Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Is there a God? If so, what is She like?

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Post Reply
Philosophy Explorer
Posts: 5621
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:39 am

Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

In sales, it's said you need the product or service to be able to sell it (which I don't believe in general btw).

How about religion? Do you need to be involved with a particular religion to be an authority in that religion or religions in general?

PhilX
User avatar
Hobbes' Choice
Posts: 8364
Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 11:45 am

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

You cannot be an authority on religion if you are religious.
Idiots cannot be authorities on idiocy.
Philosophy Explorer
Posts: 5621
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:39 am

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:You cannot be an authority on religion if you are religious.
Idiots cannot be authorities on idiocy.
What do you think about your viewpoint when it's applied to you? There's a lot of stuff you believe in you can't back up. You seem to clutch at any piece of news on technology for which evidence doesn't exist, stuff that children know can't be true.

PhilX
User avatar
Hobbes' Choice
Posts: 8364
Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 11:45 am

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

Philosophy Explorer wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:You cannot be an authority on religion if you are religious.
Idiots cannot be authorities on idiocy.
What do you think about your viewpoint when it's applied to you? There's a lot of stuff you believe in you can't back up. You seem to clutch at any piece of news on technology for which evidence doesn't exist, stuff that children know can't be true.

PhilX
It's called speculation, idiot.

The best speculation is based on fact.
1) Modern batteries, small enough and powerful enough to run cars use lots of expensive rare metals.
2) There are advanced designs for magnetic impulse tubes that have already been tested and show to be cheap to run.
Philosophy Explorer
Posts: 5621
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:39 am

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Philosophy Explorer wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:You cannot be an authority on religion if you are religious.
Idiots cannot be authorities on idiocy.
What do you think about your viewpoint when it's applied to you? There's a lot of stuff you believe in you can't back up. You seem to clutch at any piece of news on technology for which evidence doesn't exist, stuff that children know can't be true.

PhilX
It's called speculation, idiot.

The best speculation is based on fact.
1) Modern batteries, small enough and powerful enough to run cars use lots of expensive rare metals.
2) There are advanced designs for magnetic impulse tubes that have already been tested and show to be cheap to run.
Still trying to provoke me with your name calling which only shows you can't do philosophy.

The problem with your speculation is it has nothing to do with religion. Certainly a child would see that batteries and magnetic impulse tube have nothing to do with religion and I'm noting you copied what you posted from another thread over in the Lounge for some illogical reason. So speculate all you want for all the good it'll do you.

PhilX
User avatar
Hobbes' Choice
Posts: 8364
Joined: Fri Oct 25, 2013 11:45 am

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Hobbes' Choice »

Philosophy Explorer wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Philosophy Explorer wrote:
What do you think about your viewpoint when it's applied to you? There's a lot of stuff you believe in you can't back up. You seem to clutch at any piece of news on technology for which evidence doesn't exist, stuff that children know can't be true.

PhilX
It's called speculation, idiot.

The best speculation is based on fact.
1) Modern batteries, small enough and powerful enough to run cars use lots of expensive rare metals.
2) There are advanced designs for magnetic impulse tubes that have already been tested and show to be cheap to run.
Still trying to provoke me with your name calling which only shows you can't do philosophy.

PhilX
Please refer to the answers I made to you earlier today.
Philosophy Explorer
Posts: 5621
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2014 7:39 am

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Philosophy Explorer »

Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Philosophy Explorer wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
It's called speculation, idiot.

The best speculation is based on fact.
1) Modern batteries, small enough and powerful enough to run cars use lots of expensive rare metals.
2) There are advanced designs for magnetic impulse tubes that have already been tested and show to be cheap to run.
Still trying to provoke me with your name calling which only shows you can't do philosophy.

PhilX
Please refer to the answers I made to you earlier today.
I've already done that.

PhilX
bobevenson
Posts: 7349
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:02 am
Contact:

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by bobevenson »

Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion? Of course not, since I'm the world's greatest authority on false prophets.
User avatar
Immanuel Can
Posts: 22258
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:42 pm

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Immanuel Can »

"Religion" is not a real thing. It's a totally misleading collective coinage, too general to be of any specific use. It's quite impossible to be an "authority" on a conceptual construct that so grossly fails to reflect reality. It's like trying to become an expert on "stuff" or "objects": too much is embraced by the coinage itself to justify any claim of expertise in generalizations about all of them.

In fact, we don't actually even know for sure what "religions" are...what their defining characteristics are, or how we recognize them from ideologies of various other kinds.

However, to become an expert on "a belief system" is possible. One can even become an expert on several different belief systems. One can do so from inside or outside of that system or those systems.

But a cautionary note: sometimes things from the "insider" perspective fail to conform to the first expectations of the "outsider" perspective; so from the "outside" it's harder to say for certain what's going on "inside." Taking data from both "sides" is a good idea, then. And that's such a generally conceded fact in the field of so-called "Religious Studies" that it can hardly be regarded as controversial.
User avatar
Immanuel Can
Posts: 22258
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:42 pm

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Immanuel Can »

Philosophy Explorer wrote:How about religion?
Up to the 19th Century, the term "religion" was used -- but always with reference to a view of "the one true religion," all else being some kind of folly or superstition. In the 15th Century, for example, when the term "religion" was used, it was used to describe whatever "the Church" (i.e. the RC church) was teaching at a given time. In Ancient Greece, "religion" was polytheism as expressed in idolatry. Likewise in Rome, "religion" essentially meant "reverence extended toward the Roman gods."

Interestingly, this explains why the early Christians were not accused by the Romans of "having another religion" at all; rather, they were accused of being "irreverent to the gods." In fact, they were even called "Atheists": not because they didn't believe in any God (the Romans knew that was not so), but because they failed to believe in enough gods. :shock:

The term "religion" as a collective noun was not used until the 19th Century, and arose in conjunction with the concept of a monolithic idea of a single "science" as well. But just as "science" can include or exclude such things as psychology, sociology, women's studies, literature, political 'science' or philosophy -- let alone phrenology, alchemy or holistic medicine -- so too are the borders of any conception of a single, monolithic collective known as "religion" a permeable and ultimately undefinable thing.

How could one ever be an "authority" on that?
Last edited by Immanuel Can on Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Dalek Prime
Posts: 4922
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2015 4:48 am
Location: Living in a tree with Polly.

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Dalek Prime »

It goes without saying that in order to speak on a subject, one should have an interest in it. It can be an arms-length interest.
thedoc
Posts: 6473
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:18 pm

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by thedoc »

From the outside any Christian could be seen as an Idolater in that they can be seen to bow down to graven images, but Christians are supposed to know that it is not the image that is being worshiped, but what the image represents. Unfortunately not all who call themselves Christian, are as well versed in this idea as they should be. So even being of a particular religion does not guarantee a good understanding of that religion
User avatar
vegetariantaxidermy
Posts: 13983
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:45 am
Location: Narniabiznus

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by vegetariantaxidermy »

Philosophy Explorer wrote:
Hobbes' Choice wrote:
Philosophy Explorer wrote:
What do you think about your viewpoint when it's applied to you? There's a lot of stuff you believe in you can't back up. You seem to clutch at any piece of news on technology for which evidence doesn't exist, stuff that children know can't be true.

PhilX
It's called speculation, idiot.

The best speculation is based on fact.
1) Modern batteries, small enough and powerful enough to run cars use lots of expensive rare metals.
2) There are advanced designs for magnetic impulse tubes that have already been tested and show to be cheap to run.
Still trying to provoke me with your name calling which only shows you can't do philosophy.

The problem with your speculation is it has nothing to do with religion. Certainly a child would see that batteries and magnetic impulse tube have nothing to do with religion and I'm noting you copied what you posted from another thread over in the Lounge for some illogical reason. So speculate all you want for all the good it'll do you.

PhilX
I don't see how. That looks like a logical fallacy to me.
User avatar
Dontaskme
Posts: 16940
Joined: Sat Mar 12, 2016 2:07 pm
Location: Nowhere

Re: Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion?

Post by Dontaskme »

Philosophy Explorer wrote:In sales, it's said you need the product or service to be able to sell it (which I don't believe in general btw).

How about religion? Do you need to be involved with a particular religion to be an authority in that religion or religions in general?

PhilX
Do you have to be religious to be an authority on religion? That's like saying Do you have to be a Cinderella or Snow-white to be an authority on fairy tales? Some of us spend much of our time trying to fit into worlds of other beings. Always be yourself (the real fictional character) No one is in charge of what happens in the universe except the belief there is. And err, it's not for sale either, it's totally free of charge.
Post Reply