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

[John Grigg]

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.   
  Stathis wrote:
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"? 
>
   
  Retired Episcopal Bishop (and some say heretic), John Shelby Spong, wrote "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture."  I listened to him speak when he visited Anchorage, Alaska and found him to be a capable orator who amazingly did not have horns or a tail.  There was a sizeable public showing to listen to him as he tried to build on common ground regarding the life of Christ.  Afterward, I told him about my two years as a Mormon missionary in the Bible Belt and he smiled and wryly said "well, you must know about rejection, too..."
   
  John          
              
  


       
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