So what? Well, you can ask that now because we still have no real capacity [that I am aware of] to know if it is in fact true.
And that seems to be where we are all stuck. Nature or God has provided us with a brain able to ask the question but [so far] not with a brain able to know the answer [one way or the other] for sure.
With parents however it’s different. In an autonomous world, we can become aware that they programmed us to think about things in a particular way. Then it comes down to the extent to which we are [here and now] able to determine which things they programmed us to believe are in fact true [in the either/or world] and which things are instead only particular moral and political prejudices of theirs [in the is/ought world].
Again, we need a context.
Did Trump collude with Putin to manipulate the vote in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election?
What collection of facts has Robert Mueller accumulated so far such that it would appear that a rational man or woman is obligated to answer “yes, he did” or “no, he did not”.
To date of course all we have is speculation like this: thedailybeast.com/mueller-i … n?ref=home
But one day we may well have enough factual information about this relationship so that it seems reasonable to think and to feel that the answer is either “yes, he did” or “no, he did not”.
Now, by “obligated” I don’t mean that others can force someone to believe what the facts tell us. Only that if someone wishes to be thought of as a rational man or woman they can’t just shunt the facts aside and believe whatever they wish. Like, for example, it might turn out that Sean Hannity does on Fox News. Here of course his own narrative seems [to me] to be an entirely “political contraption”
But, again, even here in the either/or world, we still need God [omniscience] to be absolutely certain of what all the facts are. And in sync with all that can be known about the existence of existence itself. No getting around that, right?
Not exactly sure what you mean by this but whatever motivates you to think, feel, say and do the things you choose may or may not reach the bedrock that is the actual and factual truth.
Only on this thread we are, in turn, exploring the extent to which that actual and factual truth is derived from either some measure of human autonomy or from a wholly determined universe.
No, you have reached what you conclude is the bedrock given the assumptions that you make in describing this example. At any given moment you may or may not enjoy living. You may have just found out that you have an inoperable brain tumor. You only have a couple of days to live. So you decide it is rational to fill the little time you have left with as much pleasure as you can. Anything goes. And since you don’t believe in God or a life after death you are motivated in turn to let no one stop you from doing whatever brings you pleasure.
Again, there are always going to be any number of actual circumstances that any particular one of us might find ourselves in. So, what does it mean to be rational in all of them?
Your perceived bedrock may well be nothing at all like mine or theirs.
And we still don’t know if the example you chose here you chose only because you were never able not to choose it.