RE: Ask a Catholic
June 5, 2015 at 5:36 pm
(This post was last modified: June 5, 2015 at 5:36 pm by Randy Carson.)
(June 5, 2015 at 4:41 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Good.
Now that all that nastiness is out of our system, let's carry on.
Randy, had you been born somewhere else in the world, like... say... India... do you think you'd believe in the same thing you do?
(June 5, 2015 at 5:16 pm)Simon Moon Wrote:(June 5, 2015 at 4:41 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Good.
Now that all that nastiness is out of our system, let's carry on.
Randy, had you been born somewhere else in the world, like... say... India... do you think you'd believe in the same thing you do?
Yes, Randy.
Please answer.
The idea that “religion is just a product of geography” sounds like a great argument for atheism. Initially.
However, just because someone is born in a place where they fail to discover the right answer about life’s important questions does not mean there is no right answer. This goes for any kind of truth claim. For example:
• If you were born in the year 1715 instead of 2015, you would probably have supported the enslavement of native Africans.
• If you were born in 2015 BC, you probably would have denied that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
• If you were born in modern North Korea, you probably would believe that democracy is evil.
But none of these facts proves that slavery is moral, that the sun revolves around the Earth or that dictators are a great idea. All they prove is that large numbers of people can be wrong.
For all of our political, scientific and ethical beliefs, we would say that even if other people disagree with them, and do not live in places that teach these beliefs as truths, that does not mean these beliefs are false. We can put forward rational arguments to defend these beliefs and then say that those other cultures who disagree are simply mistaken.
If we can do this for disputed ethical, scientific and political beliefs, then why not say we can put forward rational arguments for religious beliefs that are not universally believed but nonetheless true?