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Originally Posted by roachboy
there is data out there--there are arguments to be had about how that data is organized and interpreted, but there is data.
you can research topics that interest you--i can research them.
and if we are talking about information, then it should follow that that information can be interpreted and that those interpretations can be debated--because an interpretation is an argument about the data and almost never exhausts the data.
but it is, i hope at least, clear that there are better and worse, more and less compelling interpretations, and that if you are going to enter a debate about data--about descriptions of the world--then argument can and should be about which information, which argument about that information, which interpretation better enables you to make sense of the description--or reject it as the case may be.
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I agree with you. But as much data as there is, it is always incomplete. and often its presented in a biased manner. Its important and is definately the basis of discussion, but there are some things we will never know, that the data will never show, until after its happened. One cannot rely
soley on data.
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i do not see how questions concerning whether a description of the world, or a situation, can be compared to a matter of belief--the question of what information you think relevant to explain this "war on terror" is not the same type of question as do you believe in god--a god that you cannot see, cannot analyze, cannot really argue about on the basis of information on the same order.
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My belief in the war on terror and my belief in God aren't equatable. My belief in God is based in faith alone, while my belief in the war on terror is based on the facts as I interperate them, coupled with a belief that what we are doing is right, just and ultimately in the name of peace.
I think I try to seek the bigger picture, not with immediate results, but generations of change. Everything takes time and I can be patient. I believe I'm rational and I would call myself optimistic. Like in an earlier post I read, everything is going fine in conservative-land, or at least the situation isn't as bad as it's portrayed.