The phenomenon and the explanation

[Bungle_Bear]

I'm careful about bias. Significant beneficial social change that happen over centuries because of one man is evidence. I think that qualifies.

Using that logic, every religion is evidence for <insert whatever you are trying to demonstrate>.

 

[Eloy Craft]

@Bungle_Bear That's logical if all religions were the same.

 

[Bungle_Bear]

@Bungle_Bear That's logical if all religions were the same.

They are.

 

[Ophiolite]

@Bungle_Bear That's logical if all religions were the same.

I differ from @Bungle_Bear in that regard and agree with you: religions differ. So, would you lay out, without begging the question, why the difference between Christianity and all other religions makes your original assertion valid.

 

[tas8831]

From personal experience I can say that sometimes it's just not worth the trouble to go through the many many supposed evidences of a claim.

So I'm betting that you've not been able to counter them.

I'm not going to study all the hundreds of thousands of data points to still believe there was not much confirmation bias or other sloppy science involved in a politically advantageous (think, money) and conscience relieving (think, "I'm just another animal!").

So you admit that you will still accept religious tales over scientific evidence no matter what.... Great...

I still have huge areas of disbelief unanswered in my skepticism toward Darwinian Evolution.

Wait - you just wrote:

"...it's just not worth the trouble to go through the many many supposed evidences..."

???

Almost like you're being disingenuous.

 

[tas8831]

I could easily say the same for my accepting of the existence of First Cause, the cosmological argument. The fact that it is as solid as the law of causation is not even necessary for it to correspond with your belief in evolution.

What is said to be the first cause again? Oh, right - the God of the bible. What a coincidence. But since there is a 'law' of causation, there is an obvious question, and the typical answer to that question pretty much refutes the original claim.

...the notion that falsifiable evidence is the only trustworthy source of fact —particularly for those less organized mentally, or less educated— comes across as a little bit arrogant too.

What other sources of "fact" are there?

fact
/fakt/
noun

1. a thing that is known or proved to be true.
   "he ignores some historical and economic facts"
   
   

 

[Eloy Craft]

I differ from @Bungle_Bear in that regard and agree with you: religions differ. So, would you lay out, without begging the question, why the difference between Christianity and all other religions makes your original assertion valid.

Their religion is building up from the ground. An answer to death and life. Christianity is founded on revelation from above. Not built up over generations but concepts never imagined. Christianity has all the distinctions that would follow for a faith built on Divine Revelation.

 

[Bungle_Bear]

I differ from @Bungle_Bear in that regard and agree with you: religions differ. So, would you lay out, without begging the question, why the difference between Christianity and all other religions makes your original assertion valid.

Religions may differ in their detail, but ultimately they are all the same - the belief in, and worship of, a controlling power or god.

I'd be interested to see a religion where that wasn't the case.

 

[pitabread]

I'd be interested to see a religion where that wasn't the case.

Buddhism?

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Their religion is building up from the ground. An answer to death and life. Christianity is founded on revelation from above. Not built up over generations but concepts never imagined. Christianity has all the distinctions that would follow for a faith built on Divine Revelation.

In what sense are the following religions not built on divine revelation?

Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Bahá'í, Sikhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, and various indigenous religions.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Buddhism?

Mostly Eastern religions, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto. AIUI the last two have divine aspects, but not revelatory ones. Don't know about African religions...

 

[Ophiolite]

Religions may differ in their detail, but ultimately they are all the same - the belief in, and worship of, a controlling power or god.

I'd be interested to see a religion where that wasn't the case.

Yes, but that is based upon your perception of what is significant about a religion. A more objective stance would be to acknowledge, up front, that while religions differ you consider the essential elements to be broadly the same. An absolute statement of the kind you made is, absolutely, wrong.

Their religion is building up from the ground. An answer to death and life. Christianity is founded on revelation from above. Not built up over generations but concepts never imagined. Christianity has all the distinctions that would follow for a faith built on Divine Revelation.

@pitabread and @FrumiousBandersnatch have indicated the flaw in your assertion.

 

[Bungle_Bear]

Buddhism?

As a religion it has gods. As a philosophy not so much.

 

[Bungle_Bear]

Mostly Eastern religions, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto. AIUI the last two have divine aspects, but not revelatory ones. Don't know about African religions...

I'll give you confuscianism. The others have gods - Shinto has 8 million kami.

 

[jacknife]

As a religion it has gods. As a philosophy not so much.

Even gods in buddhism can be subject to the cycle of karma and reincarnation. (Depending on the flavor of buddism) while sects like pure land buddism have an idea more like christianity's grace but i'd argue a bit more defined.

 

[jacknife]

I'll give you confuscianism. The others have gods - Shinto has 8 million kami.

I've also encountered eastren mysticism that lacks gods in the sense your thinking of.

 

[dlamberth]

Don't know about African religions...

For most indigenous cultures they "experience" spirit in nature in more or less a mystic sort of way.

 

[dlamberth]

I've also encountered eastren mysticism that lacks gods in the sense your thinking of.

That's true with most mystical trajectories.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

I'll give you confuscianism. The others have gods - Shinto has 8 million kami.

They may have gods, but AIUI they're not based on divine revelation. If having gods was the criterion, the list would be shorter

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

For most indigenous cultures they "experience" spirit in nature in more or less a mystic sort of way.

That sounds rather like the Japanese and Chinese views of the world. I must have another scan of Baggini's 'How the World Thinks'...