Wisdom Builder
Wisdom Mix
MODE:
~
7 minutes
Religion:
Human attempts to understand the currently unknown and unknowable.
TST Philosophy begins where we all stand: between reality and our ideas about it, seeking truth with humility and courage.
Wisdom Mix.
Here are 10 random key ideas and takeaways.
1.
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Free will is experienced as a shifting tension between choice and constraint.
Subject: Free Will vs Determinism.
We experience both determinism and free will every day. Biological needs, habits, and compulsions constrain us, often predictably. Yet within those constraints, we feel moments of choice. Selecting between options, resisting urges, or changing course, others, like basic survival instincts, are driven by necessity, revealing the tension between freedom and fate.
2.
Quote.
- Roger Williams.
- May 6, 1682..
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We don’t know exactly when Roger Williams was born, nor died. For his birth, we don’t even know the year. He was born circa 1602. For his death, we know for sure it was 1683 and around March.
Subject: Roger Williams.
The exact birth and death dates of Roger Williams has been lost to history…so far at least. We think he was born around 1602, give or take a few years. We know he passed in 1683, and by April 1st. We also know he was alive on January 15th. We also believe he was about 80 or 81 when he passed. It’s interesting how much is lost to time for even the famous just a few hundred years ago.
3.
From History: born 354.
Lived from 354 to 430 CE, aged about 76..
Life is full of hard choices. In situational ethics, clear-cut right and wrong tend to give way to reducing harm or choosing the lesser of two evils.
Subject: Situational Ethics.
Situational ethics reminds us that even in war, moral limits still matter. Throughout your life, when avoiding harm is not possible, the moral task becomes causing less harm. Although war is often immoral, Just War Theory exists to limit violence and discourage war crimes. Live your life with the principles of proportional force and avoiding unnecessary harm.
4.
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To live your life well-lived, decide where belief belongs. Private meaning can guide your life, but when your belief affects others, you must answer to evidence, agency, and harm.
Subject: Epistemic Responsibility.
To live better, protect the meaning that is important to you without letting others control you. Private belief can comfort, guide, and inspire, but it becomes harmful when you tell others how they must live or others tell you. Hold your belief with humility, test public claims with evidence, and never use the unknown as a weapon.
5.
Quote.
- William Kingdon Clifford.
- 1877.
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Clifford argued that personal belief is a moral responsibility to humanity, not just a private habit. You have a moral obligation to be careful what you believe.
Subject: Belief.
Belief is not just private. What you believe shapes you and the world around you. Although his suggestion is stricter than most like, I think he wants you to treat belief as a responsibility: seek evidence where you can, stay humble where you cannot, and do not let wishful thinking do the work of truth.
6.
From History: 2080: 60 Years From Now (+/- 10 years).
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With small steps, help humanity strive for a shared empirical origin story. Only from that stable foundation will we acheive global cooperation.
Subject: Futurism.
Promote the idea that as scientific literacy expands, the bulk of humanity will converge on a common empirical account of its origins. This does not eliminate spirituality or meaning; it allows them to thrive in their proper place. A shared origin story grounded in evidence strengthens cooperation, reduces tribal conflict, and supports long-horizon flourishing, all while preserving space for the unknown and unknowable.
7.
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TST respects religious self/non-self teachings, but treats them as personal meaning frameworks rather than as rational truths.
Subject: Religion.
TST sees value in religious ideas about self and non-self, including themes like illusion, imposed identity, and inner transformation. It agrees that people often live through false overlays. Where it differs is in grounding: TST places such teachings in personal or group belief unless they connect directly to the material world.
8.
Quote.
- Thomas Aquinas.
- circa 1265.
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Situational ethics, like Just War Theory, can be brought down to your life. When you cannot turn the other cheek, strive for a response that is proportionate and never exceeds the harm done.
Subject: Situational Ethics.
Life does not always give us peaceful people or clean choices. Sometimes you must respond. But living well means resisting the urge to escalate. Situational ethics reminds us that a proportionate response protects dignity, limits damage, and keeps pain from multiplying. Even when you must push back, do not let someone else’s wrong turn you into more of the same.
9.
From History: Reference Date: 2200 CE (+/- 50 years).
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Start to live your life better now by sorting truth from belief with honesty. Let science guide the observable, reason guide what is coherent, but hold spirituality humbly.
Subject: Spirituality.
To live well, get ahead of the future in your own lifetime. Do not force religion to fight science, and do not force science to answer every question of meaning. Let empirical claims answer to evidence, rational ideas handle indirect but coherent truths, and spiritual stories help shape identity, morality, suffering, and hope. Then, with humility, let go of the disproven ideas you are ready to release.
10.
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Roger Williams was a colonial separatist. He advocated for separating from the Church of England.
Subject: Separatist Term & Epistemology.
If you use the modern definition of separatist that includes intolerance of others, then Roger Williams was not a separatist. Furthermore, he supported all people living, and working together in the same community for the common good. Sometimes people forget the context of the time and conflate his desire to separate from the Church of England run by the government with the separatist movement based on races. I think some with a desire to promote white supremacy do this on purpose.
Done. Refresh for another set.
Wisdom Builder
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Content and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Content and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
