Re: Question for religious parents

dragonlady wrote:
In article <1141322992.282788.164610@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"cjorp@xxxxxxxxx" <cjorp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Why is it so hard to accept that it is possible to embrace the
paradoxical position that you both believc something, and at the same
time believe that others who disagree with you might not be wrong?

It's possible to do that. It's just not possible to learn anything
from it -- like I keep saying, you can prove that anything *and* *its*
*negation* are true. What's the point?

The point is making meaning of my life, and trying to see/understand
whatever it is at the heart of the universe.

I'm completely lost as to how you think you can be making meaning from
a contradiction. How can you get any information from P AND Not P?
The keys are both on, and, not on the kitchen table...

We have NOT discussed specific beliefs here -- but when I have those
discussions with people, I often gain new insights, new metaphors, new
ways of seeing/thinking/'being in the world.

Sure. Talking to other people about metaphysical and religious ideas
is like that.

This isn't about "proving" I'm right -- I have no interest in "proving"
I'm right about the way I view God, about what I believe about the
nature of reality, about the nature of humankind, about why we are here.
It isn't about figuring out who is "right" or who is "wrong" -- it is
about ever deeper understanding of that-which-cannot-be-fully-understood
by ANY human being.

It has nothing to do with proof. It has to do with belief. What and
why are two different words!

That doesn't mean I don't think critically about what my own beliefs
are, nor does it mean I am not thinking logically, and it certainly
doesn't mean I can't learn anything.

What I am saying is that *thinking critically and logically* involves
recognizing contradictions and rejecting them. I'm certainly not
saying that you don't learn things, or that you're not thinking
critically most of the time (I won't say all, because I don't think
brains act like that -- no one thinks critically all of the time.) I'm
saying that with respect to this particular claim, you *cannot* be
thinking critically until you recognize the contradiction and start to
figure out what it is that went wrong.

--
C, mama to three year old nursling

.

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