Megan's comments

Megan's comments from the Faith and Spirituality group.

Note: Megan is no longer a member of this group.

"D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" and a child's version of the Bible.

The first book because when I read, I noticed the similarity to Bible stories and became curious about why. So I started to read more and more about other mythologies and learned so much.

The second was sent to me as a small child by an aunt who's a Jehovah's Witness. Honestly, it scared me to bits. Reading the Greek Myths was such a relief.

Eric,

Are you going to make this board private and kick out those who disagree with you too?

When you announce things in a public forum you open yourself up to...the public.

This group's description says "This group will discuss the issue of faith in literature and in the real world, what is right and what is wrong." Sounds to me like debate/disagreement is perfectly acceptable here.

I'd like to address a few points.

From Morqqe "You believe you will be alive in the morning when you wake up. You act today based on that belief. You have no evidence that you will be alive in the morning."

In addition to Nathan's comments, I want to point out that we also take actions to prepare for not waking up in the morning, for example you might buy life insurance. When my parents made me say prayers at night thel line "if I should die before I wake" was included. So we do cover that base in case of the unexpected. I simply realize that it's rather unlikely I'll die tonight.

For Eric's repeated question about why Luke is not a historical document...it's because primary sources are not considered completely reliable histories. The Bible is no exception; Tacitus and Livy are not completely taken at face value, either. Historians look for corroborating evidence and even attempt to recreate events. Archaeological evidence often confirm written accounts. Histories that are regularly corroborated are generally given more weight.

The Bible is the sole source of Christian claims despite the fact that monasteries preserved most ancient writings. Several of it's claims have been disproven by other sciences, such as astronomy. Archaeological "evidence" like the Shroud of Turin has been proven fraudulent. This makes the Bible a very unreliable source. Perhaps future digs will have more success, but until then there is no reason to give great weight to Luke.

Wait, I have thoughts!

Yes. Faith is dangerous. Sam Harris makes and excellent case for this in "The End of Faith" when explaining how being taught Faith leads otherwise well-educated people to become suicide bombers.

Especially in Abrahamic religious traditions, faith is a virtuous, desirable trait. Praise is lavished on those with "great faith." At the same time, skepticism is scorned, ridiculed and finally dismissed with "I'll pray for you..."

Unfortunately, this is not compartmentalized to religion. In the US, believers are pushed to vote their faith. We once again have to convince large swathes of the public that evolution should be taught in schools. It’s truly frightening.