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Ask a Christian philosopher a question

oi_antz

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What time constraints?
Probably, the time required to go through the thread and find them. I would offer to do it, but I probably would miss some. Whereas you would know which questions you have asked and not received, so if you would be kind, probably you are best able to list those questions in a single post. Then OP could simply give his thoughts quite quickly.
 
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anonymous person

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What time constraints?

I'm moving this weekend and I also am editing and reviewing my brother's paperwork which he has to submit as a part of his application process for a local police department. I also am a small business owner and have some projects I am coordinating so my time I can spend here is more curtailed than usual.
 
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oi_antz

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Myth can become accepted as fact because of enough people and forces, who simply need to believe it.
Thanks.
This is a different situation that you describe though, wherein the other religions you claim are comparable, actually do not make a claim that they have unbroken history from the beginning of human race. That actually is quite a significant claim, and still yet nobody has said that it cannot possibly be true.
How do you explain 2/3 of the world's population being so wrong?
First thing I would say is, 100% of the world's population is wrong. So this means that you and I have to agree to a threshold that determines who is right. I think that you and I would need to ultimately agree the threshold should determine those destined for everlasting life rather than everlasting destruction. John 10:16, Matthew 25:32, Matthew 7:21-23 paint a picture that religion is not necessarily a qualifier for salvation. So really, you are asking for something from me, based on a straw man - that only Christians are right and all Christians are right.
 
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oi_antz

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You would really benefit from reading up on this subject; the psychology of belief.
I love this, thank you!


He says at 1:19
I think one of the things that you have to do if you're trying to help other people see that maybe what it is that they are thinking is not necessarily accurate, is you don't go up to them and say "Hey! You're wrong!"
He goes on to say that it usually has an effect of making the person believe even harder against our view.

It's an interesting thing to say. While considering why this is, to find out why I tend to do this so much, I see the value of what Jesus said Matthew 7:2 and Matthew 7:3-5 applies fully. I also see that 1 Corinthians 3:7 describes the same thing, and that Galatians 6:2 describes the right way to live supportively with those in whom we see error.

.. So I'm not sure whether you would find value in seeing these scriptures this way as I do. Maybe you will. I thought it was relevant to mention as it relates to what was said earlier between myself and HitchSlap, for an example of how the bible does correlate to reality.

It just seemed to come to mind as I began writing my thanks to you

Plus, considering emotion related to confirmation bias and disconfirmation bias. I guess the real value in this, is awareness of how we are tempted by emotions to accept or reject ideas, when in doing so, we are acting unjustifiably opposed to the truth.

You might notice that I decided not to accept the proposed dichotomy of evidence vs. emotion. I did this because they aren't dichotomies in my view, but rather emotion usually tends to influence one's view of what constitutes evidence. I am thinking of an example, but now I am not sure that I should say it..
 
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bhsmte

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I don't rely on scripture as an accurate view of reality.

When it comes to reality, I tend to rely on things that can be objectively verified, as much as possible.
 
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bhsmte

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It appears your threshold is based on scripture, written by anonymous authors.

I don't find that to be a credible benchmark.

I understand, because of your personal faith belief, you do need to rely on it though.
 
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Ana the Ist

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My version of truth requires no magical thinking...it comes down to things like evidence for an idea and what is considered reasonable by that evidence.

It's not a matter of me becoming convinced as you do...it's a matter of you judging this thing the way you do everything else.

My remark about black and white actually comes from Ignatius Loyola...

"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."
 
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Aelred of Rievaulx

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Can you please expand this for me?
It's straightforward enough, just because the author of Genesis wrote about the genealogy from Adam to Noah does not imply that it's historical. Adam, in the first chapters of Genesis, can quite literally translate to "earth creature", much of the myth implies this.

Do you think that the Epic of Gilgamesh is attempting to achieve the same as the stories in Genesis and Exodus? If so, can you please also show me some quotes from each of those works that will demonstrate your reasoning.
I said that believing that the stories are historical because of the genealogies doesn't make sense, we have similar lists of ancient figures living for very long time.
 
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anonymous person

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And Ignatius was wrong. The church does not decide what is right or wrong or what is true or false. The church is to speak and promote and live according to truth, not define it.
 
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Ana the Ist

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And Ignatius was wrong. The church does not decide what is right or wrong or what is true or false. The church is to speak and promote and live according to truth, not define it.

Then I don't think you realize it's affect on you.
 
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bhsmte

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And Ignatius was wrong. The church does not decide what is right or wrong or what is true or false. The church is to speak and promote and live according to truth, not define it.

Where does this truth come from, the church speaks about and promotes?
 
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Hoghead1

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To butt in, I don't think there was one writer of the Genesis account of creation. I think there were at least, years apart in time. For one thing, there accounts are flatly contradictory, with 1 claiming first animals were created, then man, whereas Gen. 2 claims precisely the opposite. For another, careful literary analysis of the radically different styles here reveals Gen. 2 is probably much older than one. There is no intent here to deceive. The redactors simply had two different accounts to work with and decided to butt edit them together.
 
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Hoghead1

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I don't agree there was a single author for Genesis. To me, the literary evidence suggests at least four, plus a later redactor. Also, I do not see Genesis as giving a consistent chronology. Gen. 1 and two contradict each other on the chronology of creation, which is another reason why I believe more than one author wrote these texts.
 
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Ana the Ist

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Its affect...

What are you referring to when you say it?

Well, it would be hard to say exactly what the effect is without knowing your entire life. At the very least though, assuming you have grown up in the U.S., the church has pushed for you to buy into a story/narrative in subtle and not so subtle ways your entire life.

Would you agree?
 
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Archaeopteryx

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That's understandable. We all have lives outside of CF. Hope all goes well with the move. I suppose we could start here, since the other questions I asked are also related to it more generally.
 
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