Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Chapter 8 part 2 - or- Out of the same mouth the Holy and profane

I was thinking that the main point of this chapter might be summarized like this: People who do not believe in God and do believe that all of our moral faculties and desires are merely evolutionary leftovers, do not live their beliefs out. However, I'm not sure of this statement's power in reasoning with someone. As Keller points out, all of his arguments or clues are rationally avoidable. It's the weight of the mounting clues that is supposed to add up.
I've been thinking that Samantha's statement that 'people just don't want to think that much,' is the big clue killer. For example...
I say: You believe that the universe came in to being by a random turn of events in a scenario in which anything could have happened. Why do you expect the universe to continue in it's regular patterns when you have no reason to?
Skeptic says: If in the next moment everything changes, if I still exist, I will behave according to my new circumstances. I have no choice but to expect regularity, because that's my only experience. -or- I don't know, that's just the way it happens.
I say: You believe that love and desire for beauty are merely leftover emotions that helped our species survive better in the past, so why do you continue to allow those phantom feelings to play a central role in dictating your behavior?
Skeptic says: The feelings are stronger than my will. -or- I enjoy the feelings and that's all I care about. -or- I don't know, I just don't think about it like that.

These clues are on a philosophical level that most of us don't think about every day. We just react to the way things are. How can we expect nonbelievers to live in a way that is consistent with their professed world-view, when most of the time we live in rebellion against reality though we know the truth?
Mark Driscoll in discussing culture says,
"While it is important to recognize that ideas have consequences, I would discourage overemphasizing the cognitive aspect of your culture. It is common... for Christians to believe that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the actions and philisophical framework underlying any person's moral decision-making process.
The truth is that most people are contradictions..." (The Radical Reformission pg. 95)

I think there is one important distinction between our Christian hypocrisy and the Nonbelievers intellectual inconsistency. Anyone else see a distinction.

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