(November 12, 2017 at 12:09 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(November 12, 2017 at 9:10 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: Bullshit.
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.“ (Matthew 16: 27, 28)
Jor, I'd stick to philosophy if I were you. Every passage of Holy Scripture must be considered in light of the whole testimony of the Bible. Please don't make the same mistake as many Christians do by pulling one verse from its context to make a point. Even this one verse that you quoted, is steeped in allusion to prior texts and foreshadows those to follow.
Anyways, those calling theistic beliefs 'delusions' are clinging to a very weak connotation for no other purpose than to insult. I think I have one beer still in the fridge. I could be wrong. I have no evidence that there is. If there isn't a beer in the fridge that doesn't mean I am delusional. It would just mean that I am mistaken. On the other hand, if I check the fridge find no beer and yet insist that there is beer that might count as delusion...until I dig deeper and find one in the back of the crisper.
Now people believe in God for many reasons from personal experience to careful study of Scripture, from observation of Nature to reflection on life's significance. They may be wrong but they are not holding those beliefs in strong evidence to the contrary which would qualify as delusion. It used to be that denigrating sincerely held religious convictions was considered a form of bigotry.
I love this post! I've tried explaining this before but couldn't quite put it into words like this.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh