Re:How an obscure cult grew to become the dominant religion ...
by analog31 on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @08:27AM
(#13589154)
1) Many, many people have no idea what an actual Christian is or what we believe.
I actually think it's more tolerant and consistent with reality to let each Christian define their own beliefs, and not to assume any single unifying belief.
Any attempt by me, to generalize about your beliefs, will be offensive to you. Straw man fallacy and all that. I won't have any means of knowing whether I'm right or wrong, without actually sharing in your beliefs. And if I agree to some set of beliefs, those might be offensive to the next Christian whom I talk to. And so forth.
Likewise, why would you agree to a description of your religion that casts it in a negative light?
All I really care about is how people treat one another. I have kind of a simple checklist for religions: How do they treat women? How do they deal with reproduction and sexuality? How do they deal with science? How do they treat doubters and non-believers?
I actually think it's more tolerant and consistent with reality to let each Christian define their own beliefs, and not to assume any single unifying belief.
Any attempt by me, to generalize about your beliefs, will be offensive to you. Straw man fallacy and all that. I won't have any means of knowing whether I'm right or wrong, without actually sharing in your beliefs. And if I agree to some set of beliefs, those might be offensive to the next Christian whom I talk to. And so forth.
Likewise, why would you agree to a description of your religion that casts it in a negative light?
All I really care about is how people treat one another. I have kind of a simple checklist for religions: How do they treat women? How do they deal with reproduction and sexuality? How do they deal with science? How do they treat doubters and non-believers?