Making religion palatable to "reasonists", is a possibility if we change the word "faith" to the word "hope" and change the word "believe" to the word "think".
We should strive always for truth but never decide we have found it.
Religion seems to be a multiple choice game - Choose the Best Dogma. The winner will be the ones with the best strategy and equipment for war.
Reasonists have no dogma.
If evil exists in the world today, it could well be in the form of an organized religion.
Science is limited by the fact that it can only use experimental evidence and hard logic to prove its beliefs. If Science accepted dogma as proof, we could prove anything.
Some people have told me they have faith based beliefs that are actually true. I have told them they should believe they have ten million dollars in their checking account.
The dictionary definition of atheist is; "One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods." I think the one with the capital "G" means the God of Abraham but the one with the lower case "g" means any other god and it's plural, meaning all other gods. Therefore if you don't believe in all gods, you must be an atheist.
Yes, I always tell my argumentative writingstudents that they cannot argue about beliefs. If someone believes god is a ten foot tall red jelly bean; you can't argue for or against it. It's a belief hanging there. It is somewhat like a pain someone has-- they can't show it to someone else. but then there is a difference in beleiving in someone's pain and someone's god; or is there?
Posted by: Nate Capehart | 11/07/2009 at 08:13 PM
Nate, you must have read that part about the red jelly bean in the old king james version of the jelly bean bible. The new english version clearly states that god is a fifteen foot tall green jelly bean. :-) Thanks for the comment.
Posted by: PappawJack | 11/07/2009 at 09:01 PM
[this is good]
I hear and believe everything you are saying. In the context of philosophy I agree with you. At this time, in more serious endeavor, I am currently working with a graphing tool to mathematicly present my theory, working well in living experiments, to the credentialed scientific community. Pretension is exactly what it defines. Each time a person grows in this society, on this earth, there will be the predictable, what I call, 'jam test'. A 'controlled experiment' is exactly that. Thus it is usually redundant to purpose in human life. Philosophy. In anothervenue.. '.knowledge is word definition...skill is pragmatic application of that knowledge. Professionalism is disciplined application of the finest skill.' In retrospect this is an addendum toreaction. I must think.
Posted by: Cryin' for the Dyin' | 11/08/2009 at 12:03 PM