From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!megatest!fortune!hpda!hplabs!hao!menlo70!sytek!zehntel!tektronix!tekmdp!dadla!dadla-b!hutch
Newsgroups: net.religion
Title: Re: Jesus the non-divine teacher
Article-I.D.: dadla-b.405
Posted: Wed Mar 30 16:55:45 1983
Received: Wed Apr  6 03:16:37 1983
References: rocheste.1094

I will reply to FtG publicly so as to limit side flak.

Sorry about the "mister" but it is for me a generic honorific.  I could as
easily have said "FtG-san" but would have come off sounding (more) pretentious.

I have repeatedly stressed the importance of checking sources when possible
in dealing with religious beliefs.  This remains the case for my reply to you.
If it appeared that I was attacking you for defending the Islamic right to
a point of view, then perhaps you should re-read what you said and how I replied
to what you said.  It was my perception that you were defending the right to
believe something provably suspect.

Since I agree that people have the right to hold whatever opinion they wish,
we are in no disagreement on that point.  However, I also hold that there is
such a thing as "truth" which in my humble opinion ought also to be a part
of the opinions people hold.  Belief in a lie does not make it less a lie.
People may still choose to believe lies, but they would be better off to
eelieve truths.

IN MY OPINION the Islamic descriptions of Christ are lies.  I support this
claim, as I said before, with the historic evidence that the New Testament
was written *long* before the Islamic stories about Him, and that those
latter stories are all strongly culturally biased towards the extant Arab
culture rather than the Jewish culture of early Christianity.

Opinions are all fine and good.  Unevaluated, they are as harmless as unloaded
guns or blunted knives.  However, people tend to ACT on their opinions.
The fundamentalist groups you abhor belive that they have the right to impose
their own beliefs about evolution on others.
Do you readily defend their right of belief to the extent of allowing this?

Of course not, neither would I.   Clearly it is the truth of an opinion, when
that truth can be discerned and evaluated, that makes it worth holding.
If you cannot discover that truth, then it is the effect of that belief, held
with incomplete or partial evidence, on yourself and others, which gives it
what value it might have.

Commentary is welcome, response may be slow


Steve Hutchison
Tektronix - Design Automation - Logic Analyzers
... decvax!tektronix!tekmdp!dadla!hutch