Monday, July 11, 2016

Try to understand their perspective

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have been away for so long. I'm not planning on giving up blogging entirely, but I likely won't be writing regularly for at least another year. I do plan on writing the occasional post like today's.

Although I have not had very much time to write in the last couple of years I still try to keep up with things by listening to podcasts. My goal is to listen to both atheist and Christian podcast in order to keep my finger on the pulse of the other perspective. I must admit I listen to more atheist podcast than Christian ones so if anybody knows a good Christian podcast that they would recommend I would very much appreciate it.

Back when I was writing regularly one of the things that always concerned me was that I might be accidentally strawmanning the other side. I always did my best to try to correctly describe the Christian perspective but looking back there are definitely a few times that come to mind where I think I did a poor job. When something strikes me as incorrect it is easy to want to just jump in and start ripping it apart. However I think the more important thing to do is first really try to understand the other person's perspective and try to understand why they think this thing that I see is incorrect. It does nobody any good if I'm proving wrong some idea that nobody actually thinks in reality. For my own blog when I get back to looking at the Bible what I would like to do is try to seek out answers to my objections. Now I tried this before with mixed results but ithink I can do better. In particular there are a few things from Genesis that have really stuck in the back of my brain for the last couple of years that I would like to revisit. If I can find some Christian who has addressed it I think it would be much more valuable than me simply trying to imagine what I would have thought when I was a Christian. I think this is especially important since I was a Christian when I was a child and teenager and even if I'm being accurate about how I would have approached it I might be giving a poor answer simply because I was a Christian when I was young and fairly uninformed.

I think we would have a much better dialogue between the two camps if each side was constantly trying to really understand the other side. Although I thought about this kind of thing many times in the past what got me on this line of thinking today is a Christian podcast I was listening to. They were addressing several atheist lines of thinking and then turning them down from their side but their description of the atheist perspective was terrible. As I mentioned above I listen to quite a few atheist podcast and I have never seen a single time them having the particular perspective that this podcast was using. Now they weren't super far off on a surface level but there were key details that completely changed the form of the arguments.

For instance they were constantly trying to claim that we as atheist worship various things. I think the reason they were doing this is that they worship God and they can't help but view our perspective from their own lens. As a result most of the things that they were refuting were not really my position or the position of any other atheists. They would highly benefit from trying to go the extra mile to really see things the way we see things rather than taking our position on a surface level and understanding it from their own instincts. Doing it right is of course extremely difficult but I think it is the only way to get valuable dialogue between two disagreeing sides. When I do eventually start blogging on a regular basis this is going to be something that I focus on a lot. It does no good for Christians to put out content that says that we atheist worship science or the universe or ourselves. Any atheist that comes across these arguments is not going to be moved. Instead they will probably just dismiss it out of hand. no worthwhile dialogue will be had. On the same token it does no good for atheists to come out and say that all Christians are bigots. Is does nothing but shut down the conversation before it gets started. If we can really try to see things the way the other side we can perhaps get through to each other.

13 comments:

  1. Welcome back to the blogosphere!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I hope I can keep up writing on occasion :), we'll just have to see

      Delete
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      6. TO ENLARGE YOUR PENIS OR BOOBS
      7. AND MANY MORE

      Delete
    3. I AM HERE TO TESTIFY ON HOW Dr ZULU(GREAT SPELL CASTER) HELPED ME TO WIN A LOTTERY. I am Liubov Nikonets. I won EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle prize of 1,000,000 on Dec 2016, I took an advice from some person who talked about this great spell caster, the person placed a testimony on a blog saying how this priest helped him win the lottery by sending him the winning numbers , I was curious and I thought it was all joke not until I contacted this spell caster to know for myself how this workS because I had spent alots buying tickets and I never won. I contacted him and he told me the necessary things needed to be done and I did just as he said and he told me to wait for just 3 days, on the 3rd day he gave me the winning numbers to play the lottery which i did, Can you believe my name was the first among winners. He told me my son all i need you to do for me is make sure that you share this testimony to others in need of help so that they can also win the lottery. I am sharing this testimony with everyone who needs help to win lottery. Contact this great priest through his email address Zuluspelltemple@yahoo.com or call and WhatsApp him on +2347067468416 and your financial problem will be solved forever just as

      Delete
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      WhatsApp or call him now: +2349067457724

      Delete
  2. I worship my cat, but I can understand why people who haven't met her might not.

    No, this isn't a metaphor for anything. Just some humor. That is all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WHAT A WONDERFUL LOTTERY SPELL, I'M TRULY BLESSED BY DR.ZULU SPELL TEMPLE WHICH HELPED ME TO WIN A LOTTERY AMOUNT OF (£14,509,500.00). ALL THANKS TO HIM FOR CHANGING MY STORY. HE CAN ALSO CHANGE YOURS OR YOUR UGLY SITUATION IN JUST AN HOUR, CONTACT HIM VIA EMAIL::::ZULUSPELLTEMPLE@YAHOO.COM::::WHATSAPP NUMBER:::+2347067468416

    I'm Beverley Doran, From England. I was was having a terrible year. I had lost my job, been forced to take out a second mortgage on my home, and seemed to be spiraling further and further into credit card debt. My terrible financial situation drove me into a deep depression, and it wasn’t long before my social life was in shambles as well. At that point, I felt that my future was hopeless and that I would truly need a miracle to help me climb out of this hole. With nowhere else to turn, I finally decided to do the one thing that I hadn’t yet tried, I went online searching for voodoo power, a spell caster to help me with a winner number, then I saw series of testimonies on how DR ZULU helped so many people to win lotteries. Then I had to contact him immediately, saying “Dear DR ZULU, please help me win the lottery. I have lost my job. I really need the money, so please help me win.” and he replied saying "my daughter, It's hard to meet a person who's never dreamed of winning the lottery. Many people buy lottery tickets, but their dream never comes true. Perhaps, they just don't know a certain system, are unlucky, or choose the wrong numbers..We can think of many different explanations for it, but just one of them is true-those who can't win have never used services of a professional spell caster and ordered lottery spells" So he promised to help me, after meeting up with the necessary requirement, he cast a lottery spell for me and said “BUY A LOTTERY TICKET!” which I did immediately. What happened next truly shocked me, the result came out and my name was among the lucky winners. I hit a lottery jackpot, (£14,509,500.00). Indeed God is wonderful, he used Dr ZULU to change my story and that of my family. Stop dying in silence, stop buying lottery ticket every day and never win. God can still change your story through DR ZULU, his a great spell caster, he's extremely rich, he doesn't need your money, all he want is for you to appreciate him after you must have won the lottery, contact him today and let your life change for better. Email: zuluspelltemple@yahoo.com, zuluspelltemple02@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +2347067468416. He can also help you to:
    1. GET YOUR EX LOVER BACK.
    2. TO STOP A DIVORCE.
    3. TO GET A JOB.
    4. TO GET PREGNANT.
    5. TO GET A GOOD HUSBAND OR WIFE.
    6. TO ENLARGE YOUR PENIS OR BOOBS
    7. AND MANY MORE

    ReplyDelete
  4. I AM HERE TO TESTIFY ON HOW Dr ZULU(GREAT SPELL CASTER) HELPED ME TO WIN A LOTTERY. I am Liubov Nikonets. I won EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle prize of 1,000,000 on Dec 2016, I took an advice from some person who talked about this great spell caster, the person placed a testimony on a blog saying how this priest helped him win the lottery by sending him the winning numbers , I was curious and I thought it was all joke not until I contacted this spell caster to know for myself how this workS because I had spent alots buying tickets and I never won. I contacted him and he told me the necessary things needed to be done and I did just as he said and he told me to wait for just 3 days, on the 3rd day he gave me the winning numbers to play the lottery which i did, Can you believe my name was the first among winners. He told me my son all i need you to do for me is make sure that you share this testimony to others in need of help so that they can also win the lottery. I am sharing this testimony with everyone who needs help to win lottery. Contact this great priest through his email address Zuluspelltemple@yahoo.com or call and WhatsApp him on +2347067468416 and your financial problem will be solved forever just as

    ReplyDelete
  5. I NEED A GENUINE SPELL CASTER TO HELP ME WIN A LOTTERY: CONTACT DOCTOR OCUSODO NOW DROCUSODOSPELLCASTER@GAMIL.COM HE IS THE BEST OF ALL

    My name is Leann Crane i!!! i am very grateful sharing this great testimonies with you, The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how i win the lottery. I am a woman who believe that one day i will win the lottery.finally my dreams came through when i email Dr OCUSODO. and tell him i need the lottery numbers. i have come a long way spending money on ticket just to make sure i win. But i never know that winning was so easy until the day i meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, so i decide to give it a try.I contacted this man and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out i was among winners. i won ( FIVE MILLIONS DOLLARS) Dr. OCUSODO i truly you are the best, with these man you can will millions of money through lottery. i am so very happy to meet these man, i will forever be grateful to you. Email him for your own winning lottery numbers (drocusodospellcaster@gmail.com) or (drocusodospellcaster@yahoo.com)

    WhatsApp or call him now: +2349067457724

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete

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