The last 3 lines of your 5 line paragraph are ad hominem. Just wanted to point that out. — Art48
Your OP is fine. Ignore those looking to smear you rather than offer any kind of constructive criticism. — I like sushi
I think it’s natural to doubt the stories are genuine stories about God. I’d say it’s natural to see them as ancient fables. Of course, I might be wrong. Maybe they are genuine, but then who provoked King David? Was it Satan or Yahweh? I once heard a Christian answer, “Both!” So, both Satan and Yahweh worked together to interfere with King David’s free will so that David would order a census? And then Yahweh had an angel kill 50,000 Hebrews to punish David for doing a census? Anything is possible, I suppose. But another explanation is that there just isn’t any room in the God mold for the story. So, devise an explanation, believable or not. Offer it and then quickly change the subject. — Art48
But many Christians see the Bible as a vast completion of allegories. I grew up in that tradition and we were taught that the stories of the Old Testament were myths - stories designed for teaching larger truths. Truths I might add I happily ignored as superfluous to requirements. There's a reason many Christians ignore the OT and focus on the ethical teachings of JC. — Tom Storm
This is an empirical claim, not a philosophical claim. You are attempting to summarize human spiritual development, but you've offered no sources or studies, so why should I find your musings persuasive?In time, the person fills the mode with Jesus or Allah or Krishna. The mold is filled, complete. — Art48
Again, this is an empirical claim as to how people react when faced with Biblical inconsistency, yet you offer no sources showing that this is how they react. It's in fact plainly wrong. If you're interested in how the various traditions have responded, you may look it up, as you may also look up how secular biblical scholars have addressed those issues. You act as if no one has taken more than a cursory glance at the text and has taken seriously the challenge of interpretation.So, devise an explanation, believable or not. Offer it and then quickly change the subject. — Art48
A final thought: the last major God mode filler is now about 1,500 years old, in that about 1,500 years ago, Allah became known and assumed the position of a major God. I say “became known” to avoid the question of if Allah (and other person Gods) are fictions or not. In either case, Allah entered history about 1,500 years ago; Jesus entered history about 2,000 years ago; etc. Is it time for another God, perhaps a God that breaks the mold? — Art48
An empirical claim is a philosophical claim nitwit. — I like sushi
You should take a look in the Shoutbox. Hanover and I were just discussing a right wing commentator who wrote that casting a black woman as the lead in "The Little Mermaid" was scientifically inaccurate. I think your comment is almost as dumb. — T Clark
this "right wing commentator" has a point — Agent Smith
Among philosophers and theologians today, one of the most important dividing lines is the one separating those who advocate a personal conception of God (personal theism) from those who embrace the idea of a God beyond or without being (alterity theism). There is not much dialogue between these groups of scholars; rather the two groups ignore each other, and each party typically believes that there is a fairly straightforward knockdown argument against the other. — Stenmark
The most striking difference between Christian and Muslim theologies is that while, for Christians, God is a person, Muslims worship an impersonal deity. — Legenhausen
New Theology aspires to be a universal theology. [...] New Theology values a different type of faith: faith in the facts, faith in the truth no matter how unattractive truth may be. — D'Adamo - link in OP
New Theology aspires to be a universal theology. [...] New Theology values a different type of faith: faith in the facts, faith in the truth no matter how unattractive truth may be. — D'Adamo - link in OP
Which makes it, from point of view of epistemic attitude, the same old theology as most others. "I have the truth. Believe it or be a fool." — Cuthbert
There is much more sophisticated theology by people like Paul Tillich or David Bentley Hart — Tom Storm
Overall I think to pillory the Bible for being taken as some kind of positivist text is too easy and for atheists, highlighting the absurdity of fundamentalist's beliefs and interpretations is also undemanding work. This is the shallow end of the pool. There is much more sophisticated theology by people like Paul Tillich or David Bentley Hart one could consider. — Tom Storm
What do you see as the advantage of Tillich's use of what Heidegger called the ontological difference, the difference between Being and beings, the claim that God is the non-existent ground of what exists? Perhaps "God" is an attempt to ground what needs no ground. — Fooloso4
To argue, as Tillich and Hart seem to do, that God is being itself but not a being leads us where? For me the notion that God is not personal but 'the ground of all being' is where you end up when the mainstream 'fairytale' no longer has traction. — Tom Storm
... to redeem the idea of god by embracing greater and greater abstractions. — Tom Storm
What do you make of Bentley Hart? — Tom Storm
Hart seems to make a similar a priori assumption. He makes the distinction between what is necessary and what is contingent and applies it in toto to existence, as if what is true of the relationship between things that exist must be true of the relationship between what exists and God. Since everything in the world is contingent, there must be something non-contingent which they rely upon. There is here a shift from ontological necessity to logical necessity. — Fooloso4
Finally, at least that's a philosophical question, not a physical "how" question. So, it's appropriate for The Philosophical Forum. It's so important to humans that sages have been trying to answer it for thousands of years. But, it's even more difficult than a moon-shot, because we know exactly where that shining orb is located. So maybe, Art is trying to suggest a new way (a logical extension ladder?) to get closer to that ancient quest. Remember, "they said it couldn't be done". But then, someone said we'll do it, "not because it is easy, but because it's hard".↪Art48
Indeed and the speculative constructions and reinventions can go on forever. But why? — Tom Storm
Are the posters on this forum just talking cartoon animals? Or, is there a good reason for speculating beyond the limits of the senses? Are we on this forum just pounding words, for no better reason than a quick snack? — Gnomon
OK. Fair enough. Though dismissive of word-pounding Philosophers. But, when philosophical searchers go looking for truth, is there any good reason to explore beyond the limits of human senses, and their mechanical extensions? That's what Art seems to be doing with his "mold theory of personal gods". I'd never heard of that particular argument, but it seems reasonable enough. Not necessarily true, but worth thinking about.Are the posters on this forum just talking cartoon animals? Or, is there a good reason for speculating beyond the limits of the senses? Are we on this forum just pounding words, for no better reason than a quick snack? — Gnomon
I think we are just pounding words, and testing ideas we are cartoon animals and searchers for truth. — Tom Storm
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