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Can u imagine if christians argued their views like woke ppl do? "You need jesus to save you from your sins" "Oh sorry, I'm an atheist." "I'm tired. Christians are exhausted. It's not my job to educate you - read the Bible. You need to learn to lean into your discomfort."

871

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Is this a fair analogy? While I accept that the Bible is really important to many people, are the stories it presents as grounded in fact as e.g. people's experiences of systemic racism?

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Lots of people believe the Bible is literally factual

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They do believe that.

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They also believe they encounter miracles and have god speak to them directly

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They do. Are you equating people reporting that they heard the voice of god with people reporting day-to-day experiences of racism? Just to be clear.

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From the inside view, yes. And for both of them, there's often psychological explanations for why they're experiencing this narrative.

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Which would you say is higher? 1) the proportion of people who report hearing God and are actually spoken to by God; 2) the proportion of people who report racism and who actually experience racism.

Aella

@Aella_Girl

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@Gerard1976uk

I don't believe God exists at all, I do believe racism exists. I also think a lot of people think they're experiencing god or racism when they aren't.

8:06 PM · Jan 17, 2021

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That is fair enough - but I think it does make the initial analogy a bit messy. Regardless, I have found this a refreshing discussion - so, thank you for that!

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and

If the goal of belief is to make one’s interpretation of life more orderly and functional, God’s existence is *infinitely* more satisfying, and I‘m an ex-hardcore-atheist But some people’s belief in God is just terror of hell — epistemic hostageness Happy to chat anytime