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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   35216 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 26, 2023

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I disagree that most churchgoers don't believe in a way that would be hard to admit to themselves.

There are so many degrees of belief, especially about confusing things on which one is not an expert, that it only takes a small amount of rationalization to deal with any discrepancy. All you have to do is consider doctrinal disputes to be above your pay grade and defer to the theological experts, who assure you there is a complicated answer.

E.g. you might believe in quantum physics, without being bothered by the fact that different physicists subscribe to different interpretations of superposition.

I don’t think we’re talking about an obscure concept here. What the Bible says is more or less “gays, among others cannot inherit the Kingdom.” That’s not “well I’m not an expert so…” it’s plain text, and plainer if you read Leviticus.

But even so, if a person says they believe something and try to wiggle away when the rubber meets the road, I don’t think it’s a belief they hold that strongly. If I thought that quantum theory allowed for faster computers, I might well invest in a company trying to build one. If I thought there were martians on Mars, I’d send a signal if I could. If I think history is a process then I’d be looking to find patterns that allow me to predict the future in the past.

I'm no Bible expert, but I claim that even if it's relatively starkly written, that's still not a real problem for most people. Again I think quantum mechanics is a good analogy, with all sorts of intuitively-wrong-sounding claims made by supposed experts with tons of social proof.

I agree that if you start looking for patterns on your own it's pretty clear, but I think most people are (mostly rightly) in a state of learned epistemic helplessness on most topics.

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