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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31078 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 16, 2023

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I took the analogy to be an attempt to explain the experience of a Christian trying to argue for their beliefs with people who are not experts in the things you learn to be a priest, monk, nun etc.

I get that. I'm saying that the analogy doesn't work because their beliefs and theology are directly linked, unlike the fire and the circus in the analogy. Not relating to the specific theological trappings isn't the fundamental cause of not being taken seriously by nonbelievers. They might be if the analogy is to converting non-catholic christians (back) to catholicism, though.

Ah, I see.

Not relating to the specific theological trappings isn't the fundamental cause of not being taken seriously by nonbelievers.

Not sure what you mean by "fundamental cause". I suspect that being very familiar with theology etc. is helpful for conversion in some cases (avoiding some misunderstandings of transubstantiation) and unhelpful in other cases (the Trinity is one of those doctrines where lay misunderstandings like "Ok, Jesus is God's son, so they're two completely different people, and also God can manifest as a spirit" are a lot more plausible for most people than the sophisticated attempts to make sense of it).

A Catholic is warning you that the society is collapsing. You don’t take them seriously or listen to any of their reasoning because you see them as a clown and ignore anything beyond the clown.

A mottizan is warning you that you this stuff is not going to remain as just a few kooky kids on college campuses. You ignore the them because you see them as a clown, and ignore the substance of what they are saying because you don’t see anything behind the clown.

I don't see how this follows. I'm a mottizan - why do I think the mottizan is a clown unless he is making bad arguments and saying stuff that isn't true?

Similarly, there are plenty of Catholics who I take quite seriously. The ones I don't take seriously are the ones who are acting like clowns.

I’m sorry I wasn’t clear. I mean a mottizan may have the experience of the clown when talking to non mottizans. I didn’t mean you literally. (I’m away from my computer so typing on my phone. Sorry about that).

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