My reluctance to endorse many religious claims stems from my perception that they are farfetched. I just can't take them seriously.

However, is the quality of being farfetched something that exists only in the mind of the beholder, or can it be objectively characterized and quantified?

Is there any way to get beyond one party asserting that some hypothesis is highly implausible, and another party asserting that, no, it makes a lot of sense?

My provisional impression is that believing farfetched theories involves underappreciating the number and plausibility of alternative states of affairs that could obtain, and fixating only on a personally meaningful and mental accessible subset.

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
My reluctance to endorse many religious claims stems from my perception that they are farfetched. I just can't take them seriously.

However, is the quality of being farfetched something that exists only in the mind of the beholder, or can it be objectively characterized and quantified?

Is there any way to get beyond one party asserting that some h ...[text shortened]... s that could obtain, and fixating only on a personally meaningful and mental accessible subset.

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
My reluctance to endorse many religious claims stems from my perception that they are farfetched. I just can't take them seriously.

However, is the quality of being farfetched something that exists only in the mind of the beholder, or can it be objectively characterized and quantified?

Is there any way to get beyond one party asserting that some h ...[text shortened]... s that could obtain, and fixating only on a personally meaningful and mental accessible subset.

Originally posted by kirksey957
Perhaps life may be the only thing that gets a person to move beyond the farfetched and pursue faith in more intimate and concrete ways. An example. A child whose concept of God is a grandfatherly old man sitting on a cloud contrasted with an adult who has lost a child to cancer and decided to find some solace as well as mission in helping parents who have had similar losses.

Have you read James Fowler's "Stages of Faith"?

Originally posted by amannion
An interesting forum held on a similar topic to this in Australia a couple of weeks ago.
You can download the mp3 file from here - http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2006/1717032.htm

It's worth having a listen to and considers some aspects of what you're asking here.

Originally posted by Pawnokeyhole
Would you characterize such faith as existential as opposed to theological?

Originally posted by kirksey957
I have a real fuzzy line between these two concepts. I guess it depends on the meaning I attach to the event. That is often experienced iin hindsite.