Do You Believe In Scientism?

Do you believe in scientism?


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Bertrand Russell White

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Paul is about as complex. And it's hard to argue that he was a fictional character. Most people would agree he wasn't We don't know that Jesus was uneducated. Unlikely to any great degree - such as able to write. If he was and he could write, then surely something from his hand would have survived. We know virtually nothing about his background. Correct The birth stories are surely the least reliable parts of the gospels.
 
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AV1611VET

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If he was and he could write, then surely something from his hand would have survived.

John 8:6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
 
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Bertrand Russell White

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John 8:6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.


Too bad they didn't record what he said.
 
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hedrick

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Unlikely to any great degree - such as able to write. If he was and he could write, then surely something from his hand would have survived.
Let's use Paul as a crosscheck. It appears that he taught the gospel in the churches he founded. We don't have that in writing, nor is there any reason to think that he wrote it. The only writing we have from him was when he wanted to communicate with churches in a different location. Even then, someone else wrote the letters for him. It appears he could write, but not necessarily very well. We know he had a good religious education, and his thought was complex. Nor do we have much else in the 1st Cent other than letters from the major Christian leaders, and most of those are not genuine.

Jesus' teachings are not as complex as Paul's. Each Gospel, of course, puts its own interpretation on them. What we have is a combination of Jesus' teachings and later interpretations. That complicates things. But what Jesus likely taught doesn't seem as complex as Paul's letters taken as a whole.
 
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Bertrand Russell White

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Let's use Paul as a crosscheck. It appears that he taught the gospel in the churches he founded. We don't have that in writing, nor is there any reason to think that he wrote it. The only writing we have from him was when he wanted to communicate with churches in a different location. Even then, someone else wrote the letters for him. It appears he could write, but not necessarily very well. We know he had a good religious education, and his thought was complex. Nor do we have much else in the 1st Cent other than letters from the major Christian leaders, and most of those are not genuine.

Jesus' teachings are not as complex as Paul's. Each Gospel, of course, puts its own interpretation on them. What we have is a combination of Jesus' teachings and later interpretations. That complicates things. But what Jesus likely taught doesn't seem as complex as Paul's letters taken as a whole.
Let's use Paul as a crosscheck. It appears that he taught the gospel in the churches he founded. We don't have that in writing, nor is there any reason to think that he wrote it. The only writing we have from him was when he wanted to communicate with churches in a different location. Even then, someone else wrote the letters for him. It appears he could write, but not necessarily very well. We know he had a good religious education, and his thought was complex. Nor do we have much else in the 1st Cent other than letters from the major Christian leaders, and most of those are not genuine.

Jesus' teachings are not as complex as Paul's. Each Gospel, of course, puts its own interpretation on them. What we have is a combination of Jesus' teachings and later interpretations. That complicates things. But what Jesus likely taught doesn't seem as complex as Paul's letters taken as a whole.

Paul did write some of his letters and some he didn't. There are letters attributed to him that are now doubted by much of scholarship to have been his. I doubt that many people's sermons were probably written at the time because people heard them in person and many people were not literate. I'm not sure when this became more of a standard practice. The biggest problem is we really don't have much information and evidence to make definite conclusions. It is too bad most scholars and people don't admit this.
 
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jayem

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I haven’t read all 100+ posts in this thread. This may have already been addressed. Good science doesn’t claim to be infallible. If evidence shows that a scientific explanation is in error, it will be corrected. In this respect, it’s by far, intellectually superior to religious belief. Which will virtually never admit that its doctrines and tenets are mistaken.
 
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Bertrand Russell White

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I haven’t read all 100+ posts in this thread. This may have already been addressed. Good science doesn’t claim to be infallible. If evidence shows that a scientific explanation is in error, it will be corrected. In this respect, it’s by far, intellectually superior to religious belief. Which will virtually never admit that its doctrines and tenets are mistaken.

Yes, if the body of evidence in an area and/or other related evidence from other areas in science shows an explanation is in error science works to correct it. Religion may occasionally abandon certain doctrines and tenets (although either say they weren't crucial to their beliefs or just not admit they ever were that important) but key beliefs will never be abandoned no matter how much evidence accumulates against them. Often religion works on lack of evidence. Such and such important doctrine or tenet can't be disproven because there can't be found enough evidence to deny them no matter how unlikely they are.
 
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