How can one ever be sure ...

Steven J said...

On the other hand, if one's perception of something ... is necessarily limited and incomplete, how can one ever be sure ... that one knows ...

@Steven J

That's an excellent question. It's a question that the great minds of philosophy have wrestled with for centuries.

I excerpted from your response, removing the references to "Ray" and "God" to highlight the essential question.

You may choose to believe that Ray's belief in God is the heart of the issue. But I submit to you that what is REALLY at issue is the "problem of knowledge", the framework of the your response.

The "absence of belief that there is a God" is ALSO subject to the problem of knowledge. (It really doesn't matter whether you frame it as an "absence of belief of existence" or a "belief of non-existence", both are subject to the same problem.)

All of which leads us back to the problem of evidence, that is, observations and interpretation of those observations, weighed as evidence. And that is informed by one's worldview (the philosophical framework by which one interprets the world around them.)