(January 15, 2022 at 4:09 am)Belacqua Wrote: Since we all have characteristic ways of thinking, and these ways of thinking are always derived from our culture, I don't see how we can be said NOT to have an ideology.
Especially if we have strong beliefs about how the world could be better, then that's our ideology.
Nope. Ideology is a set of beliefs that must not be questioned but obeyed no matter what the evidence shows.
(January 15, 2022 at 4:09 am)Belacqua Wrote: This strikes me as an extremely ideological statement. It says how people ought to think and how they should be in relation to their local institutions and ethos. It takes a stand against people with a different ideology -- for example, those who think they should be humble in the face of authority.
Lacking ideology is not ideology, let alone an extreme ideology.
(January 15, 2022 at 4:09 am)Belacqua Wrote: It's also completely impossible for any idea to "stand on its own two legs." Every idea we hold, or every new idea we hear of, is woven into a system of beliefs from the moment it comes to us. An idea will be propped up by some institution or ethos -- whether that's science
You really are playing a nonsense game, and contradicting yourself by saying that science is set of beliefs when it proved some idea.
(January 15, 2022 at 4:09 am)Belacqua Wrote: The different parts of the Bible were written for different purposes, but have been treated and interpreted as sacred by very serious people for a very long time.
Wow, serous people, oh my. For what purpose was it written to put a sword in a baby's heart?
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
