VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

Tuesday, April 23, 15:05:39 [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2], 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: Fri, Oct 13 2017, 16:37:11 PDT
Author: Ken de Russy (Value Freedom of Conscience)
Author Host/IP: NoHost / 172.92.243.161
Subject: Re: Prefer Areligious or Agnostic
In reply to: Pat Dunne 's message, "Re: Prefer Areligious or Agnostic" on Thu, Oct 12 2017, 20:33:09 PDT

The important change that has occurred in recent years is a greater acceptance that views of conscience that diverge from classic religious views can be a legitimate part of the mix. Ideas that have in the past been held to be sacrosanct and immune to criticism have become in more recent times regarded as subject to challenge just as are all other ideas in a world marketplace of ideas. Those are welcome changes and we are all freer as a result. Another effect of that somewhat recently achieved freedom to publicly doubt is that it reveals that a single label such as Christian is used to describe wildly varying beliefs. Studies have shown for example that majorities of self identified Christians in the UK don't believe in the resurrection which most would assume is a requisite tenet of that religion. Absent any critical examination one can easily imagine that there exists only one common view. But we now know that there are as many views as to what being a Christian (or any other religion) means as there are people who use that self descriptor. It was never safe to assume that any religious sect was monolithic, but without free flowing critical examination the full range of the diversity of views remains concealed.

The youngsters who are serving today are far less bound by tradition and more comfortable to question. Such freedom to diverge is necessary to continue to grow and refine the great political experiment that we have all sworn our oaths to defend.

Thanks Pat for your willingness to speak on this topic without rancor. Of course anyone with a bit of confidence SHOULD be comfortable engaging in discussion calmly. When you are comfortable in your own skin calm and rational debate is effortless, right?

Ken

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Login ] Create Account Not required to post.
Post a public reply to this message | Go post a new public message
 * HTML allowed in marked fields.
Post Password:
Keep password cookie for 24 hours

Message subject (required):

Name (Registered users only):

  Expression (Optional mood/title along with your name) Examples: (happy, sad, The Joyful, etc.) help)

  E-mail address (required):

Type your message here:

Choose Message Icon: [ View Emoticons ]

Notice: Copies of your message may remain on this and other systems on internet. Please be respectful.

[ Contact Forum Admin ]


Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.