[Serious] Over the top

[Belacqua]

None of that actually means that you "know".

True, I can only do my best to interpret things. If anyone has an argument about what I'm misinterpreting, I will be happy to consider it.

 I see that you went on about your ivory tower friends. Would the two physicians have done what they did without being christian? 

Well, one of them spent his life meeting victims of the atomic bombs, researching how they were affected, doing autopsies, etc. He then took his research to an organization of doctors who were trying to inform governments about what atomic bombs do. 

The other founded a private hospital, refused to profit from it, lived in the hospital in a 4.5 tatami-mat room, spent his days putting tubes down people's throats to discover what was wrong with them, and made significant contributions to the practice of endoscopy.

You have a different definition of "ivory tower" than I do. 

Whether they would have done it without their religion or not is impossible to say. But that's not the point I'm making. 

I am pointing out that these people, in their own views, were defined/informed by their religion to a significant degree, and were not little people who were unable to develop. 

It still come across as religion defines(inform) the individual, and if that's the only position defines a persons life/being, then they are of little consequence.

I see what you mean, I think. 

If their religion is the only thing they have going, then yes, that's the only thing they have going. If they sit in a room thinking "I'm Christian" every day and do nothing else, then yes, they are little and they don't develop. 

I am pointing out that there are people who define/inform their selves largely through their religion, who are more than that.

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I interpret it to mean that if you can tell a person's identity from their religion alone that makes them not much, which is pretty true. I've never met such a person, but that person would be a sad thing indeed. Every person I've ever met is a sight more than their religion, especially given that every religion is interpreted as the believer sees fit.

Oh, I see. I hadn't thought of that reading. 

But that goes into how we tell a person's identity. If all we know of a person is his or her religion, it just means we don't know that much about them. 

I agree that, if a person never does anything in the world other than sit in a room and think "I'm Jewish," then that person would not be very impressive. 

I've never met such a person either. In fact I think that most religious people would reject that stance -- a particular moral commitment to the world would necessitate taking some kind of action.