(July 3, 2019 at 2:34 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: 1. Regarding the Bible, are there particular standards you use for determining what is meant literally and what is meant allegorically, or is it more of a 'gut' feeling?
I read the Bible, as I would any other piece of writing, or communication. If I read metaphor, allegory, irony, satire, sarcasm, etc.. in the Bible, it’s because it resembles or shares a commonality, in other areas where I read these things. For most of us who have a non-impaired inferential capacity, most of this comes fairly naturally, if you’re an avid reader of literature, perhaps even more perceptively.
Quote:I know you are convinced that your religious views are the correct ones (and that's fine). People with other religious views are convinced of their own correctness and for similar reasons. When these views contradict each other (everyone can't be right), do you ever consider the possibility that you might be mistaken?
My religious views are my worldview, and in order for it to be true other competing worldviews would have to be false, this would be the same if I held some godless worldview as well. Could I be mistaken? Sure, but my doubt here is as much as my doubts that I’m not a brain in a vat.
Quote:3. Hypothetically, if you could be persuaded that Jesus of Nazareth was not divine, would it be possible for you to still reverence him as a great moral philosopher?
No, because I don’t see Jesus as a moral philosopher, Jesus didn’t so much preach the Good, as he embodied it. To see Goodness and Christ as one and the same is for me to see him as divine. For many atheists good is often a description of actions and behaviors, were as for me its a way of being.
Quote:How important are religious rituals to you, personally?
Pretty important. But I appreciate rituals in a variety of aspects of my life, like in my military career, wedding ceremony, etc.
Quote:Is there ANY passage in the Bible with which you have trouble reconciling your beliefs?
Possibly, though none come to my head as of now.
