26 Jan '23 17:24>
@fmf saidDoes an irrational person know they're being irrational?
No. You are mistaken.
@fmf saidDoes an irrational person know they're being irrational?
No. You are mistaken.
@fmf saidDo I know a particular celebrity because I believe the "narratives" about them in the newspapers and magazines?
When you talk about "knowing God", all you are saying is that you believe the narratives in the Bible are true.
@fmf saidThat is an obfuscation, and makes little or no sense.
Whether he actually exists or not has no bearing on your belief in what the Bible says about him.
@josephw saidThis is just feeble banter.
Does an irrational person know they're being irrational?
@josephw saidNo, there isn't. I am fully aware, from personal experience, of how faith makes believers think there is some special extra substance to "knowing God". It's just a religious creed that you have internalized. Faith is a function of cognition and comprises a set of complicated interdependent opinions about oneself and the universe.
I'm simple pointing out that there's a difference between just knowing about God and actually knowing God.
@josephw saidClaiming to "know" God is, at its very essence, what religion is.
Knowing God requires no religious component.
@josephw saidYou don't seem to know what the words "religion" and "religionist" mean.
You are a religionist because while you know "about" God you don't know God exists and are in a vacuum void of substance with regard to actually knowing God.
@josephw saidYour feeble banter was the deflection. Calling you out for it wasn’t.
Deflection.
@fmf said"...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
No, there isn't. I am fully aware, from personal experience, of how faith makes believers think there is some special extra substance to "knowing God". It's just a religious creed that you have internalized. Faith is a function of cognition and comprises a set of complicated interdependent opinions about oneself and the universe.
@fmf saidYou think it's sophistry because you refuse to accept as valid the biblical narratives.
I am willing to accept that you self-identify as a Christian but the whole idea that belief in the Christian God is NOT a religion is just a kind of sophistry.
@josephw saidNo, it isn't a mistake. Cognition means thoughts and thinking and it gives rise to things like aspirations. Faith is thoughts/thinking and opinions and aspirations. Faith is a function of cognition.
You are unknowingly equating faith with cognition, which is a mistake.
@fmf saidI wasn't bantering with you, but if it makes it easier for you to deflect away from points being made then by all means do it.
Your feeble banter was the deflection. Calling you out for it wasn’t.
@josephw saidReligions are defined by their scriptures ~ and religious beliefs are defined by the narratives laid out in those scriptures. These narratives result in specific beliefs about the God figures at the centre of those religions. The same goes for Christianity. To try to argue that Christianity - and the beliefs attendant thereto - are somehow not a religion is weak and strange.
Christianity is not a religion because religion is defined by the practice of rites and rituals designed by man for the purpose of putting man in a state of right standing with God.
@josephw saidIt was you who was deflecting, not me.
I wasn't bantering with you, but if it makes it easier for you to deflect away from points being made then by all means do it.