The problem with going there is that it’s easy to go to far, to a point where the Bible isn’t true anymore and it’s just your interpretation of bits and pieces of the Bible. Anyways, I don’t really think of figurative language as something you need to make allowances for, it just is how it was written- and most of the time is fairly obvious too. I’ve never seen one instance of imprecise measurement, but if you know of one, fire away, and unmarked parables are also fairly easy to spot.
Lauryn
Karma: 8
Hello all. I’m Lauryn, a 15-year old Christian- and a Bayesian thinker. Now, I’m sure that I’m going to get criticized because I’m young and Christian, but I undertand a lot more than you might first think (And a lot less than I’d like to). But let me finish first, yeah? I found LessWrong over a year ago and just recently felt that I just might fit in just enough to begin posting. I’d always considered myself clever (wince) and never really questioned myself or my beliefs, just repeated them back. But then I read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and was linked over here… And you can guess most of the story from there on. I devoured the sequences in less than a month, and started reading gobs and gobs of books by people I’d never heard of- but once I did, I realized that they were everywhere. Freud, Feynman, Orwell… And here I am, a good year later, a beginning rationalist. Before I get attacked, I’d like to say that I have seriously questioned my religon (as is implied above), and still came back to it. I do have ways that I believe Christianity could be disproved (I already posted some here ), and I have seen quite a bit of evidence for evolution. All right, NOW you may attack me.
Now the thing with that logic is that 97% of the world is made up of idiots (Probably a little higher than that, actually.) I do agree that it’s their fault if they misquote it, not your own, but let’s say you put an unclear statement in a self help book. Those books are generally read by the, ah, lower 40th percentile (Or around thereabouts), or just by really sad people- either way, they’re more emotionally unstable than normal. Now that we have the perfect conditions for a blowup, let’s say you said something like ‘It’s your responsibility to be happy’ in that book, meaning that you and only you can make yourself happy. Your emotionally unstable reader, however, read it as it was said and took a huge hit to their self-confidence. Do you see how it isn’t always the reader’s job?
I just have to point out that just because it’s anecdotal evidence doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take it as evidence- albeit with a good amount of salt. Especially from someone who we have evidence (Being on this site in the first place) is at least mildly rational. (And I’m not even going to mention the ghosts thing.)
Well, I should have specified- those are the first examples that jumped to mind. I mean a whole lot more by saying that I am a Christian, I suppose I would define it as I believe that all the Bible says is true- that God created the universe, Jesus is our Saviour, and we exist to glorify God (I know, cached thought, but that one I have thought about.).
I really do mean that I do not want to believe in anything that is wrong, but I have yet to see anything that is definitive evidence that my beliefs are incorrect. (And I also admit that I do not want to give up my current beliefs, and I’m going to be heavily biased against any information shown me, but I will try.)
Hello, I’m a Christian. And, yes, I’m also a rationalist gasp!. I was born and raised a Christian, and I honestly am not sure if I would believe, say, Budhism if I was raised that way- My gut answer is ‘No’, but I cannot really be sure, as I would be a completely different person. There’s no way no one can truthfuly say yes or no for sure to that question.
Right, anyways, I do have reasons I would stop believing… There are a couple very specific situations that pop to mind in which I would be convinced that my whole life has been a lie:
The apocalypse happens in a fashion other than is predicted in Revelations (In parts of it that seem strictly factual, not symbolic)- Such as a Zombie Apocalypse with no Second Coming from the clouds.
Humans eliminating death- In Revelations, people die, so if that stopped being an option, well...
Time travel (Yes, really- it’s only a little less plausible than your reasons, no offense).
First, from a scientific standpoint, there’s a good bit of evidence for creation as is told in the Bible- a flood and all.
And it really isn’t anything I can convince you of from there on- reasons such as that it makes sense that we cannot make ourselves good enough, the Bible makes far more sense than the Quaran (which I have read a good bit of), experiences, so on, so forth. And just pure faith, which of course makes no sense to a good atheist like you. (No offense. No offense.)