RE: A challenge to the thesis of "intellectual laziness" of believers in God
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If I understand you correctly, this passage could be interpreted in many ways, but it is up to the individual to make this interpretation, and this makes it an intellectually challenging exercise.
Correct, yes, this is how I see it. What one makes out of something, depends also on what is in wide circulation. If something is reduced too much, and does not give credit to complexity, then we end up in ridiculing the sources.
The reduction of complexity has positives and negatives, I think.
Since almost everyone who wants to ridicule the bible has not much more in mind than Genesis, but knows nothing about the rest, it tends to become negative when many people start ridiculing one part of a source.
In contrast, when one has enlarged his knowledge about the bible, Genesis and other well known wordings from the bible appear as the essence of something, which otherwise needs a deep study and a mind who had let itself been intellectually challenged.
Regardless of the interpretation, the idea is very advanced and intellectually challenging once you begin examining it closely, and this appears to be your main thesis. The devil is in the details, in a manner of speaking.
Yes, absolutely :)
"once you begin examining it closely", you can't help but to formulate more questions in your mind.
This can be inspiring, but it also can discourage, since one becomes aware of the fact that there is a lot to study.
I think the main challenge for me is that I don't understand how someone can say that belief in God as creator is intellectually lazy. Belief in a particular deity might be wrong but not intellectually lazy. There has been a lot of scholarly work written on the Bible and other Christian teachings. So, we know it requires some deep and heavy thinking. Isaac Newton for example was an amazing bible researcher, as only Isaac Newton can. He believed the bible was an alchemical manuscript that contained the workings of the mind of God, and so in addition to his work in physics, he was also an amazing Bible researcher. He embarked in a comprehensive mathematical, symbolic, and historical study of the bible that is breathtaking. His alchemical work is actually more voluminous than his work in physics. This youtube video discusses Newton's biblical work, particularly the book of revelations, which Newton was convinced contained an alchemical recipe. It's a dry lecture but fascinating. It demonstrates that belief in a deity and its religious teachings can be an intellectually challenging endeavor.
Will watch it when the occasion is right. Thank you.
Yeah, I also wondered but I stumbled across this statement here and there, either directly or indirectly. And I never was quite sure how to respond. So, I tried to formulate my thoughts in the above post and just hand the statement back to the ones who might feel addressed. So far, no one felt addressed in that sense. LoL :D
But I am really happy about the lively comment section.