From: Jean-Olivier Noreau (jonson@b2b2c.ca)
Date: Wed 18 Jan 2006 - 04:07:38 GMT
Responding generally to the last couple of e-mails...
Why are you all looking outwards to what can be found inwards?
--- Jean-Olivier Noreau Montréal, Québec ----- Original Message ----- From: Ben Dawson <dawson.derbys@clara.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 1:25 PM Subject: Re: Religion and evidence > On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:51:50 +0000, you wrote: > > >So unlike Lynda La Plant, the second part of your two-parter > >does live up to its billing :) > > > > I agree with Chris. That was a very interesting story! Bravo! > > Kate - thanks for sharing so unreservedly an issue so close to your > heart. It always helps to get a much clearer idea of someone's > viewpoint if you get the overall picture - background and all - and I > think we all now have a much clearer grasp of where you're coming > from. > > I guess what you're saying is that in your particular case, the > subjective evidence of your own personal experience outweighs, for > you, the objective / logical evidence that you encountered during your > philosophy studies and beforehand. That's really interesting, because > it's so unusual to hear a story of such a die-hard atheist (as you > clearly were) making such a drastic shift in opinion - going > completely from one end of the scale to the other! > > Interestingly, it has some analogy with my own story, except that I > have had no personal experiences that would lead me to believe the > presence of a God. > > My parents, despite having religious convictions, were pretty relaxed > about their faith and never forced their beliefs down my throat. We'd > go to church occasionally, say the Lord's prayer before a meal and I > was told a few Bible stories, but that's about as far as it went. I > grew up believing in God, until I reached my late teenage years when > I became more interested in science and evolution and began to > question my beliefs a bit more. From then on, I knew I was an atheist. > > What is interesting, is that my sister, who had exactly the same > upbringing, took entirely the opposite path, and about the same time > that I realised my own atheistic views, she became insanely religious. > > I've never really enquired about the reason for the strength of her > beliefs (kind of a difficult subject to raise), but I think you're > right when you say it's all down to interpretation. Maybe our > interpretations of our own experiences were just different. > > Personally, I think that any subjective experience of my own would > have to be a pretty damn *major* thing to cause a rethink like yours, > and I think too that it must have been a pretty *major* thing in your > case to overturn so radically, what would seem to me to be such a > sensible outlook. > > Do you think there's ever a chance you might switch back to atheism? > Say for example, if your prayers went unanswered or something occurred > that made you doubt God's power? Or do you think you'll be Christian > for life? > > Ben > > (I realise this is straying away from memetics now, so apologies to > the list, but to be honest I'd always be punching above my weight > there anyway, so I may as well try to contribute something whilst I > can!) =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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