of Frederic Fitch who in the 50s and 60s wrote the Paradox of Knowability into logic. I studied and taught logic to high school students in the 70s. Wikipedia again helps here: "Fitch's paradox of knowability is one of the fundamental puzzles of epistemic logic. It provides a challenge to the knowability thesis, which states that any truth is, in principle, knowable. The paradox is that this assumption implies the omniscience principle, which asserts that any truth is known. Essentially, Fitch's paradox asserts that the existence of an unknown truth is unknowable. So if all truths were knowable, it would follow that all truths are in fact known."

Too much? Listen, Y'shua, the Jewish messiah, claimed to the Truth. Two-thousand years ago, Jesus stood before Pilate, who questioned him. Jesus declared, “everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate responded with a question, saying “what is truth?”

Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all. (John 18:38)

The question Pilate asked is still being asked today. What is truth, and does it really matter what truth is? Today it’s popular in many universities and schools, to teach that truth is relative, meaning, “there is no objective Truth”.

But I agree with Y'shua. He is the Truth. And that doesn't make my faith in Him the substance. I didn't grow up with this faith. I came to it later. And you can also.

Fake Bob or True Bob is not the issue. Fake messiah or True Messiah-- now we are talking!

What do you think? And how do you know? Let's discuss...

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Actual conversation:
ME: hi

How are you doing ?

good. how are you?

I am doing great and so much happy today
How about you

yeah me too

Have you heard about the poker company in conjunction with Facebook for their annual promo ?

no, tell me more...

The Poker company with the conjunction of Facebook is doing their annual lottery promotion for the Year ended and saw our names on the list , did you got yours yet ?

no not yet...

You can't believe I got $50,000 from them delivered to my door step by UPS delivery agent and did you see the yet ?

wow!

Do you get your own money the agent yet ?

no. where shall I send the money? Do you want my bank details?

Oh no you only need to contact the agent so that you can claim your own money from the agent okay

fantastic. This sounds too goo to be true...

Yes i got the money from the agent and i pay on my bills and deposit some at the bank and your name appear on the winner list that you won as well

so what should I do now to get my free money??

You only need to contact the agent and let him know that you won and your name is there on the winner list
send message to them officerallen_now@yahoo.com

I'll do it now. Thanks a lot Fake Bob.
end of conversation.
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Via Flickr:
If they weren't real I couldn't photograph them. But no, they are not alive. This is the feature near the 1st on Bayview Golf Club