Sure, he could be talking about Orthodox Judaism. But even if that is taken in conjunction with Christianity, it hardly comprises “religion.” But if his intention is merely to show a test case, I concede the point.
I can’t help feeling that these “awe and wonder” religionists are straw men. Awe and wonder, from a Christian perspective anyway, are only part of what is offered in scripture.
It’s a categorical error because it assumes an equivalent relationship between God and people. (It also ignores the context of the occurence, but that’s another issue) We aren’t always to do as God does. That’s the difference between ethics and theology. Another question is, why should this occurence be singled out as factual when the rest of the OT is taken as suspect?
How do we know how the OT was originally intended? What specific things have been misinterpreted for centuries?
The parallel that I’m making is between one (apparently unproven) principle: people can be unbiased, or at least that bias can be reduced, and another (apparently unproven) principle: the biblical account could be true. If we say that certain evidence (people have been unable to eliminate bias in themselves) doesn’t disprove the first principle (lack of bias is achievable), then we might extrapolate that some evidence (there are archeological and theological difficulties in the OT) doesn’t disprove the second.
G,
Sure, he could be talking about Orthodox Judaism. But even if that is taken in conjunction with Christianity, it hardly comprises “religion.” But if his intention is merely to show a test case, I concede the point.
I can’t help feeling that these “awe and wonder” religionists are straw men. Awe and wonder, from a Christian perspective anyway, are only part of what is offered in scripture.
It’s a categorical error because it assumes an equivalent relationship between God and people. (It also ignores the context of the occurence, but that’s another issue) We aren’t always to do as God does. That’s the difference between ethics and theology. Another question is, why should this occurence be singled out as factual when the rest of the OT is taken as suspect?
How do we know how the OT was originally intended? What specific things have been misinterpreted for centuries?
The parallel that I’m making is between one (apparently unproven) principle: people can be unbiased, or at least that bias can be reduced, and another (apparently unproven) principle: the biblical account could be true. If we say that certain evidence (people have been unable to eliminate bias in themselves) doesn’t disprove the first principle (lack of bias is achievable), then we might extrapolate that some evidence (there are archeological and theological difficulties in the OT) doesn’t disprove the second.