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Author Topic:   Where Faith Comes From in the "moderate" Christian religions
Phage0070
Inactive Member


Message 8 of 132 (513137)
06-25-2009 11:14 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Teapots&unicorns
06-24-2009 8:42 PM


Speaking from my observations, believers in this category fall into a few subcategories:
1) Personal revelation. Often their particular experience is not revealed lest it be questioned, but they often admit that it is not useful for anyone other than themselves. The "why" of this experience is considered unknowable, and highly insulting if their rigor is questioned.
2) "The WORD is still alive." This subcategory, following the strong tradition of anthropomorphism, maintains that the divinely inspired parts of the Bible will make themselves known. In other words, the wheat will separate itself from the chaff as a conscious entity. There does not appear to be any explanation for this other than certain parts "resonate" more with the reader.
3) Peer pressure. This group was raised as Christians and their belief is based solely on that fact. Ultimately most justifications for their faith are based on incredulity that their upbringing was deeply flawed; it would be like someone pointing out that you don't *know* that your sister/brother is actually biologically related to your family at all.
4) True ignorance. Some people never think about it at all. This may be surprising for people who come to a forum like this, but large swaths of the population have never considered the question of religion at all. These should be distinguished from #3 because they are not incredulous of the possibility of being wrong, it just never occurred to them.
I have probably missed some, but we can add them as they come up.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Teapots&unicorns, posted 06-24-2009 8:42 PM Teapots&unicorns has seen this message but not replied

Phage0070
Inactive Member


Message 28 of 132 (513213)
06-26-2009 10:15 AM
Reply to: Message 14 by Teapots&unicorns
06-25-2009 3:10 PM


Re: Moderate Musings
Teapots&unicorns writes:
I have a bunch of friends who can never answer if I ask them a religious question, and if I ask them why they keep worshipping, they just can't think of a response.
This is what I meant by "ignorance". There is a connotation against ignorance that implies someone who is ignorant is somehow at fault or "lesser" because of it, but I don't think that is always justified. There is no *inherent* negative quality of ignorance, just negative repercussions that can occur.

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 Message 14 by Teapots&unicorns, posted 06-25-2009 3:10 PM Teapots&unicorns has seen this message but not replied

Phage0070
Inactive Member


Message 49 of 132 (513292)
06-27-2009 11:28 AM
Reply to: Message 23 by Woodsy
06-26-2009 6:35 AM


Woodsy writes:
I wonder if faith arises in part from some sort of flaw in the wiring of our brains.
This just brought to mind the similarities between religious belief and the justifications that are raised for it, and the split brain experiments.
In those experiments the corpus callosum (the part that connects the two hemispheres of the brain) of the subjects were severed, in essence making two different brains in charge of opposite halves of the body. Since the speech control center is usually located in the left hemisphere of the brain which controls the right side of the body (and the right half of the visual field), the right side of the brain could be directed to do things that the left side of the brain was unaware of. For instance, the subject's view of their hands were blocked and a variety of objects were placed in range of their grasp. The name of an object was flashed into the left visual field only, meaning that the right brain only saw the word. The left hand (controlled by the right brain) could locate the proper object and hold it, but the subject would be unable to tell the tester what object they held in their hand and would deny having seen the object's name being flashed on the screen.
The relevant part of this ramble is I seem to recall that when the left hand was observed by the left brain to seemingly act on its own, the left brain would be compelled to make up a reason for its actions, one that it would believe completely. I think this is called "confabulation", and I cannot help but think it may be somehow related to faith experiences.

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Phage0070
Inactive Member


Message 94 of 132 (513726)
07-01-2009 9:52 AM
Reply to: Message 93 by jaywill
07-01-2009 7:48 AM


Re:
jaywill writes:
"Some animals are extinct. Therefore Evolution took place" has always seemed to me a shaky assumption.
Of course, that assumption would be completely unfounded. Are you under the impression that anyone was making such an assumption?

This message is a reply to:
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Replies to this message:
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