RE: How can Christians not admit Christianity is all a pile of garbage when ...?
February 21, 2012 at 9:07 am
(February 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm)coffeeveritas Wrote: As far as the metaphysical goes, are you aware of an account that is not severely biased? Of course the Bible is a biased account, all accounts are biased. I was saying there was a way to encounter the bias in the Bible through your own bias and come up with a more informed bias.
How would you determine if a metaphysical position is free from bias?
(February 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm)coffeeveritas Wrote: As for the epistemology, that has been a part of theology since the beginning. Of course you probably wouldn't like the writings of Justin Martyr, since his is a very Christian epistemology. Nevertheless, modern writers such as Rob Bell would say that "all truth is God's truth," or translated out of religious language, "there are truths present in the world which all share a common truth-source." Once again, probably not one you would like all that much, but it does show that people have used Scripture as a jumping off point for epistemological reflection. I'm going to guess you would disagree with most of it, but it can lead to some beneficial ideas.
As I understand, much of Biblical epistemology is in support of revealed knowledge rather than discovered knowledge. So, if Bible is used as a jumping point, most people would not rely on reason to gain knowledge, but on authority. (As seems to be the case with many religious people).
(February 20, 2012 at 6:32 pm)coffeeveritas Wrote: There are all kinds of evils in the world caused by people using Scripture to justify their own twisted self-righteousness.
The scripture is the problem here. The scripture itself is so twisted and self-contradictory, that it can be used to justify almost anything. That is true for the scripture of almost any religion, not just Christianity. Its hard to imagine any other area of human endeavor where one work can be used to justify so many conflicting ideas at the same time.
