(April 27, 2025 at 11:42 am)John 6IX Breezy Wrote: Beliefs aren't simply isolated bits of information that one agrees with. They are integrated and predictive mental models of the world.
And so, why do Christians believe in Jesus? For the same reasons anybody believes anything: Because the proposition integrates well within their broader web of beliefs and reduces it's entropy. In other words, because it makes sense to them.
I quoted this early post from John to address another point about Christianity. Christianity is most obviously a story with different mutually supporting assumptions, and that story appeals to a lot of people.
However, that story can't be a "predictive mental model" (as he claimed) unless it also has roots in the real world.
For instance, the Christian story encourages prayer, but prayer doesn't work -- not when tested statistically. Proof by selected instances is not really proof.
Similarly if science says the universe and the earth are much older than the Bible claims, because it has real evidence to the contrary, then the Bible was proven wrong and people shouldn't count on it.
Further, if evolutionary theory is correct, and it's upheld by an amazing array of evidence, then there was no fall of man and no need for Jesus to redeem mankind.
So there are at least two other reasons why people believe in the Christian story: They are otherwise poorly-informed and they can't easily admit when they were wrong, once they are committed to Christianity.
People believe in Christianity, not "for the same reasons anybody believes anything" as John claimed, but because they reject the evidence against the Christian story.
Of course all of this is obvious to atheists who prioritize evidence, just not to Christians like John. And so we go around and around with him.
