RE: Is life more satisfying as an atheist or religionist?
November 9, 2023 at 8:10 am
(This post was last modified: November 9, 2023 at 8:14 am by FrustratedFool.)
1) So you would argue that the best cultural works are religious? I strongly disagree. There's great religious works, of course, but to argue that the best works are religious seems untenable to me. If you made a list of all the greatest religious cultural works on one side and I made a list of all the greatest not-explicitly-religious works on the other, I think I'd much rather be confined to spending the rest of my life with my list than yours. It'd be larger, more varied, and generally better. You are, of course, allowed to differ on matters of taste. 
Indeed, I'd be happy to even take it turns to name great works from our lists in a thread. And yes, I'd much rather have Shakespeare than Dante, and definitely Augustine lol.
2) Sure. Understanding context is good. But the argument here is specifically about religious works being better than secular works. We have no idea what these same geniuses would have done in a parallel secular world. They could have produce greater works, or nothing. We can say nothing other than the goods they produced were done within an atmosphere saturated by religion and that the works were good. But they were not religious texts. and that's the point.
Indeed, I'd be happy to even take it turns to name great works from our lists in a thread. And yes, I'd much rather have Shakespeare than Dante, and definitely Augustine lol.2) Sure. Understanding context is good. But the argument here is specifically about religious works being better than secular works. We have no idea what these same geniuses would have done in a parallel secular world. They could have produce greater works, or nothing. We can say nothing other than the goods they produced were done within an atmosphere saturated by religion and that the works were good. But they were not religious texts. and that's the point.
