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RE: Ladies, are you Atheists?
October 7, 2009 at 5:13 pm
'On his own' as being opposed to 'with choice', interesting way of thinking...
So if it was not 'on his own', or I assume 'by himself', then that would be a matter of choice??
I thought that if you do something 'on your own', then that's your fully autonomous, independent from environmental factors, and a choice.
Ok, you confused me now. (Well, I partly confused myself too I think. Maybe it's 50/50).
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RE: Ladies, are you Atheists?
October 7, 2009 at 5:29 pm
EvF,
The point I was making was that her son searched and found some concept based on his searching rather than just accepting his mother's belief so that leads me to think the boy was taught to think for himself. Ok, so maybe Binny should be held accountable for failing to teach him critical thinking but even that would not have necessarily yielded atheistic beliefs. There are Christians who practice their own form of critical thinking based on their worldview that is very sound except for the whole, believing in revealed truths, concept.
Story time:
Last weekend I was hanging out with an old friend of mine and her son. The boy (14 year old) wanted to know about black holes so we had a discussion that ended with me suggesting that he should further his understanding by reading some Stephen Hawking to wit he replied, "Oh, I can't read that because his beliefs aren't the same as mine." (AHHHHH my brain screamed!) I asked him what he meant and he told me that Stephen Hawking believes in evolution so he refused to read anything by him. /Facepalm doesn't even begin to cover the spectrum of emotions that welled up within me! I wanted to remain pleasent though so I just said, "hmm, ok" and we moved on after a few minutes of silence. It seemed as if his mother thought that he was making a GOOD choice by basing his knowledge acquisition on beliefs he already held true. /GIANT CONFUSED FACEPALM OF PAIN!
Rhizo
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RE: Ladies, are you Atheists?
October 7, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I understand the 'think for himself' point, I was addressing the matter of whether belief is a choice or not.
EvF
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RE: Ladies, are you Atheists?
October 7, 2009 at 5:37 pm
EvF,
I say it is certainly not a choice whether you believe or not but, we all have a choice in what we read and (to a lesser degree) how we interpret what we read so it is possible to affect our belief indirectly.
Rhizo
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RE: Ladies, are you Atheists?
October 7, 2009 at 7:02 pm
But then you think nothing is a choice Evie so that sorta voids you of pretty much any opinion right??