(June 15, 2011 at 8:02 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: I like this discussion
Ok here is why I feel there is no neutral ground on this matter. The Bible is very clear that you are either for it or against it (Matthew 12:30). So the Bible says there is no neutral ground. So if someone says, "I believe there is neutral ground on this matter." They are actually saying the Bible is wrong, which of course means they are not neutral. So I do not believe that Christians arrived at their positoin by being neutural, however I do not belilieve non-believers arrived at their position by being neutral. Is that fair?
That is definitely a fair statement to say there is no middle ground to interpreting the bible, unless of course you count those waffling agnostics. However, this was more of the point I was addressing on the fact that there is a middle ground-
Statler Waldorf Wrote:I pre-suppose the Bible is the word of God, I believe non-believers pre-suppose it is not the word of God; there is no middle ground on this subject.
To say that there is no middle ground assumes that anyone interpreting the bible is under the assumption that it either is or isn't the word of god. My point was that it's entirely possible to read the bible open to either interpretation, which I would call a middle ground.
Statler Waldorf Wrote:Ok here is why I feel there is no neutral ground on this matter. The Bible is very clear that you are either for it or against it (Matthew 12:30). So the Bible says there is no neutral ground. So if someone says, "I believe there is neutral ground on this matter." They are actually saying the Bible is wrong, which of course means they are not neutral. So I do not believe that Christians arrived at their position by being neutral, however I do not believe that non-believers arrived at their position by being neutral either. Is that a fair assumption?
I think here you are confusing being predisposed to think one way or the other to taking a presupposed stance on the bible. In the end, we only have our perceptions to interpret scripture which are always going to be biased and cause us to tend to think towards one end of the spectrum or the other with regards to religion. As long as the person is consciously trying to keep an open mind while coming to a conclusion on the bible, I do not see that as biased regardless or the conclusion reached.
Statler Waldorf Wrote:As to the presuppositions point you made. It is not bad logic to presuppose certain truths I believe; in fact I think it is necessary in order to obtain any knowledge at all. Sure you can take an eye test, but how do you know you took the test in the first place? You’d have to use your senses right? So you have to make certain assumptions beforehand before you can obtain any knowledge at all. Some of these include, laws of logic exist and we should adhere to them, our senses are generally reliable, our memories are generally reliable, and the future will resemble the past. I believe that presupposing scripture’s truth gives us a solid foundation for why these presuppositions are accurate. Your thoughts?
It is definitely necessary to make certain presuppositions but to come to a conclusion that is true to your personal pursuit of truth, one cannot presuppose either way whether the scripture is truthful or not. One loses all objectivity if not being open to either interpretation.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell