Age Old Debate: Right and Wrong

RavenPoe · Oct 17, 2006

I don't wish to stir up anything unpleasant, but I was just thinking, I don't really choose what I believe, but I do choose what I research in order to know what I believe.

Perhaps if I have bought a book on Shintoism or Taoism I would believe that, but instead I bought books on Wicca, Buddhism, and Hinduism. So in my choice of books have I chosen in part what I believe?

JesusWalks78 · Oct 17, 2006

RecoveringPhilosopher said:
go look up "simile"

Go look up God and how you can have a personal saving relationship with him.

No Truth is not like fornication...and all I learned in all those religions is that God wasnt there.

He was waiting for me as he is waiting for you in the Mother Church.

The Nihilist · Oct 17, 2006

JesusWalks78 said:
Go look up God and how you can have a personal saving relationship with him.

No Truth is not like fornication...and all I learned in all those religions is that God wasnt there.

He was waiting for me as he is waiting for you in the Mother Church.

A personal saving relationship must be predicated on the existence of sin, and I find no empirical evidence to support it.
My simile was designed to illustrate the absurdity of your position, not to directly compare religion to fornication. On the other hand, I'm not certain that I'm not comparing you to a fornicator. Additionally, I'm surprised that all you learned about atheism was that God wasn't there. How long did it take you to learn that? Did someone tell you otherwise?

humbledbyhim · Oct 18, 2006

As someone said earlier, there is only one truth. People may have different ideas about what that truth is. Assuming that anyone knows any aspect of the truth, does not mean that person knows the entire truth.

Also, knowledge of the truth does not prevent someone from distorting it to fit what they desire it to be. So the question is:

Can anyone know the truth?

My answer is of course yes. I live my life based on the fact that Jesus has been and will always be the truth. This doesn't prevent me or anyone else who believes this from adding our own twist to it (consciously or unconsciously).

Even if God tells me that my perception of the truth is wrong, I still have to make the decision to accept it.

I think the truth is that people are so self centered, that we would rather follow our own perception of the truth that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We think that our own personal experience is the only way to tell what the truth is.

I think that by looking at the totality of human experiences (psychological, physical, mental, emotional), one can find God's word (the bible) to be right on the mark. However, because we will always maintain some aspect of individual truth, there will always be those who don't come to a perception that is close enough to the truth to receive or accept God's grace and be saved.

TricksterWolf · Oct 18, 2006

RavenPoe said:
I don't wish to stir up anything unpleasant, but I was just thinking, I don't really choose what I believe, but I do choose what I research in order to know what I believe.

Perhaps if I have bought a book on Shintoism or Taoism I would believe that, but instead I bought books on Wicca, Buddhism, and Hinduism. So in my choice of books have I chosen in part what I believe?

So what happens if you buy books on all of them?

Trickster

The Nihilist · Oct 18, 2006

humbledbyhim said:
As someone said earlier, there is only one truth. People may have different ideas about what that truth is. Assuming that anyone knows any aspect of the truth, does not mean that person knows the entire truth.

Also, knowledge of the truth does not prevent someone from distorting it to fit what they desire it to be. So the question is:

Can anyone know the truth?

My answer is of course yes. I live my life based on the fact that Jesus has been and will always be the truth. This doesn't prevent me or anyone else who believes this from adding our own twist to it (consciously or unconsciously).

Even if God tells me that my perception of the truth is wrong, I still have to make the decision to accept it.

I think the truth is that people are so self centered, that we would rather follow our own perception of the truth that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We think that our own personal experience is the only way to tell what the truth is.

I think that by looking at the totality of human experiences (psychological, physical, mental, emotional), one can find God's word (the bible) to be right on the mark. However, because we will always maintain some aspect of individual truth, there will always be those who don't come to a perception that is close enough to the truth to receive or accept God's grace and be saved.

I think what you mean is this; having right perception of the truth means being in the right relationship with God or whatever you're talking about. Unfortunately, there's not going to be any kind of external comparison point. Even if you're right, you have no way of knowing, because it's going to be your view of the truth against someone else's, with no way at all to say which is better. The bible won't work either, because it's pretty easy to say that this is figurative or that is time-specific.
My job is to crush your dreams.

RavenPoe · Oct 18, 2006

TricksterWolf said:
So what happens if you buy books on all of them?

Trickster

Then I actually have toread some of them.

In my case, I would probably adopt little truths from each one, and refuse to label myself as any one religion.

But that's a process I've already started haven't I...

TricksterWolf · Oct 21, 2006

RavenPoe said:
Then I actually have toread some of them.

In my case, I would probably adopt little truths from each one, and refuse to label myself as any one religion.

But that's a process I've already started haven't I...

People who do what you are doing are very likely to not be prejudiced toward others of different beliefs.

I was mentored in graduate school by a man who was a world expert in studying prejudice and discrimination. There are surprisingly few correlates with prejudice. An interest in exploring eclectic religious beliefs is one of the strong negative correlates.

Trickster

RavenPoe · Oct 21, 2006

People have noted a lack in prejudice in me. I don't really think of people as "different" unless they happen to be from a culture I want to learn about, then I just bug them with lots of questions. I work with several Indian people now, so I'm slowly asking questions of one of the Sikhs. We don't get to talk too much though - management forbids us actually socializing at all, and we can only take breaks one at a time.

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