>be religious>tell people to study the Bible>actually study the bible>become an atheist in all but namewhy does this keep happening?
>>18523381This guy told you to study the Bible and you became an atheist?
There's an old saying>"No one gets out of seminary a believer"The reason is because the religion isn't true
>>18523386I'm convinced that the highest echelon of the Catholic Clergy are all what are known as "Christian Atheists" or Death-of-God Christians
>>18523384Very common
>>18523392Is it more common than people who read the Bible and don't become an atheist?
>>18523399Most Christians don't actually read the Bible
>>18523403What evidence do you have that most Christians don't read the Bible?
>>18523399I don't know, but it is a thing that actually studying it and studying the history and such turns people into non believers.
>>18523390no most of all leadership people in all of the large power structures in the world including religions are all what are known as "pedofiles".
>>18523411https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominal_Christian#cite_note-Operation_World-5>Missionaries Patrick Johnstone and Jason Mandryk, estimate that 1.2 billion people are "nominal and non-practicing 'Christians'."[5]
>>18523418>over half of Christians are nominalI'm going to use this against people who think Christianity is the largest religion. Half of Christians don't actually practice or probably even know what the religion is. I bet if you actually explained to these people some of the ideas they'd realize they don't believe it.
>>18523381That's what critical theory is inadvertently designed to produce. If you treat a text as a dissectable set of propositions where the author's intention sort of just sits on top as a veil over implicit claims, biases and tacit admissions, you will inevitably butcher every text into whatever bits you personally find cognitively convenient. To modern people, this happens to be the, surprise surprise, the modernist picture. In practice, this means you read a text, sort of skim over whatever the author subjectively (eww!) aimed to tell you and project various forms of naturalism onto his claims about reality, various forms of psychologization onto his claims about faith, various sociological frames over his institutional claims etc. The critical method, employing hardly anything besides analysis, can only produce a bunch of broken pieces. And when enough people are at a loss of what to make of them, their default worldview must fill the gaps. In other words, if he became an atheist, he was already set up to become one. Just to mention the flipside of the critical method - texts (and especially scriptures) actually require the opposite approach, a synthetic one rather than an analytical one. You're not tasked with processing one claim after another like a linear machine, you're tasked with taking the author's perspective. There might be a series of linear steps (such as reading dozens of dictionary entries) that are involved, but those do not produce insight, those just remove obstacles that prevent you from inhabiting a living perspective. That's why saints, most of which were educated much worse than many atheistic scholars, act as interpretation sources to this day. They inhabited the perspective well.
>>18523418What about practicing Christians? Do they not read the Bible?
>>18523426It will still be the largest religion because all other ones are the same lol
>>18523438lol
>>18523434Orthodox Christians have the Bible read in every church service they attend.
>>18523434nta but there's a difference between reading it and studying it. When you're trying to "study" something, you're almost by definition trying to figure out the hidden non-evident truth of it. For many people, when it comes to studying a text, that means acquiring additional lexical, historical and technical clarity. And that effort is easily misplaced with the Bible, because they expect that it's unerring in the contemporary sense - infinite factual correctness. When you come with tools this misplaced and expectations this skewed, you're going to experience a shock that will either have you give up your theory of truth and scholarship or give up the Bible. Many people choose the latter, because it's simpler.
>>18523452Well, it's because the bible isn't actually the true word of God. you're trying to pass it off as an error on the researchers part, but that's not what it is.
>>18523452>will either have you give up your theory of truthSo becoming an atheist in all but name>or give up the BibleSo becoming an atheist in name as well
>>18523432actually a good post. thanks anon. eisegesis ahh niggas hate modernism simple ast. theology grad
>>18523460Jesus Christ is the Word of God. The Bible bears a witness to our relationship with God. The way Americans use loaded language like "word of God" and "unerring" and stuff like that is part of their problem. It's completely normal to find an American who will claim to your face that the Bible is 100% factual and every phrase is necessarily meant the way a 21st century post-enlightenment naturalist would mean it. That's crazy. I mean... I do think the critical method is painfully inconclusive, but I'm not blaming the researchers exactly. I'm mostly blaming the people who end up becoming researchers.>>18523469>>will either have you give up your theory of truth>So becoming an atheist in all but nameHow does having a different theory of truth make you atheist in all but name?>>or give up the Bible>So becoming an atheist in name as wellWhy skip the name?>>18523470Thanks!
>>18523476Jesus is not the word of God. He did not rise from the dead and he's never coming back.
>>18523460What would make the Bible the "true" word of God?
>>18523476>How does having a different theory of truth make you atheist in all but name?If you redefine what's true so that it can incorporate statements that are factually incorrect, you're pulling postmodern mindgames on yourself.
>>18523482If every single statement in it were true without error, and it said things that would be impossible to know for the people at the time had they not received genuine divine revelation from a higher being.
>>18523487For example?
>>18523488No example of such a book exists, because God is not real and there has never been a book of divine revelation ever granted to humanity (because there is no God to grant it).
>>18523488That the Messiah will be a guy from Brooklyn named Schneerson.
>>18523481It's not opposite day.>>18523485That sounds like what a modernist would instinctively say if he wasn't aware that it's modernism that pulled the mindgame a few centuries ago. Pre-modern (and post-modern) theoriest of truth are not limited to corresponednce theory, though it admittedly enjoyed a privileged position across many systems of thought.I'm not going to argue with you that beauty is more than prettiness, that goodness is more than utility and that truth is more than correctness. If you live a full life, you will see this clearly enough. I will only point out that history of philosophy tracks fairly clearly that the modern approach to texts and their truth-evaluation is not the historically standard one. Keep your theory of truth if you have no alternative, but be aware that it's one of many.
>>18523504>Keep your theory of truth if you have no alternative, but be aware that it's one of many.I'll continue using the word "true" in the same way most people do when they aren't playing mind-games to avoid admitting what they actually believe in a few special cases.
>>18523520So... in the modern sense?
>>18523504>It's not opposite day.Nothing in that post is opposite of the truth. You believe in a false religion.
>>18523504My theory of truth is that shit written by superstitious inhabitants of the ancient Levant is true by default.
>>18523525Not opposite day then.
>>18523527I don't know how to say this without sounding condescending so I will just have to apologize ahead of time and bite the bullet: I could not have asked for a better illustration of what I was saying than what you just wrote - the only alternative to correspondence theory you can think of is to axiomatically commit to a specific record of regional supernaturalism. Philosophy has much more to offer about truth than "it's either modernism or magic".
>>18523381There's money to be made in being a atheist grifter.. no one would give a shit about this guy, dick dawkins or any other pseudo-celeb atheist if they were anything other than counter culture
>>18523538Atheism isn't counter culture, gramps.
>>18523565It is in America.
>>18523500So you have impossible standard.
>>18523569It hasn't been for maybe 30 years
>>18523586How many atheist presidents can you name?
>>18523596The Founding Fathers were Deists (which was just the Enlightenment equivalent of atheism)
>>18523599How are you defining "atheism"?
>>18523596That's not what "counter culture" means. Also trump clearly doesn't believe in anything.
>>18523605>Also trump clearly doesn't believe in anything.Esoteric Epsteinism is legit and should be subject to religious protections.
>>18523565You think going to church is more "fuck the system" than avoiding church out of principle?
>>18523618Young incels on twitter with frogs in their pfp do seem to think so.
>>18523381He’s a Mormon, they never believed the bible to begin with
>>18523621Do you?
>>18523596Bill "No Sexual Relations" Clinton and Trump to name a couple
>>18523599>>18523605Cope. Christianity is still the dominant culture in America and Atheism is by default counter culture.
>>18523629Proof? Trump literally read the Bible on TV and rededicated the country to God.
>>18523386Then nothing is true. Girls can be boys and race is a social construct and her penis and all that.
>>18523414Then those people weren't really Christians in the first place.
>>18523631Not really. Christianity hasn't been a dominant culture since the 60's desu
>>18523476>Americans raped my grandfather in ww2 o algo.
>>18523668>Christians literally just CAN'T stop thinking about tranniesWhy are you such a clown?>>18523671Not how it works.
>>18523634>playing evangelitard fleshlight is being religious
>>18523381They got to this part
>>18523381The new atheist movement went too far and their take that an atheist western world would lead to a sci-fi/Star Trek like utopia was obviously wrong so people reacted by embracing religion again and there is a lot of interesting moral and philosophical stuff there to keep the midwits and up entertained. But the reality is that a lot of religious people (Im speaking specifically about America here) are like just kinda dumbass rural people who treat God and religion as big slot machine in the sky. Im saying this as someone whos from a place like this, grew up around these people, was drawn to the new atheist on youtube back in the day because of this, and then also rejected that once I realized what a dead end it was. Its just like stupid rednecks who think "I beleive in God so that means I will be magiced into having more money so I can buy a new truck!" and Im not exaggerating. Or is their girlfriends whos belief system boils down to "I believe and God and Im a good person, so God will curse that bitch Jessica for getting fingered by Kyle last year at the bonefire!"Its just funny seeing someone like Jay Dyer make these hour long videos about the church fathers and their ideologies and compare it with these people who make up the bulk of the Christians. Like how are they actually the same"?
>>18523634he also has said he never once felt the need to ask God for forgiveness because he has never done anything wrongdoesn't sound very religious to me
>>18523890True but he's not atheist like anon above implied, he believes in God, regardless of how bad/good he is.
>>18523599Deism isn't atheism no matter how much you twist definitions around.
>>18523674Trannies exist unfortunately. For someone who insists on objective reality this seems to be a blindspot for you.
>>18523574Hes not arguing about what the Bible says. He is arguing against straw daddy.
>>18523674Oh but its definitely how it works. If you adhere to scripture then your beliefs must reflect that, otherwise you're a retard with ulterior motives. Ever notice that only Christians will forgive you for your transgressions but you back off in the face of Islam? We could learn a thing or two from them.
>>18523726>dumbass rural peopleAs sphincter says what pal? You some kind of scarf wearing mocha drinkin vinyl collecting homosexual or something?
>>18523931What are you talking about? First of all, I tell muslims that muhammad was a false prophet and a pedophile all the timesecondly, no it isn't how it works. There are plenty of people who believed in christianity but then came to realize it isn't true. You're just retarded.
>>18523936Okay, now go to Saudi Arabia and do that. You don't have the guts.
>>18523634He was asked what his favorite Bible verse was on TV and whether or not he preferred the New or Old Testament and he couldn't give a straight or honest answer because he never actually read the Bible before that. He's a performative Christian, nothing but a conman