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What I think.

Nooj

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I've changed my post, shouldn't have. :doh:

On a sidenote: One problem with the term "truth" is that it can be used in different meanings. This is often the cause for false equivocations, e.g. the assumption of your relatives that rejecting the idea of an "objective truth" means the acceptance of "lies" or "deception". "Truth (as opposed to lies/deception) is an entirely different concept than "(Objective) truth (as opposed to subjectivity)". Unfortunately these concepts carry the same name.
Unfortunately, how many people do you think in my family will even see it that way? They think I'm a lapsed, very lapsed Christian. Most of my friends are Christian, they're puzzled and it's hard not to be. It sound like deception straight up, even self-deception. I'd rather not tell my mum (fundie) and my dad (fundie, but they're divorced).
 
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quatona

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Are religious leaders looking for fake belief or half-hearted belief? I thought they wanted you to look for the religion that once attained, feels like an objective truth. I thought that this was their requirement, because these priests/sheiks think their religion isn't just the best available currently, they think it's the best. Permanent.
Oh, I think most of them do. At least we hear that often here as an argument brought forth in favour of the existence of a god.
Then again there are also a lot of people who think this is a paradox approach, and anyone´s assumption that their moral code is the permanently and objectively best has yet to be substantiated. I´m not holding my breath in view of the logical problems they will necessarily run into.
 
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quatona

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I've changed my post, shouldn't have. :doh:

Unfortunately, how many people do you think in my family will even see it that way? They think I'm a lapsed, very lapsed Christian. Most of my friends are Christian, they're puzzled and it's hard not to be. It sound like deception straight up, even self-deception. I'd rather not tell my mum (fundie) and my dad (fundie, but they're divorced).
This is but a guess (in the attempt to be helpful): I sense that you still have their paradigms still circulating in you. Being intellectually convinced is not all there is for successfully performing a paradigm shift such as you are going through.
I left Christianity and theism behind at the age of 15/16, but it was not until my mid-thirties that I got inherently theistic ideas such as "truth" and "objective morality" completely out of my system. (Don´t get me wrong - I don´t say that as a prediction that it will take you that long. Just to illustrate the problem.

Now, if thinking about your relatives: Keep in mind that they have been used to think within these paradigms not only for 17 years, but for much longer, and presumably have based their lives on them. It is not really surprising that it´s hard for them to accept your changes.

Nonetheless (and this is just my personal recommendation) I think it´s worth the effort to allow them the privilege to be challenged by your ideas and to allow yourself the privilege of having your ideas challenged by theirs. :)
 
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