by Beans 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
off topic: Lovetruth, I find every time I read your posts I hear them in Patrick Stewart's voice. This gives all your posts an air of erudition and command. That or they make sense to me.
back in topic:
I think the concept of God is IMHO, too subjective for skepticism to have any real effect with. We will believe or not. Linear reason will not really have much to do with either view.
Can a Skeptic believe in God?
Answer: It would be a wise move to have "faith" in something instead of "nothing."
Faith means merely to trust. It does not mean to trust in things which do not exist. To have faith in god? Trust in god? Which god becomes the question then. I have faith in the Sun and she is one of my gods. As is the tide. Christians call this worshipping the created instead of the creator, although the created becomes creator in my pantheon. And of course the fact that my religion has no creator deity. Life always has and always will, individual lives modify, change, die, are reborn in many ways. You can choose to accept those terms literally or symbolically if you wish.
Skepticism is, as has been stated not doubting. That is doubt. Skepticism merely recognizes that claims are not always factual. Knowing that people have lied, it is not so hard to realize that people can also lie about the claims of what goddess has told them. We can believe for instance in the Deity, and yet not believe that the bible respresents the words, deeds, or ideas of the deity. Or the quran, the bagvad gita, the Tain bo Culaigne (although a skeptic will admit that the Tain is most likely of divine origin, and certainly is far more divine than all the other silly books of other peoples...It is after all of Irish origin). To be skeptic is not to challenge the divine, it is to challenge your claim of divinit.
All roads lead to the "great path" and some will cross along the way. Many people will choose the path of least resistance but then the reward will reflect the effort and sincerity of the traveler.
Mr. KIM
I am skeptical of atheism.
Pete:
Skepticism is a provisional approach to claims.
And belief may sometimes be the same
Mr.Kim:
Agreed, on both posts.
Hyghlandyr:
Faith means merely to trust.
No, trust means merely to trust. Faith can mean (many) different things to different people...
And belief may sometimes be the same
Belief is not an approach or methodology for learning it is a conclusion. I understand what you were saying tho, for many belief is a mental stopgap to explain what is not understood. Such a belief must be modified with every new understanding. And so belief for such people is a tentative position.
