(May 11, 2015 at 4:35 am)robvalue Wrote: I don't know enough about climate change to comment.
But can I ask what this has to do with your de-conversion? I'll take a guess:
Let's say the bible specifically said, "Humans will cause adverse climate change." All that would show is the people writing it got something right. It doesn't however validate anything else in the book, or tell you how they got it right. It could be a lucky guess, a good estimation, some magic spaghetti told them... just because they got it right, it doesn't mean their explanation for how they knew it is also true.
For example, let's say I guess at your birthday and I get it right. I do the same thing for hundreds of other people. It seems like I have access to information that seems impossible for me to have. If I say I'm getting the information from a magic teapot in another galaxy, does that mean I really am getting it from that teapot?
And that is giving the bible a lot of credit, it makes no such specific claims. It makes very vague statements that could be interpreted in so many ways as to fit almost any scenario.
Well I don't like the the false equivalencies between the god of the bible and the what if scenarios. Just remember that the god of the bible forbade idols or images of himself. So even getting people to worship a toaster at leasts gives them something to visualize, which is important for visual creatures. Maybe that is a minor point to you but it means something to me...
But what it means for me in my deconversion is this, I have have been raised to believe that sometime around 1914 that Satan was kicked out of the heavenly realm and sent to earth. So now he is pissed and all of the problems of mankind will be significantly increased. So now for me I want to be able to look at the world and not see it on the brink of disaster. For me, it might end up being my own Pascals Wager... I might just decide that its a better bet for me today and for the future to just assume its all true. I don't believe humans go to heaven so I'd die with the same expectations regardless.
