(April 24, 2017 at 12:53 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: Ok, re: OP . . . I'm an ex-theist. And please forgive if someone has already replied with a similar response, because I'm really short of time at the moment, so I haven't read it all!
I think that most theists cling to their "club" and their "belief" because they were raised in it. They have been conditioned from birth that THIS is the only true belief, and that they really shouldn't question it. Not only that, but they are surrounded by like-minded people. And they have not had enough contact with people who hold different beliefs to be curious about those beliefs - in fact, they are trained to dismiss those beliefs as wrong. (I once worked with a devout Christian who worked with a Buddhist, a Muslim, an Agnostic, and a Hindu. She claimed to love every one of them - "what a great team! We have such great people!". When I told her about a comparative religion discussion I had with a co-worker from Bangladesh, however, she was horrified. "You shouldn't talk about religion! He's not a Christian, he's not saved! It might make you curious about his beliefs, and he's deluded!". Wowza.) Just reading about "other" beliefs, for some of these people, is a dangerous path. It's a slippery slope. They might find other religions interesting, and that CANNOT HAPPEN. They'll go to hell.
--Fuzz
Yes, most of the world's population simply buy the club because their parents sold it to them at a young age before they could formulate adult critical thinking skills.
But even for someone who might not get raised in one but adapts one as an adult might simply have liberal parents but also not taught critical thinking skills. "Find your own path" sounds nice, but you don't simply say "sample it all", you still have to have a neutral method to apply everything you might look at.
I said in my prior post, you can be intelligent and wrong at the same time. You can be intelligent and fall for very complex arguments that are still nothing more than an elaborate apology.
In the end anything you might want to claim, if it is going to be universally accepted beyond your own personal bias has to be subject to both an accepted method and neutral independent peer review.
There is no such thing as Buddhist science even if their are Buddhists with science degrees. There is no such thing as Christian science even if there are Christians with science degrees. There is no such thing as Muslim science, even if there are Muslims with science degrees. There is no such thing as Jewish science even if there are Jews with science degrees. There is no such thing as Hindu science even if there are Hindus with science degrees.
There is only one neutral concept of scientific method that all scientists use beyond their own personal beliefs.
