...there are a lot of gods most people don't believe in...a Christian doesn't believe in Allah, or Vishnu, or Ameratsu...I'm just like a Christian that doesn't believe in one more god.
thats pretty much the basic arguement.
Yup, couple of thousand. Welcome.
Ah, but do you believe in life after love?
[spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Uu3kCEEc98[/spoiler]
Quote from: EldonG on June 04, 2014, 07:00:33 PM
...there are a lot of gods most people don't believe in...a Christian doesn't believe in Allah, or Vishnu, or Ameratsu...I'm just like a Christian that doesn't believe in one more god.
As common and profound as that is, I've yet to see a Christian react or comment on it. They just seem to ignore it. Of course, they don't believe in Vishnu and Ameratsu. They easily spot the flaw in such a belief, but they fail to see their god's similarity to the gods they reject without a modicum of thought.
The Outsider Test for Faith: How to Know Which Religion Is True (http://www.amazon.com/Outsider-Test-Faith-Which-Religion/dp/1616147377/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401975170&sr=1-1&keywords=outsider+test+for+faith)
by John W. Loftus
QuoteFostering mutual understanding by viewing religion from an outsider perspective
Depending on how one defines religion, there are at least thousands of religions in the world. Given such religious diversity, how can any one religion claim to know the truth? Nothing proposed so far has helped us settle which of these religions, if any, are true--until now.
Author John W. Loftus, a former minister turned atheist, argues we would all be better off if we viewed any religion--including our own--from the informed skepticism of an outsider, a nonbeliever. For this reason he has devised "the outsider test for faith." He describes it as a variation on the Golden Rule: "Do unto your own faith what you do to other faiths." Essentially, this means applying the same skepticism to our own beliefs as we do to the beliefs of other faiths. Loftus notes that research from psychology, anthropology, sociology, and neuroscience goes a long way toward explaining why the human race has produced so many belief systems, why religion is culturally dependent, and how religion evolved in the first place. It's important that people understand these findings to escape the dangerous delusion that any one religion represents the only truth.
At a time when the vast diversity of human belief systems is accessible to all, the outsider test for faith offers a rational means for fostering mutual understanding.
Nice stuff...a very good read. :)