Eternal truths Flashcards
Religion and secular knowledge clash when both see themselves as offering competing realities. When we accept that these truths are of a different species, coexistence is possible. This is the best hope of reducing religion as a source of conflict in the world.
No one should mistake theology for science, myth from history. If any eternal truths exist, what should make them special is that they are not of the ordinary empirical kind.
Religion advocates different grounds of truth. The truth of religion is something many believers feel almost viscerally. It connects to their sense of self, identity and belonging. It is as much, or more, felt than thought.
Rather than insist on pinning down the truth, the rational thing for the religious to do is to accept that faith is somewhat mysterious, that essential truths for the believer should be insights into how we ought to live, ways of orienting ourselves toward the transcendent.
It is easy to fall into the trap of dividing believers into those who believe literally and those who do not. In fact, most take a “mix and match” attitude to literality, accepting some things as literal facts and others as metaphor and allegory.
Many people fervently believe in divinely given, eternal truths. One of the problems we face is not the absence of truth but it’s overabundance.
There are too many religious beliefs to form a majority opinion, so each individual religious belief represents
a minority opinion. Even atheism is
a minority opinion.
