The most popular religion explicitly teaches the opposite: “But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39)
I'm glad you agree religious people aren't the only ones that can be disagreeable. It's undeniable the atheistic communist governments have resorted to extreme violence against their political opponents.
I could respond to much of what you said about religion, faith, and reason; however, many well-established sources exist for good arguments. Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) is a good starting point.
I want to focus on “independently verifiable objective truth” because you made an excellent point, except, in its essence, religion is a description of truth.
Now, I think understanding truth requires deeper thought. Take the question: does the universe have a beginning? Some people take both sides of that question, neither of which is independently verifiable because (a) we can't go back in time to see if the universe began, and (b) if it's infinite even if we could go back in time, we would never know if there is no beginning or we just haven't gone back far enough. So what do we do? Say, because it's not independently verifiable, we can't know anything about the creation of the universe from our reason. Some modern skeptics take that position, saying we can only trust our senses to derive objective truth. But why should we trust only our senses and not our reason? We know our senses are deceived all the time. So how do we find the truth?
(Aside: I'll make one point about faith and reason. Properly understood faith is not infrarational like you and many others suggest. Instead, authentic faith is suprarational. Faith never contradicts natural reason; it points our reason towards things beyond our limited understanding of reality.)
Your commitment to truth is admirable, and even though you may disagree, it is actually at the heart of Christianity: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). I hope that in your pursuit of truth, you take the time to read the preceding passage in the Gospel of John and contemplate what it means to seek the truth.
dvdc / David Caseria
npub1dv…4d4rm
2024-08-28 00:58:22
in reply to nevent1q…am7e
Author Public Key
npub1dvdcmtp5llrp63jdlmhspe9gffsyu9ew7cu3ld3f9y7k79nxzjxqf4d4rmPublished at
2024-08-28 00:58:22Event JSON
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"content": "The most popular religion explicitly teaches the opposite: “But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39)\n\nI'm glad you agree religious people aren't the only ones that can be disagreeable. It's undeniable the atheistic communist governments have resorted to extreme violence against their political opponents.\n\nI could respond to much of what you said about religion, faith, and reason; however, many well-established sources exist for good arguments. Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) is a good starting point.\n\nI want to focus on “independently verifiable objective truth” because you made an excellent point, except, in its essence, religion is a description of truth.\n\nNow, I think understanding truth requires deeper thought. Take the question: does the universe have a beginning? Some people take both sides of that question, neither of which is independently verifiable because (a) we can't go back in time to see if the universe began, and (b) if it's infinite even if we could go back in time, we would never know if there is no beginning or we just haven't gone back far enough. So what do we do? Say, because it's not independently verifiable, we can't know anything about the creation of the universe from our reason. Some modern skeptics take that position, saying we can only trust our senses to derive objective truth. But why should we trust only our senses and not our reason? We know our senses are deceived all the time. So how do we find the truth?\n\n(Aside: I'll make one point about faith and reason. Properly understood faith is not infrarational like you and many others suggest. Instead, authentic faith is suprarational. Faith never contradicts natural reason; it points our reason towards things beyond our limited understanding of reality.)\n\nYour commitment to truth is admirable, and even though you may disagree, it is actually at the heart of Christianity: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). I hope that in your pursuit of truth, you take the time to read the preceding passage in the Gospel of John and contemplate what it means to seek the truth.",
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