Critical thinking used by believers about their own belief

[Evangelicalhumanist]

This is not something I have done about my of faith....and I should have done it.
What will happen if believers started to do critical thinking about every aspects of their own faith?

Some of RF's believers may already do it daily
Will our faith get stronger or will it be a to big challenge?

I think there's plenty of evidence that it can go either way. Look, for example, at Bishop John Shelby Spong and Bart Ehrman. Both scholars in their own ways, and both began seeking to serve in the Christian faith. Spong stayed, Ehrman went to atheism.

I have many, many examples of people who, on doing a lot of critical thinking, could no longer remain in their faith. Read Charles Templeton's A Farewell to God, for example. He worked with Billy Graham for years, and then turned to atheism because he thought too much about what the faith was teaching.

But there are also examples of stellar scientists who took up faith later in life. One good example is Francis Collins, a genetecist who headed the Human Genome Project.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Everyone abides in their own truth. Often enough truths collide and run contrary to each other. People are going to want to govern society with their truth. There has to be agreeable ground to cooperate with each other. If we all govern ourselves with our own truth and nobody is stepping on one another's civil rights then perhaps no problems should arise.
However I expect there will always be tension and conflict if anyone wants it.

So the battle is always going to be over civil rights and how each person's truth affects the policies we make for all people. Critical thinking works well for technology, science, and all the technical aspects of living and also to have a cooperative society. Things like values and morals should have justification and reason and not merely be accepted without proving them to be true .

Personally I have no problem with each person governing themselves according to their own truth among their own kind of people. I do think everyone should have the right to their own civil truth and not have to feel coerced into accepting someone else's ways. I think that's a good place to start in trying to build the necessary common civil rights that all people should at least agree upon.

I like that saying in America, " Don't tread on me ". People have to learn how to do that and not deny anyone basic human rights. What I would hate to see is people always meddling in how another person should live out their personal private lives. America should be foremost about the right to your own personal private life so long as it does no damage to anyone else.

I think it's unavoidable that a society should need to find common ground for all people. A generally acceptable way forward.

What bugs me is the people who want to say morality is only preference, tastes, and opinions. That undermines moral facts. Morality and a person's values have real cause and effect. We should be able to reason and justify our moralities and values according to a more universal, and beneficial cause and effect.

You have a lot more space in America, to avoid stepping on each other. Yet you can’t seem to get out of each other’s faces.

I think we’ve had to learn the hard way, in Europe, how not to do that. I hope it lasts though. 2000 years of conflict taught Europe tolerance; we could easily go back to the tribal enmities of the past.

 

[Spirit of Light]

I think there's plenty of evidence that it can go either way. Look, for example, at Bishop John Shelby Spong and Bart Ehrman. Both scholars in their own ways, and both began seeking to serve in the Christian faith. Spong stayed, Ehrman went to atheism.

I have many, many examples of people who, on doing a lot of critical thinking, could no longer remain in their faith. Read Charles Templeton's A Farewell to God, for example. He worked with Billy Graham for years, and then turned to atheism because he thought too much about what the faith was teaching.

But there are also examples of stellar scientists who took up faith later in life. One good example is Francis Collins, a genetecist who headed the Human Genome Project.

I don't fear for my belief or faith but time will tell what will happen to me

 

[Revoltingest]

Some will answer NO you can not do that. Others may answer. Yes you can.
For me, there are certain question i probably will not ask, but I will see what happens in the future.

What questions cannot be asked?

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes.
It is important to question that which we don't understand.
I don't mean to question in a way that perhaps the Qur'an is NOT of Divine origin.
..but in a way of "that can't be right" and trying to ascertain the correct understanding in the light of the whole.

Some verses are allegorical, for example.
Pondering over them might illuminate further.

Our intentions will affect our futures. It is the most important thing of all.

I'd think that to question divine origin
would be the most important query of all.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I'd think that to question divine origin
would be

I think to question the limit of asking questions is the most important query of all.

 

[muhammad_isa]

I'd think that to question divine origin
would be the most important query of all.

No. Either a text is the literal words of G-d, or it isn't.

Do you know of any other text that is claimed to be the literal words of G-d other than the Qur'an?
[Note "words" and not word]

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

No. Either a text is the literal words of G-d, or it isn't.

Do you know of any other text that is claimed to be the literal words of G-d other than the Qur'an?
[Note "words" and not word]

Yeah, and then I question if there are other ways to ask questions about God. And thus I do it differently than you.

 

[SalixIncendium]

This is not something I have done about my of faith....and I should have done it.
What will happen if believers started to do critical thinking about every aspects of their own faith?

Some of RF's believers may already do it daily
Will our faith get stronger or will it be a to big challenge?

Similarly to @George-ananda, I'm a Hindu as a result of critical thinking.

 

[Revoltingest]

I think to question the limit of asking questions is the most important query of all.

That's a questionable claim.

 

[Revoltingest]

No. Either a text is the literal words of G-d, or it isn't.

Well, if it must be one or the other,
then that is the question.

Do you know of any other text that is claimed to be the literal words of G-d other than the Qur'an?
[Note "words" and not word]

I've no idea.

 

[Spirit of Light]

What questions cannot be asked?

Some will answers to never ask about Muhammad or Allah by use of critical thinking

 

[Revoltingest]

Some will answers to never ask about Muhammad or Allah by use of critical thinking

Say whuh?

 

[Spirit of Light]

Say whuh?

Those who believe by blind faith

 

[Revoltingest]

Those who believe by blind faith

Question looks useful especially to them.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Question looks useful especially to them.

Absolutely yes.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Some will answers to never ask about Muhammad or Allah by use of critical thinking

Well, to me IMO that is in one sense no different than any other assumption that can't be questioned. Like whether the world is physical or not. Or whether evidence, rationality or critical thinking has limits.
So I learned through critical thinking not to believe in God or that the world is physical. Yet I can still use both for different limited contexts and make positive sense of both, but still in a limited sense in both cases.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Well, to me IMO that is in one sense no different than any other assumption that can't be questioned. Like whether the world is physical or not. Or whether evidence, rationality or critical thinking has limits.
So I learned through critical thinking not to believe in God or that the world is physical. Yet I can still use both for different limited contexts and make positive sense of both, but still in a limited sense in both cases.

Some ( a few) will say something like " we can not question God, because it is Haram. But one does not have to ask in a negative tone, only asking because humans are curious to understand

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I don't fear for my belief or faith but time will tell what will happen to me

I actually had a little bit more to say on this topic.

As I said, although critical thinking can leave one still believing to some extent, as with Bishop Spong, there is no doubt whatever that if you are practice real critical thinking, those beliefs will not be the same -- they will inevitably have to give a little.

If critical thinking is defined as: "Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action," then one is going to have to include one's observations in the real world -- and that can have its effect.

One example is how many Protestant denominations have found their way to celebrating same-sex unions, where once Christianity universally condemned such ideas. Observation and experience in the real world shows clearly that homosexuality is not a choice -- and if it is not a choice, the believer in a Special Creation must find a way to include homosexuality IN that creation.

This is true of everything else that we think we understand -- if our understanding is at odds with our observations and experiences, then thinking critically forces us to adjust our understanding.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

Some ( a few) will say something like " we can not question God, because it is Haram. But one does not have to ask in a negative tone, only asking because humans are curious to understand

Well, the generic version is: "We can't question X, because it is Y." But that is not just God as X. You see, a global skeptic when I find such a cases as a specific, I ask can I find other cases. And Y is apparently always a case of a negative feeling/emotion/evaluation.