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Originally posted by RonPrice
Religion, in the sense that I am using it here, is the set of values, beliefs and attitudes...

Values do not come from religion, unless you have chosen to believe they do.

Beliefs; sure.

Attitude; maybe.

Originally posted by skekUng
Values do not come from religion, unless you have chosen to believe they do.

He didn't say they did.

Apologetics sounds extremely positive to me. People should be able to have rational discussion about why they believe the things that they do so that others have less misconceptions. People fear what they don't understand. The more understanding, the less fear.

Apologetics shouldn't even be a word. It should be the default position that you need to defend all your claims with logic, so obvious it can go unspoken.

Apologetics is nice, but problematic in the fact it takes an a priori position on question, and seeks to explain how it is still true in light of criticism.

This is why empiricism is much more favorable of a stance toward investigating and challanging one's own beliefs, because it requires you to address the implications of conflicting evidence, rather than explain it away.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
He didn't say they did.

Are you sure abou that?

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
He didn't say they did. He kinda did when he said they are what "each of us has as we go about our daily life".

Originally posted by skekUng
Are you sure abou that?

Yes. He said he was using religion as a term for "values, beliefs and attitudes" which is an absurd definition but not what you accused him of saying.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Yes. He said he was using religion as a term for "values, beliefs and attitudes" which is an absurd definition but not what you accused him of saying.

It just seemed to me like he said -"Religion, in the sense that I am using it here, is the set of values, beliefs and attitudes each of us has as we go about our daily life at a particular moment in time, in this case, at the time of my writing of this post on the internet and in the case of the person reading this post, at the time of the response of that reader."- as a way of explaining that those values, beliefs and attitudes were formed by his religion. However, I could be wrong. It was the only sentence I read that I responsed to, because the whole post seemed kind of baitingly convoluted. I'm pretty sure I just made up a word.

Belated apologies for not getting back here sooner, but I was not aware of these responses. I post this item at many sites to stimulate discussion in the evening of my life now that I no longer teach school.-Ron