Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: July 21, 2025, 2:24 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Christianity; the World's Most Violently Persecuted Religion
RE: Christianity; the World's Most Violently Persecuted Religion
(December 13, 2024 at 9:52 am)Sheldon Wrote:
(December 13, 2024 at 9:07 am)The Architect Of Fate Wrote: But remember your a big dummy dumb according to Bel who can't seem to muster an actual criticism himself
I am a big dummy, or if one prefers a middling intellect, with a mediocre formal education. However he never actually addresses what I have said, and can't avoid sententious posturing and name dropping, without actually offering any depth or valid criticism. 

1. Dropped Plato's name in, check.
2. Pointed out I knew fuck all about [philosophy, check. 
3. Implying he does, check. 
4. Never actually addressed any specifics, check. 



It's beyond tedious now, and I no longer have the patience to indulge what has all the appearance of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

According to Plato, and many many Christians who were influenced by his thought, God takes no action and makes no decisions. I know this is different from the anthropomorphized version that many Christians describe, and that nearly all Internet Atheists argue against. However, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, and many others, up through Spinoza and Hegel, agree with Plato on this.

That's why it doesn't make sense, to these people, to talk about God "deciding" to do things. That would apply to the normal image of Zeus, but not to the Christian God. Decisions involve options, choosing this or that. God is already perfect, actus purus, and therefore doesn't change at all, has nothing to decide, and doesn't have the option to become unperfect. 

The usual follow-up to this is "but the Bible says God makes decisions!" and that's true. But the thinkers I've mentioned, unlike many Protestants and nearly all Internet Atheists, are not sola scriptura literalists, so they have no trouble building on an ancient conception of God which doesn't literally follow the Bible. 

I suspect that there are a lot of Christians who believe in the kind of God you're arguing against. I think you'd be surprised, though, at how many Christians follow the thinking that God is simply the Good, the Ground of Being, the Prime Mover (who himself has never taken any action). So if you want to argue against the anthropomorphized version, that would be useful if anyone who believes in that is posting here. It still leaves you, however, with the God of the Philosophers to deal with.
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: Christianity; the World's Most Violently Persecuted Religion - by Belacqua - December 14, 2024 at 1:19 am

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Does World View Directly Impact the World? Rift Zone 28 1855 June 17, 2025 at 10:09 pm
Last Post: Thumpalumpacus
  Christianity; The World's most vile religion The Valkyrie 76 8898 December 20, 2024 at 7:06 pm
Last Post: Sheldon
  I think Christianity is true, even if Islam where to rule the world Riddar90 57 6706 August 12, 2024 at 6:18 am
Last Post: Sheldon
  World without religion would just be replaced with Authoritartian socialism Katastroph2 17 2461 September 24, 2021 at 11:00 pm
Last Post: Ferrocyanide
  Is Religion an Attempt to Understand the World? EgoDeath 34 5448 December 20, 2019 at 12:03 pm
Last Post: mordant
  Why is religion especially Christianity so widely practied? GODZILLA 69 11739 February 19, 2019 at 9:30 pm
Last Post: fredd bear
  Christianity Is The BEST Religion.... Nimbus 201 30435 February 23, 2018 at 2:24 pm
Last Post: Nay_Sayer
  The most beautiful thing to me about the world. Mystic 24 5256 November 13, 2017 at 4:56 pm
Last Post: Brian37
  Bad Religion: How Trump is warping Christianity for his own gain. Silver 4 1366 February 6, 2017 at 4:47 am
Last Post: Pat Mustard
  Religion hurts homosexuality but homosexuality kills religion? deleteduser12345 43 13915 March 30, 2016 at 2:46 am
Last Post: robvalue



Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)