I don’t have a lot to add to my comments on religious authorities, apart from what I said in the post and what I said in response to Luke’s Muslim theology case here.
One thing I’d say is that many of the Christian moral teachings that are most celebrated are actually pretty good, though I’d admit that many others are not. Examples of good ones include:
Love your neighbor as yourself (I’d translate this as “treat others as you would like to be treated”)
Focus on identifying and managing your own personal weaknesses rather than criticizing others for their weaknesses
Prioritize helping poor and disenfranchised people
Don’t let your acts of charity be motivated by finding approval from others
These are all drawn from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, which is arguably his most celebrated set of moral teachings.
Good points. Of course, depending on the Pope in question, you also have teachings like the sinfulness of homosexuality, the evil of birth control, and the righteousness of God in torturing nonbelievers forever. Many people place more weight on these beliefs than they do on those of liberal/scientific elites.
It seems like you’re going to get clusters of authority sentiment. Educated people will place high authority on impressive intellectuals, business people, etc. Conservative religious people will tend to place high authority on church leaders, religious founders, etc. and very low authority on scientists, at least when it comes to metaphysical questions rather than what medicine to take for an ailment. (Though there are plenty of skeptics of traditional medicine too.) What makes the world of Catholic elites different from the world of scientific elites? I mean, some people think the Pope is a stronger authority on God than anyone thinks the smartest scientist is about physics.
I don’t have a lot to add to my comments on religious authorities, apart from what I said in the post and what I said in response to Luke’s Muslim theology case here.
One thing I’d say is that many of the Christian moral teachings that are most celebrated are actually pretty good, though I’d admit that many others are not. Examples of good ones include:
Love your neighbor as yourself (I’d translate this as “treat others as you would like to be treated”)
Focus on identifying and managing your own personal weaknesses rather than criticizing others for their weaknesses
Prioritize helping poor and disenfranchised people
Don’t let your acts of charity be motivated by finding approval from others
These are all drawn from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, which is arguably his most celebrated set of moral teachings.
Good points. Of course, depending on the Pope in question, you also have teachings like the sinfulness of homosexuality, the evil of birth control, and the righteousness of God in torturing nonbelievers forever. Many people place more weight on these beliefs than they do on those of liberal/scientific elites.
It seems like you’re going to get clusters of authority sentiment. Educated people will place high authority on impressive intellectuals, business people, etc. Conservative religious people will tend to place high authority on church leaders, religious founders, etc. and very low authority on scientists, at least when it comes to metaphysical questions rather than what medicine to take for an ailment. (Though there are plenty of skeptics of traditional medicine too.) What makes the world of Catholic elites different from the world of scientific elites? I mean, some people think the Pope is a stronger authority on God than anyone thinks the smartest scientist is about physics.