Just rereading parts of The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist and copied this quote from early on in the introduction which helps me think about “God” and what god belief is really.
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Why do we need to make a choice preemptively for everyone and who should make such policies. You asked if I’ve ever taken care of people in pain and near death. I’m not going to claim any authority based on my answer to that but neither do I grant any to anyone else based on their experience...
I support you in making that choice for yourself when the time comes but I don’t look to the wider society to make that decision in the abstract far removed from that actual near death state. Why does it matter to you so much to have society moving along like clock work, even to the point of...
Sorry I'm having trouble using the software to quote your post. This may have to be klunky.
The gist of our disagreement seems to be centered here:
I do agree with you that we are none of us an island and we have duties to one another. Though I'm no theist I do think we are all part of...
Thanks for sharing your playing. I really enjoyed that.
I thought I might be barking up the wrong tree when I read:
Intuition (we just know it but can't say how we know it, like that there is a reality outside of consciousness, or that will is free because it feels free, or that there's a...
I don't think anyone fails to note the difference between a pet and a person. But they and we are mortal and the end will come. Having some say on how much we will endure before tapping out is no one's business but our own. Unlike our pets we are able to be cognizant of our prospects and our...
Yet an epistemology which exclusively relies on reason and devalues intuition is poorer for it. If we're talking about building up a resource of well documented facts which no one in their right mind would question then sure, reason and science are the way to go. But if you want to share the...
For before, for now, for forever for all the reasons already given. Death is natural and unavoidable. Sometimes postponable but always there are tradeoffs. Someone must decide when the tradeoffs are no longer acceptable. Who better to do that than the person who must suffer them?
Like the...
That is ripe with assumption which your approach is willfully blind toward.
in a simple chemical sense that is true. Is that all there is to the world? Is it simply a larder of resources for us to plunder?
I think the way the world affects and shapes us is also important.
Not for me...
When it comes to specific facts and techniques as with multiplication it is very simple though the real teaching involves recognizing where it applies. But when you look at the kinds of truth religions and the humanities are concerned with, indoctrination amounts to a kind of template or filter...
That raises the question whether as a teacher, Jesus has particular guidance to impart regarding how to live and how to be in order to bring God into focus in your life -or- is he just suggesting you take your hand off the wheel and let him steer your life for you? The first seem honorable to...
I'm not a fan of the supernatural terminology but I do think there is much science can never explain. For one thing the world and life generally are not mechanisms and so cannot be understood mechanistically. It's like Newton's physics, correct in broad strokes within a limited range of...
Exactly the way I feel about it. I actually think traditional belief systems that evolve over time probably have advantages I'll never know. But since I'm quite content with my lot, why complain?
Most importantly I think everyone has beliefs regarding the big questions which they cannot...
Isn't there also a difference between following Jesus by way of his example and thinking his disembodied essence hovers near wanting to join with you? Believing that his example was a good one or even best, seems pretty different than looking to him as a spiritual general with a plan for you.
But how do you picture that. Something person-like or literally just everything? If God is all of existence then you must be some sort of pantheist too, yes? Do you see that as compatible with Christianity.
I don't mean to give you the third degree but I don't really understand Christianity.
I agree with you that science, as useful as it has been in helping us know and make use of the world, probably does influence the move away from God/gods belief. The mindset that a disinterested, neutral perspective is the best way to understand everything disposes us to always look for...