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  Topic: Intellectually Honest Christians?, Is it possible?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >  
Steviepinhead



Posts: 532
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: Jan. 04 2007,22:08   

Yeah, but...

I didn't think we were discussing--though, heck, we can if you want--the benefits to the believers of a given belief-system, or--

--the "fitness"/survival/longevity of the belief system, but

whether or not the belief system is, on some basis--perhaps not clearly defined as yet--"compatible with" or "at odds with" science/logic/evidence, something along those lines.

Clearly, as I think Ichthy is trying to say, a set of beliefs may last a long time, be of benefit (in some personal identity stabilizing or social utility sense) to its believers, and still--with regard to the validity of its postulates--be "wrong."  Maybe not without value or social benefit, as Christianity arguably has been and still is, but proposes reality-incongruent notions, as let's-say-f'rinstance davey's literalist worldwide-flud-6k year old-natural selection don't work-ism does...

I know you ain't davey (thanks again, Lenny!;) and I may well not find your brand of belief objectionable by any measure--though I'll reserve my right to disagree as the discussion plays out--but if this is the measure we're applying, then--among the world's major religions, which distinctly conflict on all sorts of detail, not to mention more major matters--they can't all be "correct," regardless of how many people have believed them, for how long, and how "good" most of those people have behaved toward each other.

How does being a good social support system help us, er, skeptics differentiate one religion or sect from another, no matter how long they may've functioned well as a good social support system?

(To the extent that certain basic code-of-behavior "principles" are shared between the major religions--golden rule, don't lie, steal, murder, etc.--they may not "conflict," though that's far from all they postulate, and you don't walk away from the overlap very far before you leave one or the other irrevocably behind you, and in any case pure secularists of all ages have "believed" and acted in accord with these "core" principles, as well, so query rather they're truly "religious," or just kindergarten-level social good manners, found in most social animules?)

So far, I'm with Ichthy on this one...

  
  335 replies since Jan. 03 2007,21:39 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >  

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