[ExI] [extropy-chat] Changing Other Poster's Minds

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 03/05/07, spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:

Most of us here have a fundamentalist's outlook: of course it matters.  But
> to many non-fundamentalist believers, it really does not matter whether or
> not a belief is true.  The terms true and false do not really apply to
> their
> religion.  For most, religion is a philosophy.  It would be like asking is
> democrat or republican true?  Those terms do not apply, these are
> philosophies.  They hold some true and some false notions, with much gray
> area.  A philosophy would not be like a science, in which true or false
> are
> applicable and it matters.  Fundamentalists treat religion the same as a
> science.


Liberal theologians sometimes treat religion as if it is obviously just
fantasy: we know that there are no virgin births, people don't rise from the
dead, etc. (at least not 2000 years ago), but they are inspiring stories
nonetheless, like the mythology of any culture. Would you say that these
people are more or less honest than the fundamentalists, who after all have
to convince themselves of something a rational person would not believe and
call it "faith"?

-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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