(March 21, 2013 at 5:27 am)EGross Wrote: This whole problem, where believers cherrypick what they like about their faith (Note Catfish' sig.), is that there is stuff that they all find weird or repugnant ("those who will not follow me, bring them before me and kill them"), so that goes into the "do not open" drawer of their mind. Then there is the stuff that they can agree with ("do unto others"), so that they polish and put on top of the box of their mind.
In short, I would say that most religious people would reject keeping every word of their dogma, and have, instead, created their personal dogma, filtering what they agree with as good and holy, and what they disagree with as irrelevant or "ignore that man behind the curtain".
It's like trying to get through a badly written book that you feel that you need to finish - it's crap. Let it go and move on.
In short, what you would say are simply words and have no control over reality...
Am I really cherrypicking? Or is that just the term used when someone fails at convincing another that they must believe every last word of the Bible?
