Even if God existed, “read the Bible!” would not convince me about it.
Telling someone to read a thousand page book is a poor advice as answer to a mistake they’ve just made, even if the book may be well worth reading. Many people react to such advices with a mix of
Damn, I have to read all this to understand the point?
I’m offendend, he’s implying that I’m uneducated when I haven’t read that.
He’s willing to tell me that I’m wrong without being able to tell me where exactly.
Unconvincing but valid advice nonetheless. If (the protestant) God existed, people who hadn’t read the Bible would be uneducated for that reason, and would gain a great deal from reading the entire thing. I can’t just tell you the one portion relevant because 1) you might need to read the rest to understand and 2) reading the rest would be good for you anyway.
Although it is not impossible that a topic is such complex and “irreducible” that the understanding of it can only be acquired as a whole and no partial understanding is accessible, I don’t find it probable even in case of counterfactual God’s existence.
Even if God existed, “read the Bible!” would not convince me about it.
Telling someone to read a thousand page book is a poor advice as answer to a mistake they’ve just made, even if the book may be well worth reading. Many people react to such advices with a mix of
Damn, I have to read all this to understand the point?
I’m offendend, he’s implying that I’m uneducated when I haven’t read that.
He’s willing to tell me that I’m wrong without being able to tell me where exactly.
Unconvincing but valid advice nonetheless. If (the protestant) God existed, people who hadn’t read the Bible would be uneducated for that reason, and would gain a great deal from reading the entire thing. I can’t just tell you the one portion relevant because 1) you might need to read the rest to understand and 2) reading the rest would be good for you anyway.
Although it is not impossible that a topic is such complex and “irreducible” that the understanding of it can only be acquired as a whole and no partial understanding is accessible, I don’t find it probable even in case of counterfactual God’s existence.