Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!hocda!spanky!burl!duke!unc!bch From: bch@unc.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Discussion of Religion Message-ID: <5383@unc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Jun-83 09:52:41 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.5383 Posted: Wed Jun 15 09:52:41 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jun-83 14:53:20 EDT References: itm.1012 Lines: 38 Well, at least its out. Bob at itm is now telling me not to think for myself but to believe "experts." (Since when is Ayn Rand an expert on Christianity?) Come on! (1) The commentary of experts is only as good as their source documents. As a (nominal) Christian who has serious reservations about certain aspects of the "traditional" historical basis for the faith I am still working on the source documents (the synoptic gospels.) I can only deal with later commentary on the basis of what I find here. (2) My experts are very unlikely to be the same as your experts. If, for example, I quote an classicist to the effect that the earliest documents of Christianity (proto-Mark) do not include mention of either the resurrection or the nativity, but stop at the discovery of the opened tomb, what does this do to your experts. (3) Religion is ultimately a personal experience. No number of experts can convince you into believing unless you have sifted through your own feelings and impressions. Analytical and intellectual abilities are as much gifts from god as any other. To deny them is as much a denial of the faith as any other. If people start sending out historical treatises based on quotations from Ayn Rand, I have this 'n' key on my terminal.... Byron Howes UNC - Chapel Hill P.S. Railing against Tim Maroney's style does not constitute a refutation of the substance of his arguments. The fact remains that using self-referential logic to justify your version of Christianity turns some of us very much away and does no credit to your beliefs. If your objective is to spread the good news then (from my point of view) you aren't doing very well in this environment. Tim is not the Anti-Christ, he's merely an occasionally direct and sometimes abrasive person.