Brent Meeker writes:
> >This cannot be explained away by > > "faith" in the sense that one can have faith in the gravity god or a > > deist god (because no empirical finding counts for or against such > > beliefs): rather, it comes down to a matter of simultaneously > > believing x and not-x. > > > Seems like "faith" to me - belief without or contrary to evidence. What is > the "x" you refer to? There is a subtle difference. It is possible to have faith in something stupid and still be consistent. For example, I could say that I have faith that God will answer my prayers regardless of whether he has ever answered any prayers before in the history of the world. However, I think most religious people would say that they have "faith" that God will answer their prayers because that it what God does and has done in the past. In so saying, they are making an empirically verifiable claim, at least in theory. They can be invited to come up with a test to support their belief, which can be as stringent as they like; for example, they might allow only historical analysis because God would not comply with any experiment designed to test him. I suspect that no such test would have any impact on their beliefs because at bottom they are just based on blind faith, but given that they do not volunteer this to begin with, it shows them up as inconsistent and hypocritical. Stathis Papaioannou _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
