This is genuinely interesting to me and you’re right to call out my weak response to your argument. You made a claim about what Christians “truly” believe and I fell into the trap.
Let me have another go.
Christians are completely fallible. They (I actually am not a Christian) sin constantly. (Non-Christians also do). That’s a core tenet. So if we agree that the government is for some reason comprising of a majority of under-performing Christians… Is that a flaw in Christianity itself?
I’m late but as others have said, your logic is a little wonky. I would prescribe a dose of philosophy. Start with Plato.
I don’t recall Jesus condoning that particular activity so I can only assume you’re referring to the Imperialist faux-Christian flavor of Catholicism that is already being heavily bombarded in this thread.
People can do bad things and say it’s because of X, but that doesn’t mean X is the cause of the problem or that X has anything to do with it. The claim needs to be investigated. Anyone claiming to be a Christian whilst doing horrible things, I would say to that person “Sorry sir but you don’t appear to be a Christian”.
And there we have it. The inevitable implosion of liberal thought.
If I tell people “Oh yes sir, I am a Democrat” and I wear a Democrat badge and wave a Democrat flag then are people wrong for believing I am a Democrat, even if upon scrunity some of my actions don’t align with those of a Democrat? It takes an extra dose of insidiousness to represent a peaceful theology and then subvert it and exploit it, but I believe that’s what happened. No serious Christian anywhere believes America is shaped with the values of Christ, so I deny it.
So your take is that social media is actually good for kids? Any citation for this?
Am I just old or is > 800EUR for a phone still just wild?
I actually really enjoy the cyclic Big Crunch theory. I imagine that it’s [probably] impossible to know which cycle we’re currently on but seems unlikely that we’re on the first cycle… For me, it truly confronts human exceptionalism and forces us to think about alternative versions of life.
The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher by Julian Baggini?
I could actually use an explanation. I’m not familiar, what makes it so good?
Absolute clown government in charge of an absolute clown country.
https://www.philosophizethis.org/podcast
The gift that keeps on giving.
I think that’s a really healthy conversation to have with your kids, man! I totally agree with your sentiment, and being “authentic” feels right, but it’s odd when you think about it. Where does it come from? Humans self-deceive all the time, right? It’s almost a useful skill in certain situations (e.g. optimism bias), but there’s an overriding feeling that “real” is “better”. It just boggles my mind a bit tbh.
I have mad respect for Orthodox Christians. My sense is that they typically grok Christianity on a completely different level to other, more modern denominations. When I try to talk about God with my average local Christian, there is this “white man in the clouds with a big beard” image and that’s the level you’re starting with which I find very difficult.
What question am I trying to answer?
Thanks, it wasn’t clear, I thought it was more meta than that.
I think it matters because God can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Are we talking about Plotinus’ “το Ἕν” or are we talking about Allah? This is the problem with these kinds of questions. It’s difficult to discuss the nature of what God even could be, before we get on to whether or not you “believe” in it. As other posters have pointed out, even the language of “belief” is generally inadequate as a starting place.
Why do you think truth matters so much? Don’t disagree, but why is it humans will forego a more beneficial situation if it’s proven to be “untrue” or “not real” etc?
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