(May 11, 2025 at 1:29 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(May 11, 2025 at 8:45 am)Belacqua Wrote: I don't care what the majority taste in novels is, and I don't care what the majority views of religion are. Quality is a completely separate issue.

Right; and the majority of Christians don't hold any strong beliefs about what God is beyond his role as creator. 

Do most Christians believe a deity performs miracles? Only miracles are supernatural, by definition.

Catholics certainly do, and roughly half of Christians globally identify as Catholics. So that claim appears to be dubious rhetoric.

(May 11, 2025 at 1:29 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:

(May 11, 2025 at 8:45 am)Belacqua Wrote: I don't care what the majority taste in novels is, and I don't care what the majority views of religion are. Quality is a completely separate issue.

Right; and the majority of Christians don't hold any strong beliefs about what God is beyond his role as creator. In much the same way that the majority of people don't have any beliefs about the workings of human perception, they just know they have eyes and that they see. And any belief they did have is guaranteed to be wrong. You have to go to experts who have at least attempted to come up with reasonable answers to the question.

I remember meeting a Christian couple here in Hiroshima -- he was from Hiroshima and she was from Nagasaki. They were both doctors who had spent the majority of their careers doing charity work. He was a founding member of an anti-nuke organization that won the Nobel Peace Prize. 

I asked them about their theological beliefs and they said they had never thought about it. It was the least important part of Christianity in their eyes.

So I suspect this is true of the majority. And it's the reason why trying to dissuade them from Christianity by asking for objective evidence of a prime mover -- or something like that -- is a niche hobby for people on line, but doesn't make much difference in their lives.

Quote:Right; and the majority of Christians don't hold any strong beliefs about what God is beyond his role as creator. 

Rubbish

(May 11, 2025 at 3:38 pm)Belacqua Wrote: I asked them about their theological beliefs and they said they had never thought about it. It was the least important part of Christianity in their eyes.

Herbert Simon, an early cognitive scientist, popularized the term Satisficing in the study of judgment and decision making. People do not attempt to exhaust every subject and choice presented to them before making a judgment. And for obvious reasons, we simply don't have the bandwidth nor the time to maximize every decision we have to make. Instead, we aim for good enough and extrapolate the rest. So, in the case of this couple their good enough threshold was met, and it was enough to judge God's existence as real or possible, and then to focus on living a Christian life. We never get off the ground if we require absolute certainty, on any topic.

(May 11, 2025 at 3:38 pm)Belacqua Wrote:

(May 11, 2025 at 1:29 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: Right; and the majority of Christians don't hold any strong beliefs about what God is beyond his role as creator. In much the same way that the majority of people don't have any beliefs about the workings of human perception, they just know they have eyes and that they see. And any belief they did have is guaranteed to be wrong. You have to go to experts who have at least attempted to come up with reasonable answers to the question.

I remember meeting a Christian couple here in Hiroshima -- he was from Hiroshima and she was from Nagasaki. They were both doctors who had spent the majority of their careers doing charity work. He was a founding member of an anti-nuke organization that won the Nobel Peace Prize. 

I asked them about their theological beliefs and they said they had never thought about it. It was the least important part of Christianity in their eyes.

So I suspect this is true of the majority. And it's the reason why trying to dissuade them from Christianity by asking for objective evidence of a prime mover -- or something like that -- is a niche hobby for people on line, but doesn't make much difference in their lives.

Precisely the point I made earlier. The overwhelming majority of Christians don’t give a rat’s charbroiled arse about theology. They’re much more concerned about what their local pastor has to say than about Thomas Aquinas’ opinion on topics like divine simplicity.

Boru

And of course Johnny blather more pseudo-psychology

(April 27, 2025 at 11:42 am)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: Beliefs aren't simply isolated bits of information that one agrees with. They are integrated and predictive mental models of the world.

And so, why do Christians believe in Jesus? For the same reasons anybody believes anything: Because the proposition integrates well within their broader web of beliefs and reduces it's entropy. In other words, because it makes sense to them.

People believe in stuff like Jesus because often times an easy lie is better than a hard truth.

(May 11, 2025 at 5:27 pm)Pat Mustard Wrote: People believe in stuff like Jesus because often times an easy lie is better than a hard truth.

You're right; I'm sure that's it lol.

Quote:You're right; I'm sure that's it lol.

Better then anything you have offered

(May 11, 2025 at 3:50 pm)The Architect Of Fate Wrote:

Quote:Right; and the majority of Christians don't hold any strong beliefs about what God is beyond his role as creator. 

Rubbish

"Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen."
(Luke 11:2–14)

This prayer is repeated endlessly in all sorts of Christian services.  People believe they can talk to God, who listens, and that he can respond to their prayers.

That means Christians really do believe that God is both conscious and willful as well as being the creator.  That belief, in fact, is what differentiates them from deists.

Per Google, theism is the "belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in one god as creator of the universe, intervening in it and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures."

John is trolling us.