Gary Gutting on "religious agnostics"

[Anonymous]

There is a great little article out yesterday in the New York Times that some here may find relevant or interesting.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/the-way-of-the-agnostic/” class=”bbcode_url”>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/20/the-way-of-the-agnostic/

The author is a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, and he examines here the place and necessity (or not) of religious belief/knowledge among “the three great human needs religions typically claim to satisfy: love, understanding, and knowledge.” It’s a little dense in places, but he concludes:

Quote:

Knowledge, if it exists, adds a major dimension to religious commitment. But love and understanding, even without knowledge, are tremendous gifts; and religious knowledge claims are hard to support. We should, then, make room for those who embrace a religion as a source of love and understanding but remain agnostic about the religion’s knowledge claims. We should, for example, countenance those who are Christians while doubting the literal truth of, say, the Trinity and the Resurrection. I wager, in fact, that many professed Christians are not at all sure about the truth of these doctrines —and other believers have similar doubts. They are, quite properly, religious agnostics.

[Anonymous]

I like it! I do wish that we would have such a great community that non-members would just hang out with us for fun. Unfortunatley that doesn’t seem to be our business model. And we can be downright cruel to those that once believed and have since backslid.

[Anonymous]

Loved this article! I think that people in religion can tend to be very conformist, and Roy makes a great point about things being difficult in the church for those who don’t conform. Given this, I find it ironic that the proclaimed head of our church, Jesus Christ, tended to choose to hang out with the sinners and the publicans…those whose lives were very much in a different place than his was.

[Anonymous]

Life_Journey_of_Matt wrote:

Loved this article! I think that people in religion can tend to be very conformist, and Roy makes a great point about things being difficult in the church for those who don’t conform. Given this, I find it ironic that the proclaimed head of our church, Jesus Christ, tended to choose to hang out with the sinners and the publicans…those whose lives were very much in a different place than his was.

Yes. I think your point illustrates very well the difference between an ideal and the practical application at a “student” level. The problem becomes much worse – as any of us that have attended a shop class when the teacher is out and one vocal student feels he can lead the class can attest – when an incomplete view is put forward as the entire reality the whole production can take several steps backward.

[Author]

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