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andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2012-02-15 11:00 am
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Interesting Links for 15-02-2012

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andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2012-02-15 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
a) I've had evangelical Christians on my friends list.
b) Talking to people who believe in bits of the bible, their methodology usually comes down to "These bits make me feel happy." Which fills me with horror and rage at their lack of intellectual rigour, while also making me envious that they can do that kind of mental separation/juggling.

[identity profile] steer.livejournal.com 2012-02-15 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
*heh* It's the "not proper Christian" thing. I used to have it about vegetarians... "ooh, how can you call yourself a vegetarian but wear leather" and used to work myself into a bit of a rage about the lack of intellectual rigour.

I think when you actually ask evangelical Christians whether they literally believe that (say) god put two of every type of animal on a big boat you'll find the number who say yes is a small proportion of evangelicals. Follow that by asking if they believe that the hare "cheweth the cud" and all observations by field naturalists are incorrect... I may be wrong, you may have some very rare examples but I suspect if you asked them these questions you'd find that actually they don't genuinely believe everything said in the bible is literally true and you've been doing them something of a disservice in your beliefs about them.
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2012-02-15 05:57 pm (UTC)(link)
You still haven't said what makes you a Christian then. It's a self-applied label, so it clearly means something to you - but so far you haven't corrected me from "I believe things that it makes me feel happy to believe.", which is surprising, as I'd have thought that you wouldn't be happy with that label.

[identity profile] steer.livejournal.com 2012-02-15 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I picked my definition of Christian from Bertrand Russell's essay "Why I am not a Christian." It's excellent and part of the reason I stopped being an atheist. You can find it here:

http://users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html

but so far you haven't corrected me from "I believe things that it makes me feel happy to believe."

Then let me take this opportunity to do so.
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2012-02-15 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll go and read that now - I may be a while in responding to this one, as I also have dinner arriving momentarily, and possibly also a shopping delivery :->

And please don't take this as me trying to wind you up. It's not often I get a chance to talk to someone about their religious beliefs, and actually try and understand what they really believe, and why.

[identity profile] steer.livejournal.com 2012-02-15 06:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I find talking about religious beliefs pretty uncomfortable. People tend to assign you with all kinds of bonkers opinions afterwards... it's as if you've admitted to thinking that gravity is wrong. For some people it gives them an automatic "oh, they only believe that because" so I don't actually tend to mention it too much because in my experience it only ever reduces people's opinion of you.
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2012-02-15 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
That's understandable - especially if you're surrounded by sciency geeky types, who pounce on things and try to tear them apart.

If it helps, I'm appreciating the discussion, and it's not lowering my opinion of you :->
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