Londoner wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:54 am
You say they relate to '
the variable of how much information is potentially involved in each case -- if at all.' That makes no sense.
All I meant was that some people would say a "guess" was more certain than a "shot," and less information-rich than a "probability calculation" or "scientific test." I don't know whether that includes you, or whether you would rank those words that way.
I was just waiting to see.
If you don't know whether any information at all is available, then how can this lack of knowledge become a 'variable'?
Because it's not "any," nor per se, a "lack."
For one thing, all "guesses" or "shots" or "probability calculations" are composed of both information and the projecting of an estimate beyond that information. Both are always present: maybe only the proportions are at issue.
And how do you quantify information?
Easy. You can quantify it as facts or data. For example, a man who knows water is wet and potentially dangerous knows precisely one more thing than the man who only knows it's wet.
The reason for all these strange formula is that something essential is missing. Normally, when we are making judgement, looking at probability, seeking evidence, they are all directed to some object. Is X the case? And we can do these things effectively if, and only if, we know what we mean by 'X'. But with God, there is no such clarity.
There would not be, apart from God revealing it. But if the Supreme Being
did decide to make you know the nature of that particular "X," then there is can we see any reason why the Supreme Being would be unable to do it?
I think not.