Is there such a thing as rational Christianity?

audible said:
duh, wrong, the short answer is no.
all the things you mentioned are rational, but that one simple sky daddy flight in to fantasy, makes christianity totally irrational.
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Different Christians have different views of God. So believe He is literally an old man in the sky, which is pretty stupid. Others, like me, have a much more abstract notion of God. The "old" and "father" is just a metaphor.

you either are a rational person or not, you cant be 99% rational.
it's like the boy who cried wolf, when he was honest nobody believed him.
if you act rational in every aspect of your life, until it involves a god, then your whole rationality comes into question.
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Dismissing the possibility of a "god" is as irrational as simply believing blindly that there is one.
 
TruthSeeker:

Dismissing the possibility of a "god" is as irrational as simply believing blindly that there is one.
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Agreed. I haven't seen any posts that deny the possibility of a god. It's just extremely unlikely given the total lack of evedince that correlates to anything other than randomness. The irrationality is insisting that god or anything is real, with nothing more than an internal conviction and a warm fuzzy.
 
Dismissing the possibility of a "god" is as irrational as simply believing blindly that there is one.

Is it also irrational to dismiss the possibility of Santa Claus? Why did you stop believing in Santa but not god?

Blind faith?
 
TruthSeeker said:
Dismissing the possibility of a "god" is as irrational as simply believing blindly that there is one.
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right. which means the rational thing to do is not believe either way at all, or at the least not to act on your belief. that way your actions are not predicated on the commands of some imaginary authority, because you could not rationally justify acting in accordance with rules that may or may not have been set forth by an entity that may or may not even exist. especially when you take into account that in the eventuality that there is a god, it may not be your particular god, and in fact may be wholly different than the conception that any humans have of god.
in not believing in god, and acting on the basis of reason and of your own accord, you do only what could be expected of you by any other rational person or deity if it is eventually proved that one is extant somewhere out there. if it is eventually proved that there is a god and it is irrational and arbitrary, than in the end we are all in equal amounts of trouble.
 
charles cure said:
right. which means the rational thing to do is not believe either way at all, or at the least not to act on your belief.
that way your actions are not predicated on the commands of some imaginary authority, because you could not rationally justify acting in accordance with rules that may or may not have been set forth by an entity that may or may not even exist. especially when you take into account that in the eventuality that there is a god, it may not be your particular god, and in fact may be wholly different than the conception that any humans have of god.
in not believing in god, and acting on the basis of reason and of your own accord, you do only what could be expected of you by any other rational person or deity if it is eventually proved that one is extant somewhere out there. if it is eventually proved that there is a god and it is irrational and arbitrary, than in the end we are all in equal amounts of trouble.
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Precisely.
 
For a matter of fact, yes.

Therefore, by your own account, it is perfectly rational to admit the possibility that anything which can be conjured from the imagination could exist?

I don't get presents...

And god provided you with what exactly?
 
(Q) said:
Dismissing the possibility of a "god" is as irrational as simply believing blindly that there is one.

Is it also irrational to dismiss the possibility of Santa Claus? Why did you stop believing in Santa but not god?

Blind faith?
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Because we have overwhelming evidence against the Santa hypothesis. We know, as adults, that WE bring the gifts to our children. There are no structures at the north pole. It would therefore be irrational to NOT believe in Santa. Right? Just as it would be irrational to NOT believe in the christian god. There is no cavity under the earth (hell) and no place above the earth that corresponds to heaven (at least to the current limits of telescope technology). Prayers do not get answered (any more than random chance would predict).

So, the person who wishes to allow the possibility of a being/entity/power that is responsible for the initiation of the current incarnation of this universe but proposes no observable tinkering today, is rational. The probability may be 1 in 1e-23 but this does not rule out the possibility.

Santa as presented conventionally is 100% ruled out by observational evidence.

The christian/muslim/hebrew god as presented conventionally is 100% ruled out by observational evidence.
 
Santa as presented conventionally is 100% ruled out by observational evidence.

Yet, I observe Santas on every street corner each December... curious... :D
 
(Q) said:
Santa as presented conventionally is 100% ruled out by observational evidence.

Yet, I observe Santas on every street corner each December... curious... :D
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no you dont. you observe normal people dressed up like santas. none of those people can actually do the things that santa claus is supposed to do. come on.
 
superluminal said:
There is no cavity under the earth (hell) and no place above the earth that corresponds to heaven (at least to the current limits of telescope technology).
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Those are metaphors.

The christian/muslim/hebrew god as presented conventionally is 100% ruled out by observational evidence.
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So you say you can observe god, eh...? :rolleyes:
Geeez... Who is less irrational here!?!? :D
 
I saw Rudolph the other day.... :D
He said hello and I said "Hey, How's going?"
He is kinda feeling sick. Ohh... his nose is all red... :D
 
TruthSeeker said:
So you say you can observe god, eh...? :rolleyes:
Geeez... Who is less irrational here!?!? :D
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Interesting technique. Reword your opponent's statements into a strawman that you can easily tear down. And then throw in some ad hominem attack. Well done!

Anyway, I clearly did not say I could observe god, but that observational evidence (which can also be a complete lack of observation where someone claims something will be) rules out the god of heaven and hell.

And heaven and hell are metaphors? What kind of christian are you? Every christian I've ever debated with fully believes in a physical heaven and hell. These are fundamental postulates of the christian religion.

What say you?
 
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