My three warnings are:
- Avoid "three wise men" syndrome.
- Value Truth more than tradition.
- Remember the mission.
- It seems to be built out of a fictional urban legend regularly forwarded as email spam that I have heard repeatedly throughout my life.
- The philosophy professor has all the makings of a straw man. Any atheist professor of this sort should be fired from any respectable secular university. Although I can believe there are professors like this who exist out there, they would be mocked and considered incompetent by other atheist philosophy professors. Philosophy is about asking questions, not about indoctrination.
- It assumes a debatable model of faith, where faith is a matter of proof. It is a very popular apologetic but one that can be questioned. For me, the best model is one in which God comes to us rather than us trying to rationally come to God.
3 comments:
Actually, in the "God Is Not Dead" movie, the "hero" (defender of God) admitted that he could not prove God created the universe, but also pointed out that one could not disprove it, either. Agnosticism is the most honest stance toward "creation", as no one was there to observe "creation".
I did not like the movie, as it was more like one of the Billy Graham movies from the past, I'd seen. It preaches to the choir and re-enforces "confirmation bias". Many in the theatre (and it was packed to capacity) cheered, or made other approving noises, when they thought a point had been made by the student defending God. Most of them would probably not understand that religion is about a subjective bias, not an objective proof.
Religion is about "belonging" as much as "belief" and "behavior" as much as "faith". Normal humans tend to judge by their senses, while believers tend to judge by other means, which look foolish to the unbeliever. Normal humans tend to make decisions that are rational, while believers believe that irrational behavior proves the amount of faith they have!
Atheist are more prone to hold to a "moral agency" stance about choice. Self determination, not God ordaination is their "vision". In American lingo, this is what "liberty" means, but then, there are the Democrats, ;).
Myths or stories are the way that ancient cultures captured "moral truths". The bible is an ancient mythological text, not a scientific fact based correspondence of "truth". The Christian Church christianized "pagan" stories for purposes of social conditioning...
Here is a great Christian critique of the "Noah" movie shared by a friend whose husband has been a producer, himself. http://www.brehmcenter.com/initiatives/reelspirituality/film/articles/missing-the-boat-christian-cultural-engagement-and-darren-aronofskys-noah/?fb_action_ids=10152310191789287&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B618316668258892%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
Perhaps, in our day, some would want to use a scientific based correspondance of "truth", such as Jesus as "moral model" and man as "made in the image and likeness of God" should "correspond to Jesus" (attitude and action). Limitation of "moral models" is presumptuous and limiting. But, for political purposes, could serve the interests of certain leaders.
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