Tuesday, January 22, 2013

eternity for 2013?

In relation to an Eternity 13 email I received:
Given the number of people I know who gave up going to church as soon as they weren’t taken by their parents I’m not sure why you would focus on children. Once you leave home and go to uni you get the opportunity to easily break all your habits and meet a lot of people with different beliefs to your own. It’s a good time to fight against the preconception bias. I also know a few people who prioritised their first part time job over going to church. Same thing, just like in the “cake or death” skit, you can’t really confirm what you believe when there is no valid alternative.
So in the interests of a balanced augment and to make an informed decision the schoolkids would also need to understand the belief system of the Muslims (because they are in the news), antitheists (essential to be aware of if you are remotely interested in religion), Shintoism/ancestor worship (they are nearby religious groups) and also atheists (because that’s what you are if not something else). Just because Galileo believed the earth was round didn’t make him right in fact he was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life. Psalm 93:1 & 96:10 say the earth doesn’t move, Galileo’s opponents believed that so strongly that they couldn’t see past that and make an informed decision.

Aside from that this person uses a lot of church jargon so that I’m not sure what he is really talking about and if gave this to Ed I know he would be alienated, not curious. Phrases like “make Jesus the lord of their life”, “born again”, “natural man”, “know and love our neighbour” are all esoteric. It’s like me asking somebody to re-evaluate the DM% as it is an outlier for the hyperdimensional spectral ellipsoid of chips; Sure people at work will see the joke and people with a chemistry or statistics background will agree with me but for everybody else I could just as easily say “the chips are cold and soggy, so I don’t want any”.

What I believe is twofold
1 There are people who believe things different to me.
2 Telling me I’m wrong will never make me believe what you believe.
When making a choice you should be informed of and understand at least two possible alternatives.

Sure I believe we will face a “cake or death” choice and that a lot of people don’t know what that means, even more people will think you are joking if you tell them Jesus=cake. If the remaining choice is only “or death” what’s the point in fretting about it?

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