Srap Tasmaner

Hey now

I can’t help but think so, yes. When I was young, I thought the main problem with Christianity was that it wasn’t true — just a culturally transmitted...

I’m not sure what to say next that would have any value as philosophy, so I’ll give a couple examples. A very nice piece of qualitative sociology is S...

If you mean “philosophy” aspirationally. It’s a good starting assumption. Thinking may or may not turn out to be philosophy. These two points together...

When I was a kid, we used to pray for the souls in purgatory. Have they brought back indulgences? Anyway, after twenty pages of the iniquitous punishm...

But there’s also the question of what he gets — if he genuinely seeks forgiveness from God, he’ll get it.

Maybe it’s this: Christianity has an outsize presence in the politics of my country, especially where I live, in the Bible belt. It’s been on my mind ...

I’m pretty that one was based on a story @"Hanover" told Tom once over jug of moonshine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TNlt5DKWEs

No, no. That's good. I was practically begging for someone to correct me there. But I've sometimes wondered how to read the first commandment if not a...

I don't know. First part is incontestably true, but the incarnation is pretty interesting, a god emptying himself of his divinity that he might be sac...

Yes yes yes yes yes.

(( Sorry for the little replies. Writing as I can squeeze it in. )) I haven't been trying to give Christians any more deference than I would anyone el...

I mean, that's obviously not even close. The problem of hell is how to reconcile our ideas of it with the perfect goodness of God. Way out of my leagu...

Well, yeah -- but maybe we should. How much more obvious can you make it that you need help? My favorite bit of wisdom about parenting: For what it's ...

And I'll put in another plug for my idea that you could think of each moment of your life as forever, since there's a sense in which it is. Since God ...

Step by step, this sounds plausible, but I think that’s only because it’s so selective. “Hidden” from whom? Christian theologians have been arguing ab...

That's helpful. Thanks. Speaking for myself, as a non-Christian participant in the discussion, I was not offended by the title.

The last part of this was a rhetorical flourish I probably shouldn't have indulged. Sorry, gang. I was thinking of this sort of thing from early in th...

Spicy take indeed! That's both a horrifying and plausible thought. It's mildly surprising that we have somehow avoided doing much in this thread about...

That is a gigantic mess. (It hadn't even occurred to me -- probably my unconscious warding off the gigantic mess.) Since I can't help myself, I'll say...

Your argument is that the voice of God has the same role in belief formation as the hidden unknowns we model, as the outside cause of whatever we do t...

But if it's not 'special' in the sense indicated, then it's not true. Revelation can't be part of our usual game of justifying beliefs, so anything re...

It does indeed, but if you just rule out revelation, you're ruling out Christianity tout court. Which is fine, but then there's just no point in nitpi...

Then there are probably no religions at all. This argument is clearly overbroad.

I distinguish between bias and prejudice, with bias being something you cannot just choose not to have, may not even know you have, and prejudice, whi...

Ah, I see. Didn’t know that was Abraham addressing God. Well, yes, Abraham is a pretty convincing precedent.

I’m probably missing this suggestion in the passage from Jonah you quote. Was it in there? Or do you have another source? On its face, reproaching God...

I mentioned before that I think for some Christians it has. There are a few possibilities here too: (1) Loss of faith altogether. If you identify your...

Well, that’s what we’re here to talk about, isn’t it. What are the options? 1. You believe in the Christian God and hell. 2. You believe in the Christ...

It occurs to me — what should be obvious but I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it — that I’m in the habit of thinking of faith, much as I think of othe...

What Francis said was frankly surprising, and I’m not sure what to make of it. Even more interesting to me was the chorus of children who thought God ...

Agreed, and to the extent that’s what my take looks like, that’s on me. There is the spectre of believers getting a “free pass” — Dennett wrote a whol...

Yikes, I hope I haven’t given that impression. I pointed out that it’s not unusual for Christians to struggle with or have misgivings about the concep...

I wasn’t complaining about your typing skill, but about your habit of what one might call “controlling” or “manipulating” the conversation, rather tha...

Please stop doing that.

That's an interesting analogy. Just how general is this maxim? Does what we can put into words about, say, playing music "trump" playing music? In wha...

Obviously I like a lot of this, so thanks. Not much time at the moment, so more later, but one thing I found myself struggling with was that putting t...

There are indeed a whole lot of propositions! Suppose you’re a Christian and you’ve been struggling with the concept of hell. On its face, it doesn’t ...

And for evidence, we need look no further than the all but indistinguishable lives of Desmond Tutu and Steven Anderson. Yeah, I see what you mean.

Is faith exactly a matter of your opinions on certain questions (the reality of God, hell, and so on)? Is it just some propositions you assent to?

What exactly is it you would be forgiving them for? For having a thought, one you consider a fantasy? Why would that be something that needs forgiving...

I wouldn’t think so, not exactly. I suppose when I hear “conceptual scheme” I think “taxonomy”, more or less. But I don’t mean what categories you ass...

I genuinely don't know what the right thing to say here is. I'll admit I'm tempted to make Christian faith "adverbial": they experience loneliness, fo...

I've tried, a little, to suggest how I think it's different from these examples. To me, faith seems to imply a meaning-world I am not privy to. I thin...

I stand corrected. I've been discussing the premises of this argument, not it's suggested conclusion.

I am intimately familiar with the problems unshared faith can cause. I don't know what solution you're proposing, and I'm not convinced it's relevant ...

But why should I care? What do you imagine as the remedy here? I already don't share their faith, so reasons for me not to have no purpose. Must I "de...

But this is a question: can faith be captured without remainder in propositions? I can't imagine any believer agreeing to that. But, as you say, there...

But why should I care? Christians are specifically enjoined not to judge the state of another's soul. It seems to bother Lewis that they believe he wi...