Posted by Noa on January 1, 2003, at 14:53:07
In reply to Redirected: putting down another's belief, posted by Dr. Bob on December 23, 2002, at 17:05:15
I want to add one thought to this discussion:
I like knowing about how other people think and why they believe what they believe, and how that differs or is similar to what I might believe, etc., so if the discussion stays on that level--people explaining how they feel, think, believe, without portraying it as the "Truth" and "Only Truth", then the discussion can be stimulating and interesting and friendly.
One thing that I believe people should look out for is stating events as history when they are accounts of events coming from religious texts, or from religious tradition. In this case, I think it would help if people cited where they are getting the account from, rather than just stating it, which can come across as being an attempt to portray their religion's view of history (lore, events, tradition) as the definitive historical account of something, when it is really a religious/traditional view of how things might have happened and why. Afterall, history can be seen from many perspectives.
So, I think a good solution is to cite the source of such historical accounts, ("according to...." or "in the book of ..... it says....." etc.) so we can place them in the context of the tradition that is relating them.
poster:Noa
thread:8575
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20021128/msgs/8715.html