In a court trial, witness testimony is helpful, but forensic evidence, when available, carries more weight, sometimes confirming and sometimes contradicting witness testimony.
Some degree of certainty or confidence, surely. :)
I suppose that in the original post I was thinking about or referring to the tendency of some people to dislike uncertainty or to be fearful of what they don't know, and who attempt to compensate for that by convincing themselves that what they...
"I'd rather be uncertain and learn, than dead certain and wrong."
I suppose that's my religious philosophy.
It seems to me that the more people think they know, the less they learn.
It's good to examine and question one's beliefs periodically or regularly, in my opinion.
We don't know that to be true. In general, over the last several thousand years of recorded history, our once-much-shorter lifespans have increased on average.
I'm wondering which types of Christianity you might list as false, and how many people that might offend, and how many of them might consider your brand of Christianity false.
I agree, which is why I replied to Unveiled Artist, who stated that, "religion is usually a personal practice." It seems to me that if a religion focused more on the personal and less on itself as a social and cultural institution, the harm caused by that religion might be minimized.
I disagree. I think that religion (or spirituality) should ideally and predominantly be a personal, private exercise, but frequently it seems to become more a social institution instead, and often one that "carries a large club" to mete out judgment, censure and punishment.
What scares me the most about religion is its frequent tendency, as it gains precedence within a society, to become authoritarian, limiting or suppressing (or punishing) individual freedom of belief and of action, and attempting to enforce conformity while discouraging diversity. Non-religious...
I think these are both very important points (thank you, Left Coast). :)
My perspective is that we do not live in isolation. We are (usually) immersed within a society of some type, and within a natural setting, both of which we depend upon: society for help and cooperative endeavors, and...
Interesting perspective. Thanks. As for myself, I do believe that a conscious entity exists within which all forms of reality, including this particular physical reality, exist. Like you in a way, I have always felt that physical reality was and is infused with and composed of part of a more...
Our imagination is often inclined to "clarify" words and phrases that are metaphorical, ambiguous or vague by interpreting them in a particular way, and by adding detail. That might be one reason spiritualists and fortune-tellers are so successful at fooling people. :rolleyes:
We imagine...