Philosophy Now Forum

ForgedinHell wrote:The story of Isaac was about having the faith to not sacrifice.

The only reason Isaac wasn't sacrificed was because Abraham's hand was stayed at the last moment, through intervention, so who exhibited the faith not to sacrifice?

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Is We are born, we live, we die. There is no supernatural, no rebirth, no reincarnation, no afterlife, no soul, no God, no judgment. We...

chaz wyman wrote:I'm sure John often gets an easy ride due to his teddy bear.

Most people seem to take it for the light hearted avatar that it is but you'd be surprised at some of the people that seem to think that insulting the teddy bear will get me worked up.

Actually, the most horrid parts of the bible come from the so-called New Testament, not the old. Did the so-called old testament ever claim that god would torture someone for all eternity unless they accepted a human sacrifice? Now, that is sick. I bet Isaac thought the idea of human sacrifice was ...

all our knowledge proceeds from personal experience how can we discard it A priori knowledge isn't based on experience. not what i wrote read your kant all knowledge begins with experience I think you forgot the rest of the quote that says "but it does not follow that it arises from experience...

Here's a counter viewpoint: http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca ... mar-panic/.

Kayla wrote:

ForgedinHell wrote: My statement was simply a suggestion that in order for you to be rational, you should discard your personal experience.

all our knowledge proceeds from personal experience how can we discard it

A priori knowledge isn't based on experience.

One of the major problems with the bible is that it never mentions how to reconcile these conflicts in any given situation, does it? Looking to the Bible for answers won't get anyone very far. Furthermore, you have never explained how a person knows that any statement in the Bible is moral or not. ...

I think the lack of an imperative still needs to be thought through but I'm not sure why you include the witchcraft example as I thought the line in Exodus that "A sorcerer shall not be allowed to live" applied to Jewish as well as Christian scripture but are you claiming otherwise? Peopl...

Who says the Crusaders were wrong in their interpretation? The rule was applied, just not in a manner that Christians are proud of. So? My position on the Golden Rule has already been stated. It is immoral, since murder-suicide is consistent with it. The problem with the Christian version is that g...

I think the number of embedded quotes may stretch things but here goes... I am morally superior because I am an atheist. [...] I was not being flippant, and my point is valid. A theist who reads the Bible can easily conclude that burning witches is moral. In fact, they engaged in such burnings for a...

I am morally superior because I am an atheist. I'll assume that's intended as a flippant claim because it can easily be shown to be false. That provides me with a superior starting point. Even if we accept your flippant claim about the moral superiority of atheists, and I don't, then the starting p...

These are the same people, however, who on an everyday basis claim to be morally superior due to their religion. I thought most people did that. You for example seem to think that you're morally superior because you have no religion. You're also starting to remind me of the quote from A Beautiful M...

i wasn't thinking about influence in that way, FiH. And I do realise that some wealthy people (and Bill Gates is an example) use their wealth in very positive ways. I was thinking more about the structure of society, in which people with large amounts of money can hire lobbying firms, can eat in th...

What does wealth inequality have to do with equal treatment before the law? Rawls was interested in defining a desirable society not just the distribution of wealth within that society. I used the justice example to illustrate the point that there are aspects of life where it is generally considere...