We DO -- everyone of us --

approach and enter these Questions and "Conversations"

with an active Set of Expectations,

perhaps Hopes,

possibly an Agenda ( hidden or open ),

CERTAINLY a Personal-Spiritual-Intellectual "History" ...

Dec 8, 2009 -- 10:10PM, koala972 wrote:

Dec 8, 2009 -- 12:01PM, teilhard wrote:

We DO -- everyone of us --

approach and enter these Questions and "Conversations"

with an active Set of Expectations,

perhaps Hopes,

possibly an Agenda ( hidden or open ),

CERTAINLY a Personal-Spiritual-Intellectual "History" ...

i'll bite.

educating myself about exactly how untenable and hopeless my POV is...  trying not to be such a horrible person.

but you didn't introduce yourself when you asked for introductions from others?  Is this a trap of some sort I've fallen into?

 

Nope ... no "Trap" ...

Dec 3, 2009 -- 6:25PM, teilhard wrote:

No, really ...

 

It ISN'T a smart-aleck or trivial Question ...

 

The Historical Lord Jesus of Nazareth

AND The Lord Jesus Christ ( of Faith )

continue-to-continue to attract INTENSE Attention and Scrutiny

 -- Century after Century -- not only from The Pious Faithful

but EVEN also from the most ZEALOUS "Materialist"-Skeptics and Nay-Sayers ...

 

Why IS that ... ???

(1) Idle Curiosity ... ???

(2) Simply Antiquarian Casual Intellectual Browsing ... ???

(3) DEEPLY-held Desire to UNDERSTAND ... ???

(4) Desire to CONVINCE others of one's own Ideas and Claims ... ???

(5) ???

 Why DO you want to know ... ???

re-up for further Discussion ...

In my Experience, The REAL Questions are the Meta-Questions that quietly invisibly haunt -- and therefore FORM and fiercely FUEL -- the smaller ones ...

In these ( "Historical Jesus" ) ( suppoded ) "Discussions," The Ideological Axe-Grinding is SOOOO often SOOOO Apparent ...

Where DID you get your "Axe" ... ???

Mar 30, 2010 -- 1:15PM, Kodiacman wrote:

I do agree that much of what is called inquiry is nothing more than a veiled attempt to descredit a position rather than a desire to actually look at the evidence presented and try to make sense of it.

I have been looking into rationalism and empiricism and how each method attempts to gain knowledge and ideas. There is no perfect method due to the limits of each method. It is interesting to me how various persons will lean towards rationalism when the demand for empiricism is needed and vice versa in an attempt to maintain the solvency of thier own viewpoints.

Because evidence is dynamic in how the various peices are interconnected and how each peice affects the whole the methodology becomes critical. Individual biases are soon exposed when views remain static despite additions in evidence or other evidences are summarily weakened. When each piece of evidence affects the whole a persons views must be modifed to address these issues. This is due to the interconnectedness of the peices. Views should be relatively flexible enough to address the dynamics of evidentiary gains and losses. I am rambling a bit here, but the point is that all the theories and how they are addressed will sooner or later demonstrate ones bias and why one really wants to know more.

IMO the question of why one wants to know is far more revealing than ones methodology in how they handle evidence as it exposes bias.

Biblical documents were written from faith to person of faith. If one has no desire to have faith the documents will not be understood in the same manner as those who have faith. It is no different than a man trying to understand a woman and what she feels when she is pregnant...I as a man will have no commonality with the woman due to the gender difference. I can read about what she feels I can imagine all i want and so on and so forth, but the reality is I will still fail to understand her postion as I do not have the ability to share expereinces. In the same manner that I as a man will fail to understand a woman a person who is not of faith will not be able to understand the Bible as it was written to persons of faith from faith.

Why do you want to know? It is a question of faith and a question whose answer will reveal an ability to understand the Bible in the manner it was written for.

blessings

I envy your Pastor ...